Fighting yesterday’s Jew-hatred

Daniel Krygier

While the official purpose of a conference on anti-Semitism was to discuss current and future challenges, much of the expert panel appeared to be mentally stuck in the past.

A high-profile conference on anti-Semitism was recently held in Vienna, Austria. While the official purpose of the conference was to discuss current and future challenges, much of the expert panel appeared to be mentally stuck in the past. Disproportionate energy and time was focused on populist right-wing governments in Europe instead of the threat emanating from militant Islam that seeks Israel’s destruction and terrorizes Jews and non-Jews in Europe and beyond.

A conference on Jew-hatred in Vienna undoubtedly brings images of the city’s troubled Nazi past. However, we live in 2018 and not 1938. While many people have reservations regarding the populist right-wing governments in countries like Austria, Poland or Hungary, none of them have policies that threaten the Jewish state or European Jews. Quite the contrary. Despite the controversial Holocaust legislation issue, Poland and countries like Hungary remain some of Israel’s staunchest supporters in the European Union.

A large protest banner at the anti-Semitism conference stated, “Mr. Kurz! Your government is not kosher!” However, there were no banners decrying the explicitly anti-Semitic regimes in Gaza, Ramallah, Damascus or Teheran.

Yes, it is true that the current Austrian government includes the controversial populist Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), with its troublesome past Nazi links. However, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is certainly not an anti-Semite and supports strong ties with Israel and the Jewish world. The current FPÖ chairman, Heinz-Christian Strache, has abandoned the anti-Israel position advocated by his predecessor Jorg Haider and supports moving the Austrian embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Epicenter of Jew-hatred has clearly moved
Some observers suggest that FPÖ’s warming towards the Jewish state is part of the populist right-wing party’s strategy to cultivate a new image of political moderation. Whether true or not, none of the governments in Vienna, Warsaw or Budapest advocate the destruction of Israel or threaten the Jewish people.

While right-wing extremism remains a problem in much of the West, the epicenter of Jew-hatred has clearly moved from Christian Europe to the Islamic Middle East. The star of the conference, French-Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, did admit that Nazism has been exported to the Arab world. However, Levy failed to recognize that indigenous Middle Eastern Islamo-fascism is no less lethal than imported Nazism from the West.

Like Hitler, Islamists have imperial ambitions and are driven by an obsessive genocidal Jew-hatred. Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas do not merely oppose specific Israeli policies, but explicitly seek the destruction of the Jewish people. Islamists also do not make a distinction between Israel and Jews living in the Diaspora. Iran’s terrorist proxy Hezbollah has, over the years, carried deadly attacks on Jewish targets abroad, such as the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, the Israel embassy in Argentina and Israeli tourists in Bulgaria.

So why is the threat from fringe far-right movements exaggerated while the much more serious threat from Islamists is largely ignored or understated? Unfortunately, the answer is political correctness, post-colonial guilt and the racism of low expectations towards the epicenter of current Jew-hatred: the Muslim and Arab world. As long as there is no international pressure on the Islamic world to moderate, the menacing challenges affecting Jews and non-Jews alike will only continue to grow in the future.

Daniel Krygier is Political Analyst, World Israel News

BDS Suffers Another Defeat in Spanish Court

United with Israel Staff

Another victory was scored against BDS in a Spanish court, which ruled that a pro-boycott resolution violates the constitutional principle of equality before the law. A court in Las Palmas, Spain dealt another legal defeat to the anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign when it nullified the boycott decision of the City Council of Telde, an Atlantic town of 100,000 residents in the east of the island of Gran Canary.

On November 27, 2015, the City Council of Telde passed a decision committing itself to refrain from signing any political, institutional, commercial, agricultural, educational, cultural, sporting, or security agreement, contract, or covenant with Israeli public bodies, companies and organizations.

According to the Council’s declaration, targeted Israeli entities could be exempted from the boycott if they formally expressed their recognition of the “inalienable rights of the Palestinians” by agreeing and supporting the campaign’s three objectives: (1) the end of the “occupation” and “colonization” of the disputed territories; (2) the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination; and (3) the right of return of Palestinians.

As in other cities in Spain, the City Council was granted the BDS-approved seal that distinguished the town as a “Free Space of Israeli Apartheid,” under the condition that the seal to be displayed in the city’s website and in its publications. In return the City Council agreed to publicize the boycott campaign among residents and local businesses.

Further, the City Council agreed to engage in and promote an active policy of cooperation with the BDS movement in order to ensure the proper implementation of the boycott decision.

On Sunday, a Las Palmas court published a decision that annulled the boycott. The Magistrate accepted the reasoning of the Lawfare Project, which stressed that even in the absence of its enforcement, the boycott violates the constitutional principle of equality before the law.

The Las Palmas decision closely preceded two other victories against the boycott campaign: a successful suit concerning the second boycott decision passed by the City Council of Castrillón, and a judgment issued on Sunday against the boycott of the City Council of Montcada i Reixac.

These victories are part of an ongoing initiative to eliminate BDS from Spain, while the Lawfare Project’s Spanish Counsel, Ignacio Wenley Palacios, has secured his 52nd legal victory.

The Lawfare Project is a legal think tank and litigation fund that files cases against anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli discrimination around the world.

Palacios, who led the case, said that “there is, in the law, a clear separation between politics and public office where the latter is not to be converted into an instrument at the service of the former. This is especially the case when — as here and with other city council boycotts — the objective is to exclude the adversary, in a clear abuse of power that aspires to place public offices at the service of political ideas that are discriminatory and contrary to the civil rights of every citizen, while simultaneously attempting to deprive others of their freedom to hold their own personal beliefs and opinions.”

Anti-BDS and Israel advocacy organizations have seen success after success in their legal battle against the anti-Israel elements.

In the last 10 months alone, the Lawfare Project has secured some 20 writs of injunction and favorable court decisions, establishing a Spanish legal doctrine against boycotts by transnational corporations purportedly instituted to comply with international law and human rights mandates.