Eminent Jewish personalities boycott the Israeli anti -Semitism event

Eminent personalities, including several Jewish leaders, remained away from an international conference on anti -Semitism held in Jerusalem, to protest against the inclusion of politicians from all over Europe associated with the far right.

Those who refused to attend include the own president of Israel and the Rabbi chief of the United Kingdom, Sir Ephraim Mirvis.

At the conference, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an increase in anti -Semitism.

He said Europe was likely to allow anti -Semitism not to be checked in the same way as the years preceding the Nazi Holocaust.

“Racial anti -Semitism encourages a world war against the existence of Jews as a race that poisons human societies,” said his own father in 1933, Netanyahu said.

“Today,” he said, “gives us a similar warning. The fate of free societies is linked to the desire to fight the scourge of anti-Semitism.”

But the inclusion during the event of representatives of European far -right parties, such as the National Rally of France, Spain and the Vox and the Democrats in Swedenhad been controversial.

The anti-Semitism of the British government, Lord Mann, refused his invitation, saying: “There is nothing for the United Kingdom to learn to fight the anti-Semitism of some of these characters.”

Chef Rabbin Mirvis refused to participate “after being informed of the presence of a number of far -right populist politicians,” his office said in a statement published last week.

The president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, did not assist either. Rather, he organized his own separate event with Jewish leaders in what was considered a compromise.

The conference was organized by Amichai Chikli, Minister of Affairs of the diaspora of Israel and frank member of the party of the right -wing Netanyahu right. Chikli has run in recent months during links with far -right parties across Europe.

At the start of last year, he met the Swedish Democrat chief who visited Jerusalem and was a speaker at a Vox conference in Madrid.

Chikli defended the inclusion of Europe’s far -right politicians from Europe, saying that they had faced “lies distributed against them by those who slander the state of Israel in the world”.

Among those of the conference whose presence had caused a certain dismay was the president of the National Rally Jordan Bardella, whose party was initially founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen, a man accused of anti-Semitism and found guilty of denial of the Holocaust.

Jean -Marie was expelled from the party – then called the National Front – in 2015 by his daughter Marine for his comments on the Holocaust being a “detail” in history. But since her death in January, she said that she couldn’t “forgive herself” to do so.

Bardella, 29 years old – a rising star of the French right – spoke on stage where he recognized the “eminent symbolic meaning” of his invitation to Israel.

Although he has not explicitly referred to his party’s past, he made wishes for his future under Marine Le Pen, who heads the group to Parliament.

“I would like to tell you in all sincerity, through its positions, its proposals and its constancy in the face of this threat, the national rally, led by Marine Le Pen, is the best shield for the Jews of France,” he said.

“Islamism is the totalitarianism of the 21st century,” he warned. “He threatens to destroy everything that is not like”, echoing a complaint often made by his party that France is faced with an “Islamist threat”.

Bardella had previously visited some of the places where Hamas conducted attacks on October 7, 2023, and Israel Institute of the Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem.

The conference also recalled how Israel was attacked by certain parts of the international community. Group discussions have taken place on subjects such as “approaching anti-Israeli prejudices in international institutions”, “How radical Islam feeds anti-Semitism in the West?” and “Double Standards, from the battlefield to the ICC”.

The ICC – The International Criminal Court – has issued an arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes against the Palestinians.

This decision caused indignation through Israel, which accused the ICC itself of being motivated by anti-Semitism.