Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Antisemitic EU & ECRI policies on Israel cannot be whitewashed

By David Singer - posted Thursday, 14 October 2021


The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) in attempting to whitewash European Union (EU) policies directed against Israel in Judea and Samaria being labelled as "antisemitic", is engaging in similar antisemitic conduct in denying Israel's right to claim sovereignty there.

Antisemitic EU anti-Israel policies:

Advertisement
  • Require goods produced by Israelis living in Judea and Samaria to be distinctively labelled for sale in the EU: "Product from West Bank (Israeli settlement)"
  • Facilitate and finance illegal Arab building in Area C of Judea and Samaria - totally under Israeli control pursuant to the Oslo Accords – without the EU seeking Israel's approval

ECRI's 47 members – one from each Council of Europe member state – are appointed:

on the basis of their independence, impartiality, moral authority and expertise in dealing with issues of racism, discrimination, xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance.

ECRI – in a recent report - clarified when it considers criticism of Israel to be antisemitic:

Contemporary forms of antisemitism can differ from traditional forms of prejudice against Jewish people, but both forms can also exist in parallel. Nowadays, antisemitism can also be expressed in certain criticism of Israel that is baseless. For example, denying Jews their right to a national homeland, holding the State of Israel to a different standard of behaviour than other states, or demonising the State of Israel and viewing it and its people as inherently evil or racist, may be regarded as antisemitic.

Under these guidelines:

Advertisement
  • Textbooks used in Palestinian Arab and Saudi Arabian schools depicting hundreds of maps without "Israel" being designatedon them - are antisemitic
  • The Palestine Liberation Organisation and Hamas - whose respective Charters deny Jews have any right to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in their ancient and biblical homeland – are antisemitic organisations and their leaders are antisemites.
  • EU criticism of Israel for its responses in protecting Israel's citizens from rockets fired from Gaza indiscriminately into Israeli population centres - is antisemitic - since European States would act similarly were their countries so confronted

ECRI however shoots itself in the foot when stating what criticism of Israel is not antisemitic:

However, ECRI strongly emphasises that any attempts to stifle, or stigmatise as antisemitic, legitimate criticism of Israel and its policies, in particular towards the Palestinian people and in the context of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, will jeopardise efforts to combat antisemitism and should therefore be rejected.

ECRI's choice of the phrase "Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories" is itself a manifestation of antisemitism, denying Jews have the right to reconstitute their national homeland in any part of Judea and Samaria, even though their right to do so was legally mandated, indeed encouraged, by:

  • The San Remo conference and Treaty of Sevres in 1920
  • Article 6 and Article 25 of the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine
  • Article 80 of the United Nations Charter

Labelling these territories "Palestinian territories", rather than "disputed territories", denies Israel's right to establish the Jewish national homeland in these territories and asserts that only the "Palestinian people", not the "Jewish people", has such a right.

ECRI's stated position is antisemitic under its own guidelines.

EU criticism of Israel's settlement policy in Judea and Samaria also ignores Israel's right to pursue that policy under the above internationally agreed consensus and is also antisemitic.

EU and ECRI, by their policies, statements and criticism of Israel in Judea and Samaria, are helping to fuel rapidly increasing antisemitism in Europe.

Antisemitism, wherever and whenever it appears, needs to be exposed, condemned and eradicated. Organizations and their leaders, including the EU and ECRI, who propagate antisemitic criticism of Israel need to be named and shamed.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. All

Author's note: The cartoon - commissioned exclusively for this article - is by Yaakov Kirschen aka "Dry Bones"- one of Israel's foremost political and social commentators - whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades.



Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

18 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

David Singer is an Australian Lawyer, a Foundation Member of the International Analyst Network and Convenor of Jordan is Palestine International - an organisation calling for sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza to be allocated between Israel and Jordan as the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine. Previous articles written by him can be found at www.jordanispalestine.blogspot.com.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by David Singer

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Article Tools
Comment 18 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy