UK chief rabbi joins those exiting Israeli antisemitism confab over far-right invitees
Ephraim Mirvis says he’s canceling after being ‘made aware’ of attendance by populist European politicians; Diaspora Ministry defends guest list as aimed at those with ‘different views’
Zev Stub is the Times of Israel's Diaspora Affairs correspondent.
British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis joined on Monday a growing list of officials backing out of an Israeli conference on combating antisemitism, in protest of invitations extended to far-right European politicians.
Mirvis’s decision to cancel his appearance at the March 26-27 Jerusalem conference, sponsored by the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, comes after two other British officials backed out and several French and German figures also said they would no longer attend the confab in Jerusalem.
In a statement, Mirvis’s office said that once he was “made aware of the attendance of a number of far-right populist politicians,” the British chief rabbi decided that he would “no longer be attending.”
The conference guest list, released only in the past few days, includes Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right French National Rally party founded by noted antisemite and Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen; Marion Marechal, a far-right French member of the European Parliament and Le Pen’s granddaughter; Hermann Tertsch, a far-right Spanish member of the European Parliament; Charlie Weimers of the far-right Sweden Democrats party; and Kinga Gál, of Hungary’s Fidesz party.
Notably, there will not be representation from Germany’s extremist AfD party, which came in second in last month’s national elections and calls for the mass expulsion of immigrants, or Austria’s Freedom Party. Israel is closely monitoring whether these parties are sufficiently distancing themselves from antisemitic behavior, reports say.
In addition to Mirvis, Lord John Mann, the UK government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, and David Hirsh, a veteran activist against antisemitic boycotts, said this week they would not attend the gatherings. Their decisions follow those of French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, who had been slated as the event’s keynote speaker, along with Germany’s antisemitism czar, Felix Klein, and German politician Volker Beck.
“I don’t have a problem with the right wing, I have a problem with populist politics,” Hirsh told The Times of Israel following his announcement. “Looking at the guest list, I get the sense that the direction of the conference is populist, without a lot of diversity of views.”
As Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli and other government figures look to strengthen Israel’s relationship with Europe’s far-right parties, some are concerned that Israel is helping to provide legitimacy to a growing class of populist parties, many of whom have histories of racism and antisemitism.
While the conference is believed to be the first official Israeli government event to which members of Europe’s radical right have been invited, the Diaspora Ministry downplayed the significance of the shift.
“Our goal was to invite friends of Israel from all over the political spectrum,” a spokesperson for the ministry said. “The way to reach people with different views than yours is to meet with them and discuss your differences, not to shut them out.”
Chikli has said that he sees Europe’s far-right parties as allies countering the rise of Muslim fundamentalism and antisemitism on the continent. However, his position has drawn the ire of many European countries, who note that many of these parties have their own histories of antisemitism, Holocaust denial, and racism.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has embraced a similar approach to Chikli’s, and last month instructed diplomats to establish formal communication channels with far-right political parties in Sweden, France and Spain. That decision had nothing to do with the antisemitism conference guest list, the spokesperson noted.
Hirsh told The Times of Israel that he decided to pull out from the conference because he was worried that hosting right-wing party members gave them a “Jewish stamp of approval.”
“I could have decided to participate and try to have an influence, but as these parties become more powerful, it is very valuable to them to have a ‘kashrut’ stamp saying they are not antisemitic or fascist, and I don’t want to be involved with giving that to them,” he said.
Hirsh said he was sad to back out, but felt it was necessary.
“I used to be very happy to say that I am engaged in Israel’s response to antisemitism, and I am worried I might not be able to get my position back after this, but I am concerned about the world, and I fear the rise of populism is not going to be temporary,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mann, a long-time crusader against antisemitism, told the UK’s Jewish News that “the quality of some of the opposition politicians speaking is not sufficiently high enough to entice me from competing priorities.”
“There is nothing for the UK to learn about tackling antisemitism from some of these characters,” he added.
Labor MK Gilad Kariv called on Chikli on Monday to rescind the invitations to the right-wing leaders, saying it “directly contradicts the positions and policies of the representative organizations of Jewish communities in those countries and in the international arena.”
The conference will feature many leading figures, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Argentinian President Javier Milei, and former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman.
On Sunday, former Anti-Defamation League head Abraham Foxman called out his successor, Jonathan Greenblatt, for participating in the conference.
“Since the explosion of left-inspired antisemitism and anti-Israel hate in the last several years, the pseudo-Fascist right is trying to use the Jewish community as a platform, to demonstrate how legitimate and tolerant they are,” Foxman told Haaretz. “Israel and the Jewish community should not give them legitimacy.”
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
