European lawmakers urge new measures to combat anti-Semitism

Turkey only country present in Pague not to sign declaration calling for legislation to combat anti-Jewish attacks, other hate crimes

PRAGUE, Czech Republic — Some 30 European parliament speakers on Tuesday issued a joint statement forcefully condemning anti-Semitism and calling for the establishment of an inter-parliamentarian European commission to draft legal measures to combat anti-Jewish attacks and other hate crimes.

The declaration was signed by all the parliament leaders present at a round-table meeting in Prague, with the exception of Turkey.

The European parliamentarians, meeting as world leaders marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Tuesday, urged a “threefold approach,” namely “education, legislation and enforcement of laws against hate crimes,” and recommended that a new European body address these issues, in a statement issued on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“As heads of parliaments we wish to make it clear that anti-Semitism as well as other hate crimes constitute problems for every society in which they are allowed to manifest,” the statement said.

It expressed “grave concern” for the spike in anti-Jewish hatred, and maintained that “many Jews experience an inability to express themselves in public as Jews without fearing verbal or bodily harm.”

“This is why it is imperative that parliaments, governments, international organizations and civil societies around the world adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards these phenomena,” it said.

The parliament speakers urged the president of the European Parliament to “make a call for such a meeting.”

Earlier this month, a delegation from the European Jewish Congress requested that European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini appoint a special task force to combat rising anti-Semitism.

European High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini. (Photo credit: AFP PHOTO/JOHN THYS)

“Now more than ever, the European Union needs to create a position and organization specifically geared towards finding long-lasting solutions for anti-Semitism and other forms of racism,” EJC President Moshe Kantor told Mogherini. “The recent events demonstrate that the sense of security among Jews in parts of Europe is at its lowest point since the end of the Holocaust and many are leaving their homes as a result.”

“The EU is built on a belief that we can combat cross-border phenomena – from combating the rise of anti-Semitic incitement on the internet, to tackling extremist ideology abroad, one of the priorities in developing a comprehensive strategy to combat emerging threats in the Middle East. The spirit of unity we have seen in France, across Europe and the world since last Wednesday must instill a unity of purpose in all of us in combating these threats.”

The delegation’s meeting with Mogherini took place only several days after radical Islamist gunmen killed four Jews at a kosher supermarket in Paris and 12 people at a French satirical newspaper.

On Tuesday, Mogherini said the recent killings in Paris are “a grim reminder” that anti-Semitism is still a threat and that 70 years after the Holocaust ended, European Jews are still threatened.

In a statement issued on International Holocaust Remembrance Day in both Hebrew and English, Mogherini said she joined “in commemorating a crime unparalleled in human history, a crime in which six million Jews as well as millions of other innocent victims, Roma, political prisoners, prisoners of war, disabled people, homosexuals, were murdered in Nazi death camps.”

“The latest terrorist attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris, in which four people were murdered, is a grim reminder that violent anti-Semitism is still alive. Seventy years after the Holocaust, there are Jewish communities in Europe that again feel threatened,” Mogherini said.

Earlier in the day, a French Jewish umbrella organization said that anti-Semitic attacks in France had doubled between 2013 and 2014, as did the number of violent attacks on French Jews.

French President Francois Hollande (C) arrives at the headquarters of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris on January 7, 2015, after armed gunmen stormed the offices leaving eleven dead, including two police officers, according to sources close to the investigation. (photo credit: AFP/KENZO TRIBOUILLARD)

Turkey, the only country to abstain from the declaration, on Tuesday held its first ever state commemoration for the Holocaust.

A watchdog group recently found that Jews are the group most targeted by hate speech in the Turkish media. The study, by the Middle East Media Research Institute’s Turkish Media Project, found that such attacks are becoming more common, especially in Islamist media outlets.

In July, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Israel had “surpassed Hitler in barbarity,” during the summer’s war with Hamas-led fighters in Gaza.