Brussels, April 10th, 2025 – Having just returned to Brussels from the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem, ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell called out the UN institutions which were set up to protect human rights for doing exactly the opposite. “These UN institutions are the new superspreaders of antisemitism”, he said in the European Report, which was recorded in the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday. Sandell was joined in the ECI monthly talk show by Dutch MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen and Belgian journalist Yossi Lempkowicz.

Ruissen, who is the new Deputy Chair of the European Parliament Delegation for relations with Israel, expressed similar concerns about the arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which has been issued by the International Criminal Court. He called upon the EU member states to reject the arrest warrant and warmly receive the Israeli Prime Minister. Sandell went one step further by criticising the South African government, which for the last 25 years has been at the forefront of an international campaign to delegitimise the State of Israel through the use of international lawfare both at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague.

Sandell pointed out that the multimillion-dollar campaign to prosecute Israel and its leaders has been initiated by South Africa but orchestrated, coordinated and funded by the Islamic Republic in Tehran whose ultimate goal is the destruction of the Jewish state. He was therefore critical of the recent announcement by the EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the High Representative of Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas to invest 5 billion in aid and development projects in South Africa while its government continues to spread antisemitism around the world.

“This investment is not in line with EU’s stated objectives to fight antisemitism but is rather fuelling Jew hatred”, Sandell said in the program. He noted that this year will mark the 50th anniversary of the infamous UN resolution 3379 “Zionism is Racism”, which was revoked in 1991 but later recycled at the UN World Conference against Racism which was held in Durban in September 2001 and hosted by the South African government.

“After 25 years of international campaigning by the global left and radical Islam we should not be surprised that antisemitism is reaching unprecedented high levels at our universities and among so-called human rights activists around the world. If human rights is the new ‘lingua franca’ of antisemitism, as Nathan Sharansky has stated, then the current court cases against the Jewish state at ICC and ICJ and the singling out of Israel by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva are nothing but modern blood libels. These blood libels are using a new measuring stick, namely human rights, to single out Jews as the most despicable of all people groups”, he said.

“Instead of demonizing the Jewish state we should celebrate it. Just as January 27, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, is commemorated each year in the European Parliament so should May 14, the national Independence Day of the Jewish state be celebrated.”
“If there is one nation state which is truly legitimate in the world today it is the Jewish state. Which other people group live in the same location, speak the same language and have the same religion as they did 3000 years ago?” Tomas Sandell asked.

The European report is the monthly talk show of the European Coalition for Israel which is recorded each month in the studio of the European Parliament. You can watch this month’s report here.