EU official welcomes Czech resolution that calls Israel boycott anti-Semitism

JTA — In an unusual move, a top European Union official celebrated the Czech parliament’s passing of a resolution that lists the campaign to boycott Israel among forms of anti-Semitism.

The European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Věra Jourová, who is Czech, on Wednesday wrote on Twitter: “I welcome that @snemovna passed a resolution condemning all forms of #Antisemitism directed against individuals and religious institutions, including the denial of Holocaust.”

The German parliament and judiciaries and legislatures of several other countries have called the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel anti-Semitic or otherwise discriminatory. But the European Union has not, due to differences of opinion on the issue among its member states.

Jourová did not mention Israel but the Jewish state is mentioned in five out of seven clauses of the non-binding resolution she welcomed, passed on Tuesday by the Poslanecká Sněmovna, the lower house of the Czech parliament.

Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Commission’s coordinator on combating anti-Semitism, underlined on Twitter the language of the Czech resolution, which differs in its focus on Israel from many other resolutions about anti-Semitism.

In the first three clauses, the Czech parliament “strongly condemns all manifestations of anti-Semitism directed against individuals, religious institutions, organizations as well as the State of Israel, including the denial of the Holocaust; rejects any questioning of the State of Israel’s right of existence and defense” and “condemns all activities and statements by groups calling for a boycott of the State of Israel, its goods, services or citizens.”