The conference featured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials from around the world, who will speak about the different challenges antisemitism presents and how to fight them.
The Conference on Combating Antisemitism, organized by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, was held Thursday afternoon at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem.
Participating in the conference were Prime Minister Netanyahu and senior officials from Israel and around the world.
During the conference, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke out forcefully against what he described as the latest mutation of antisemitism, one that seeks to delegitimize Israel’s very existence. Sa’ar echoed the words of the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: “In the Middle Ages, Jews were persecuted because of their religion. In the 19th and 20th centuries, they were reviled because of their race. Today, Jews are attacked because of the existence of their nation-state, Israel. Denying Israel’s right to exist is the new antisemitism.”
Sa’ar placed modern-day anti-Zionism within the broader history of Jewish persecution, from biblical times to the medieval blood libels and, ultimately, the Holocaust. “The Nazis attempted to erase the Jewish people from the face of the Earth,” he said. “Our nation is one of the most ancient peoples in the world. It should today have been one of the largest nations in the world.”
He emphasized the necessity of a Jewish state for the protection of Jewish people. “The lessons of our long and painful past were clear. After antisemitism targeted both the Jewish religion and race – we needed a Jewish state to defend ourselves, by ourselves.”
Sa’ar described the October 7th, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel as a turning point. “The radical Islamist world, led by Iran, united on seven different fronts to try and eliminate the Jewish state,” he stated. “When they failed to do so on the battleground, they pivoted to a new weapon: legal warfare.”
He criticized international institutions such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for what he described as “anti-Semitic actions.” In particular, he condemned a recent UNHRC report, calling it “a modern-day anti-Semitic blood libel” that accused victims of Hamas’s sexual crimes of the very crimes committed against them.
Sa’ar warned of an emerging alliance between radical Islamist forces and far-left progressives. “In the name of so-called ‘human rights,’ the progressive movement fell captive to those seeking the destruction of the Jewish people. The radical axis of Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah uses the progressives and their institutions for their own agenda—dismantling Israel.”
He also stressed that this threat extends beyond Israel and the Jewish people. “The radical alliance is not just a threat to the Jewish people. It is a danger to freedom itself. The new antisemitism represents the threat to Western values and global order. Because these same forces attacking Israel are the ones targeting other democracies, particularly the United States.”
Sa’ar praised former US President Donald Trump for his actions against antisemitism, particularly his measures to hold universities accountable for campus antisemitism and his executive order allowing for the deportation of foreign Hamas supporters. “Other countries must follow suit. Europe, on whose soil the Holocaust occurred, must fight harder. Antisemitism and the radical alliance promoting it must be met with a firm fist.”
Concluding his speech, Sa’ar linked the present-day struggle to the biblical story of Passover. “We will soon celebrate the holiday of Passover, also known as the holiday of freedom. When Moses led the people of Israel to liberty from Pharaoh, he saved not only the Jewish future. He saved the future of humanity.”
He ended with a resolute message: “Today, these values are again under attack. Just as then, freedom will prevail, against an enemy seeking to destroy the Jewish people.”
Philanthropist and President of WJC Israel Sylvan Adams pondered at the conference: “Why didn’t the Biden administration send a contingent of troops from the large American military base in Doha to arrest Hamas leaders Khaled Meshal and the late Ismail Haniyeh, considering that Hamas had murdered and kidnapped American citizens on Oct 7th? Don’t you think that this would have been a much better starting point for the negotiations for the release of our hostages?”
David Friedman, former US Ambassador to Israel, stated: “We won’t win the hearts and minds of antisemites, because they don’t have hearts and they don’t have minds.”The Conference on Combating Antisemitism, organized by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, was held Thursday afternoon at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem.
Participating in the conference were Prime Minister Netanyahu and senior officials from Israel and around the world.
During the conference, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar spoke out forcefully against what he described as the latest mutation of antisemitism, one that seeks to delegitimize Israel’s very existence. Sa’ar echoed the words of the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: “In the Middle Ages, Jews were persecuted because of their religion. In the 19th and 20th centuries, they were reviled because of their race. Today, Jews are attacked because of the existence of their nation-state, Israel. Denying Israel’s right to exist is the new antisemitism.”
Sa’ar placed modern-day anti-Zionism within the broader history of Jewish persecution, from biblical times to the medieval blood libels and, ultimately, the Holocaust. “The Nazis attempted to erase the Jewish people from the face of the Earth,” he said. “Our nation is one of the most ancient peoples in the world. It should today have been one of the largest nations in the world.”
He emphasized the necessity of a Jewish state for the protection of Jewish people. “The lessons of our long and painful past were clear. After antisemitism targeted both the Jewish religion and race – we needed a Jewish state to defend ourselves, by ourselves.”
Sa’ar described the October 7th, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel as a turning point. “The radical Islamist world, led by Iran, united on seven different fronts to try and eliminate the Jewish state,” he stated. “When they failed to do so on the battleground, they pivoted to a new weapon: legal warfare.”
He criticized international institutions such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for what he described as “anti-Semitic actions.” In particular, he condemned a recent UNHRC report, calling it “a modern-day anti-Semitic blood libel” that accused victims of Hamas’s sexual crimes of the very crimes committed against them.
Sa’ar warned of an emerging alliance between radical Islamist forces and far-left progressives. “In the name of so-called ‘human rights,’ the progressive movement fell captive to those seeking the destruction of the Jewish people. The radical axis of Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah uses the progressives and their institutions for their own agenda—dismantling Israel.”
He also stressed that this threat extends beyond Israel and the Jewish people. “The radical alliance is not just a threat to the Jewish people. It is a danger to freedom itself. The new antisemitism represents the threat to Western values and global order. Because these same forces attacking Israel are the ones targeting other democracies, particularly the United States.”
Sa’ar praised former US President Donald Trump for his actions against antisemitism, particularly his measures to hold universities accountable for campus antisemitism and his executive order allowing for the deportation of foreign Hamas supporters. “Other countries must follow suit. Europe, on whose soil the Holocaust occurred, must fight harder. Antisemitism and the radical alliance promoting it must be met with a firm fist.”
Concluding his speech, Sa’ar linked the present-day struggle to the biblical story of Passover. “We will soon celebrate the holiday of Passover, also known as the holiday of freedom. When Moses led the people of Israel to liberty from Pharaoh, he saved not only the Jewish future. He saved the future of humanity.”
He ended with a resolute message: “Today, these values are again under attack. Just as then, freedom will prevail, against an enemy seeking to destroy the Jewish people.”
Philanthropist and President of WJC Israel Sylvan Adams pondered at the conference: “Why didn’t the Biden administration send a contingent of troops from the large American military base in Doha to arrest Hamas leaders Khaled Meshal and the late Ismail Haniyeh, considering that Hamas had murdered and kidnapped American citizens on Oct 7th? Don’t you think that this would have been a much better starting point for the negotiations for the release of our hostages?”
David Friedman, former US Ambassador to Israel, stated: “We won’t win the hearts and minds of antisemites, because they don’t have hearts and they don’t have minds.” The day before, President Herzog hosted international Jewish leaders in his residence to discuss the challenges of antisemitism faced by Jewish communities all over the world.
Both programs are part of a weeklong campaign by Israel to raise awareness against antisemitism in the global community.
