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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:

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  • 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:

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  • 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.

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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.



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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.

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