Michal Cotler-Wunsh was tapped as Israel’s special envoy to combat antisemitism just weeks before Oct. 7, 2023 — and she’s spent the past 17 months relentlessly globetrotting to all manner of meetings about the worldwide surge in anti-Jewish bigotry.
But in a recent interview, she also talked about one meeting closer to home that didn’t happen.
Cotler-Wunsh told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Amichai Chikli, Israel’s minister for Diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism, did not consult her before inviting far-right politicians to Jerusalem to address an upcoming conference on fighting antisemitism.
The invitations to politicians from France, the Netherlands and Spain have led to a cascade of withdrawals from the conference — ranging from German officials to prominent American and British Jewish leaders.
Major Jewish groups in Europe have long been wary of far-right parties owing to their legacies of antisemitism, and Cotler-Wunsh suggested those groups too should have had more input in the conference.
“The Diaspora Ministry did not consult with me in planning for that conference,” she said in an interview on Thursday in New York City.
“And sadly, I think that startlingly, it appears not to have consulted Jewish organizations around the world,’ she said. “I will share with you that very often when I speak, especially to Jewish communities, I say, ‘I’m Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism. And as Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people, I’m your special envoy for combating antisemitism.’”
She added, “In that sense the lack of consultation with Jewish communities — for me, it was a big, big oversight.”
Cotler-Wunsh is the latest in a series of figures to express concerns about the conference. Alongside a roster of Jewish activists and other opponents of antisemitism, the gathering will welcome leaders of the European far-right, some of whose parties have histories of antisemitic rhetoric or actions. They include France’s Jordan Bardella and Marion Marechal, Spain’s Hermann Tertsch and the Netherlands’ Sebastiaan Stöteler.
The speakers’ list has led a number of other invited guests to stay away, including Germany’s antisemitism czar, French Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.
Cotler-Wunsh is also keeping her distance. She will participate in an opening event at the residence of Israeli President Isaac Herzog, to which far-right leaders are not invited, but will not be at the main conference where they will be present.
The controversy
Chikli has met repeatedly with European far-right leaders and has made clear he sees them as allies in the fight against Islamist influence. A spokesperson for Israel’s Diaspora Ministry, asked about Cotler-Wunsh’s sentiments, called them “inaccurate” and said Chikli’s office does have a relationship with hers and had invited her to lead a session at the conference.
“The Diaspora Ministry has excellent working relationships with the division for combating antisemitism at the Foreign Ministry, which is the relevant point of contact for us,” the statement said. “When it comes to Michal, we invited her to lead a special discussion at the conference, immediately upon beginning to plan and build its content (she refused).”
Chikli’s invitations to the far-right leaders come after the Israeli government has demonstrated a new openness to dealing with the European far right, rolling back its boycott of parties in Sweden, France and Spain — though not Germany and Austria.
The Diaspora Ministry statement acknowledged that European Jewish leaders have long criticized these parties — and said those leaders do not speak for all European Jews, some of whom have gravitated to the far-right.
“We are in contact with the leaders of Jewish communities (since Amichai entered this role more than two years ago), even if we disagree about certain things or issues (such as relations with right-wing parties in Europe),” the statement said.
“By the way, regarding the issue of right-wing parties in Europe, there are not a few Jews who support right-wing parties even if the formal umbrella organizations aren’t there yet,” it continued.
The statement also chided “leaders who call other leaders across the world and place intense pressure on them and more, such that they will also boycott the conference. That is inappropriate and illegitimate.”
Cotler-Wunsh's research
Across her whirlwind time on the job, Cotler-Wunsh has articulated a worldview that aligns with that of large, longstanding American Jewish groups such as the Anti-Defamation League. She did academic research on free speech on college campuses and previously served in Israel’s parliament for the centrist Blue and White party. She is a co-founder of the Interparliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Antisemitism.
She is a vocal proponent of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s antisemitism definition, which most establishment Jewish groups favor. She says Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack and the spike in antisemitism that followed are both born of the same fundamental hatred.
“What was clear was that the same antisemitism that fuels terror, genocidal terror, that ultimately attacked on Oct. 7 to burn and maim and massacre and butcher and abduct, is the antisemitism that fuels the response to that massacre. That antisemitism, in fact, has been festering for a very long time,” she said.
She added that, in her view, anti-Israel protests have taken advantage of civil liberties protections to create a fundamentally undemocratic environment. She calls it a “systematic hijacking” of international law and human rights mechanisms.
“The mobs that we have seen around the world are utilizing, actually, protections, including, for example, of free speech, to protect conduct — which is this unfathomable sort of conflation between speech and action — preventing individuals from access to their classes, taking over with violence buildings, and actually injuring human beings that have to go to the hospital,” she said.
Coming into her role, she had hoped to spearhead an Israeli national strategy to combat antisemitism, along the lines of plans other countries have composed. But that kind of capacity-building work has moved to the back burner as she’s spent her energy dealing with the aftermath of Oct. 7. She hopes to return to it when she can.
“The goal, actually, was to create the infrastructure that would enable us to create what I would call a national strategy for combating antisemitism that many other countries and many of my counterparts have led,” she said. “Except that in Israel’s case, the nation-state of the Jewish people, it would need to be an international strategy for combating antisemitism.”
