Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli’s International Conference on Combating Antisemitism this past Thursday should have been an event to celebrate Israel’s government making a stand against antisemitism. It should have been an opportunity for people from all over the world to come together in Israel and discuss how best to combat antisemitism since October 7.
And October 7 is a crucial point.
The Hamas attacks changed everything, not just in Israel but for Jews worldwide.
In the three months post-Oct. 7, US antisemitic incidents skyrocketed to a total of 3,291 between October 7 and January 7, according to the Anti-Defamation League, representing a whopping 361% increase from the same period the year prior.
However, the conference ended up a farce – beginning weeks prior to its doors even opening.
Anti-Israel forces spread lies about the right-wing European politicians who attended the conference, Chikli said in a speech at the Thursday convention.
He thanked the politicians who had attended the conference, which had bled high-profile participants since the announcement of the attendance list.
Chikli's response
The campaign of pressure was led by Haaretz, according to Chikli, who continued to lambast it as an anti-Israel “beacon of lies” that doesn’t represent the Jewish people. Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Gadi Taub also slammed the newspaper during the panel entitled “progressivism fell captive to antisemitism,” declaring it to be “antisemitic.”
Chikli’s message was reiterated by Israeli-Canadian businessman and philanthropist Sylvan Adams. Critics of the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism are too focused on politics, advised the World Jewish Congress Israel Region president in his speech, encouraging those who withdrew from the conference to engage in dialogue so that the right- and left-wing of politics could stand together against antisemitism.
“I disagree with the critics of this conference, who complained about the speaker list,” said Adams, in reference to the controversy over the attendance of far-right European politicians. “I think that they are too focused on politics, whether someone is left- or right-leaning and labeled an extremist.”
The list of attendees was notably right-leaning. Also notable was the list of people who pulled out of associating with the conference – including President Isaac Herzog and the UK’s apolitical Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, along with organizations who make combating antisemitism their bread and butter, such as the Anti-Defamation League.
In an attempt to stem the tide of officials boycotting the conference, Herzog offered a compromise: a private meeting with world Jewish leaders at his home the night before the main event, without those controversial figures (which the Post attended).
Politicians from across Europe attended Chikli’s gathering. But one who was supposed to – Milorad Dodik, president of Republika Srpska, the Serb-majority entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina – was disinvited after an international arrest warrant was issued just hours before he was scheduled to speak.
France’s National Rally leader, Jordan Bardella, told those gathered that the best option to defend French Jews against Islamism and radical leftism was his party, committing France to fight antisemitism as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition.
“National Rally led by Marine Le Pen is the best shield for the Jews of France,” said Bardella. If the far-right is the Jews' best hope of defeating antisemitism, we must work harder to find solutions to this problem.
The government of Israel is more than right to hold a conference on antisemitism. The Diaspora Ministry is right to try its best to tackle an issue that has raised its head in ways unseen and unimaginable since the Holocaust.
However, the government needs not to bring any more controversy to itself.
The conference should have been all-encompassing. Since October 7, Jews across the entire religious and political spectrum have been targeted because they are Jews. The criminals who have emerged since the Hamas attacks have never cared about what type of Jew they are attacking.
And Chikli’s conference should have done the same. It should have been all-inclusive to bring in Left and Right, religious and non-religious, and Jewish and non-Jewish to speak about what can be done.
The overshadowing of the conference was unfortunate for both Israel and its government. However, it was a step in the right direction. Maybe next time, the government can ensure an inclusive, all-embracing get-together that can include everyone affected by antisemitism.
