The government of Israel, and in particular the Diaspora Affairs Minister Chikli, is promoting an international Conference to combat anti-Semitism for the second year running on January 27th. This decision comes in the context of a serious resurgence of violent attitudes and acts directed against Jewish individuals and institutions in several European countries.
Yet we learned with dismay that invitations to participate in this conference have been sent to parties of the European nationalistic and racist far right, from the Hungarian Fidesz to the Spanish Vox, the French Rassemblement National, the Swedish Democrats, and the Polish law and justice party.
We find it inconceivable that the state of Israel which was founded as a refuge for persecuted Jews is now seeking the support of parties which are rooted in a long history of anti-Jewish hostility and persecution and whose political action is opposed to democracy, an open society and religious freedom.
For some time Israel and part of the Jewish world, in Europe and elsewhere, have sought the protection of such improper and opportunistic allies on the political right, in xenophobic movements or among fundamentalist Christians, in the name of support for Israel and common hostility to Islam. Such attitudes have caused deep fractures between Israel and the largest sections of Jewish communities in those countries, which are committed to the principles of democracy, the protection of minorities, and the universality of human rights.
We therefore side with those individuals and institutions, particularly the Jewish ones, which decided not to attend the conference, and we ask the organizers that invitations be rescinded to all individuals whose parties and organizations fail to respect such principles.
January 2026
