Jewish leaders urge EU action on anti-Semitism
European Jewish leaders today said anti-Semitism was on the rise and called on the European Union and national governments to take action against it.
The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and rising Islamic radicalism in Europe has led to a degree of anti-Semitism unheard of only a few years ago, said Cobi Benatoff, the president of the European Council of Jewish Communities.
“In the last two years, anti-Semitism has risen to levels we didn’t expect 60 years after the Shoah (Holocaust),” Benatoff told delegates at the Third General Assembly of European Jewry in Budapest, Hungary.
”It is up to governments and institutions to defeat anti-Semitism by acts and not by words.”
Benatoff also told delegates that criticism of the Israeli government should be accepted by Jews and not condemned automatically as anti-Semitism.
“To criticise the government of Israel is as just as criticising any other government in the world,” Benatoff said, differentiating between such actions and the ”demonisation” of Israel or Jews as a sign of real anti-Semitism.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs told the meeting that his government favoured a policy of “zero tolerance” toward anti-Semitism, a remark greeted by rapturous applause.
“We believe that freedom of speech is an important basic right, but more important is a person’s right to dignity,” Kovacs said.
Hungary’s Constitutional Court is expected on Monday to rule on new legislation which would criminalise hate speech against minorities. The court was asked to review the legislation because of concerns that it curtails the right to free speech.
Kovacs promised to increase awareness of the Holocaust through education, adding that a series of anti-Jewish laws in the 1920s and 1930s had helped prepare the ground for the Holocaust in Hungary.
Around 550,000 Jews were killed during the Holocaust. Today, Budapest, is home to an estimated 100,000 Jews, the largest Jewish community in Eastern Europe.
