Netanyahu's 'Antisemitism Conference' Exposes a Grim Kinship Between the Far Right in Israel and Europe - Opinion - Haaretz.com
An antisemitism conference featuring Europe's far-right politicians may seem like an oxymoron, and yet this is what is taking place in Jerusalem. The conference was organized by the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs, whose minister, Amichai Chikli, has been widely criticized for engaging far-right political figures accused of antisemitism. There is something particularly dystopian about the nature and timing of this conference: it serves as a microcosm of our current political crisis.
There is a clear method to this madness: far-right politicians have meetings and photo-ops with Israeli politicians to distract or absolve their historic antisemitism and recast themselves as the protectors of Jews against the "real" threat facing Jews and wider Europe: namely Muslim communities and migrants from the Middle East. Israel, in the meantime, is happy to create alliances with whomever will allow them to continue their expansionist and oppressive policies in Gaza, in the West Bank, and in East Jerusalem.
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These motivations are mutually beneficial. Europe's far right has a "moral" justification for their bigotry and xenophobia - they are challenging antisemitism! For example, in Amsterdam earlier this year, far-right leader Geert Wilders responded to the incident between Maccabi soccer fans and locals by blaming "Moroccans" and calling for those involved holding dual nationality to be deported.
And Israel, increasingly isolated on the world stage has new allies to call on to block any attempts at accountability or intervention for their actions against Palestinians. Indeed, this instrumentalization of antisemitism by the far right is evidence that we have entered a new political reality.
Governments across Europe are increasingly utilizing ''combatting antisemitism" as an excuse for shoring up the power of the state to enforce repressive and anti-democratic policies, especially in relation to the right to protest. University encampments have been met with excessive force by police in Spain, Germany and the Netherlands; in the latter, a bulldozer was used to demolish University of Amsterdam encampments. This only emboldens far-right political figures, who use migration status as a cudgel with which to silence or threaten activists. In Germany, even the centrist government has cracked down on rights to protest so exuberantly they have arrested a number of Jewish activists for antisemitism, who were protesting for an end to the Gaza war.
Participants of the far-right Patriots for Europe summit stand on the stage at the end of the event in Madrid, Spain. From left, Andre Ventura, leader of Portugal populist right wing party Chega, Dutch far right wing politician Geert Wilders, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, Spanish far-right VOX party leader Santiago Abascal and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.Credit: Paul White, AP
There is a second uncomfortable truth here. The far right's affinity for Israel is also due to the fact that its government's vision and its current policies provide a blueprint for an ethnostate that proudly discriminates against its minority; that uplifts military might above diplomacy; and that flouts international law so brazenly it beggars belief. Europe's far-right politicians see Israel's far-right government as an aspirational ally in the broader political realignment that they would like to see taking place across the world, especially the decline of liberal and social democracy and rise of authoritarianism.
That some prominent figures including Germany's antisemitism czar and the UK's Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mervis have withdrawn from the conference upon learning of the far right's attendance is the least they can do. While they pat themselves on the back, it is an abdication of moral responsibility to willfully ignore the bigger picture, of an Israel bent towards authoritarianism – not least in relation to its treatment of Palestinians.
We cannot ignore or simply distance ourselves from the fact that Europe's far right, who just three generations ago annihilated European Jewry, have found bedfellows in Jerusalem. This conference is a symptom of a broader ideological kinship between the far right in Israel and its cousins in Europe.
It is increasingly clear that the far right are working together to push a new political reality. Progressives of all stripes alarmed by this must do all we can to combat the instrumentalization of antisemitism in aid of anti-democratic and racist politics – for the sake of civil liberties and human rights everywhere.
Em Hilton is policy director at Diaspora Alliance and a co-founder of Na'amod U.K.