Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism 2009

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Third international conference of the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism, held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Jerusalem, on 16–17 December 2009

Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism 2009

Type Conference
Start date 16 December 2009
End date 17 December 2009
Location Crowne Plaza Hotel, Jerusalem
Participants More than 500 participants from more than 50 countries were expected, according to Israel National News; speakers included Yehuda Bauer, Abraham Foxman, Hannah Rosenthal, Gerald Steinberg and founding members of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism
Organisers Ministry of Foreign Affairs; co-chairs Avigdor Liberman and Yuli Edelstein; conference chair Aviva Raz Shechter

The Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism 2009 was the third international conference of the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism, held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Jerusalem on 16–17 December 2009. It was co-chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and Yuli Edelstein, Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, with Aviva Raz Shechter as conference chair.[1][2] Israel National News, writing before the opening, said that more than 500 participants from more than 50 countries would attend.[2]

Edelstein said: "The goal of the global forum is to formulate coalitions and coordinate activity in the struggle against anti-Semitism in all its forms and against the de-legitimization of Israel, including the war on racism and xenophobia."[2]

Date

The conference opened on 16 December 2009 and ended on 17 December 2009, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Jerusalem.[1][2]

Organisers

The conference was co-chaired by Avigdor Liberman, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Yuli Edelstein, Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs. The conference chair was Aviva Raz Shechter, Director of the Department for Combating Antisemitism at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[1]

Attendees

Israel National News reported on 15 December 2009 that "ministers, lawmakers, legal experts, academics, and heads of Jewish and non-Jewish organizations from more than 50 countries" were gathering, and that "more than 500 participants will attend". It said the opening session would include addresses by Edelstein, Liberman, Professor Yehuda Bauer and Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, and that the foreign minister of Lithuania, Canada's ministers of citizenship, culture and immigration, and the Czech Republic's minister of human rights would also take part.[2]

The Forum's own summary named, among others, Michael Kocáb, Minister for Human Rights of the Czech Republic; Vygaudas Ušackas, Lithuania's minister of foreign affairs; Pilar Rahola; Hannah Rosenthal, the US State Department's Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism; Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin; Gert Weisskirchen; Irwin Cotler; John Mann; Fiamma Nirenstein; and Lord Greville Janner of Braunstone. It also recorded a reception at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted by Edelstein and Yossi Gal, the ministry's director-general, at the close of the conference, and said Natan Sharansky and Rabbi Michael Melchior, "who together established the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism in 2000", took part in the closing proceedings.[1] Rosenthal also addressed the Forum on 16 December 2009, in remarks later published by the State Department.[3]

Details

The Forum's summary quoted Liberman and Edelstein as telling participants that they were witnessing "the repackaging of classic Antisemitism into politically correct forms". Raz Shechter, opening the conference, said that "the spread of this resilient and malignant ideology is manifested in numerous virulent forms" – from "the delegitimation and demonization of Israel" to attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions and "the trivialization or banalization of the Holocaust".[1]

Rosenthal told the Forum that "The goal of fighting anti-Semitism is a high priority for the Obama administration" and that her office would "especially promote public discussion on the nature of new forms of anti-Semitism – how to recognize it and ways to combat it".[3]

A reception hosted by Rivlin, Liberman and Edelstein honoured founding members of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism (ICCA). According to the Forum's summary, Cotler called the ICCA's London Declaration "a template and model for action", and Janner said: "Together we have power, separately we have none."[1]

Working groups

The Forum's summary listed these working groups and co-chairs:[1]

Working groups listed in the Forum's 2009 conference summary
Working group Co-chairs as given in the summary
Nationalist Trends in Central and Eastern Europe: New Challenges Facing the Jewish Communities Rabbi Andrew Baker and Mark Levin
Rising Antisemitism in Latin America: the Iranian Influence Sammy Eppel and Michael Schneider
Antisemitism Online: Cyberspace and the Media David Matas and Dr. Andre Oboler
Delegitimization of Israel: "Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions" Dr. Mitchell Bard and Prof. Gil Troy
Combating Antisemitism: Models and Best Practices (with Special Emphasis on Islamic Antisemitism) Mike Whine and Dr. Michael Kotzin

Other sessions

Gerald Steinberg of Bar-Ilan University and president of NGO Monitor chaired a panel on "Trends in the Delegitimization of Israel in the International Arena" and, according to the Forum's summary, denounced "lawfare" tactics. Isaac Herzog, then Minister of Welfare and Social Services, also spoke. A panel on "Antisemitism in the Arab and Muslim World" was chaired by Dr. Charles A. Small, director of the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism.[1]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism, Summary of the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism International Conference December 16-17, 2009 gfantisemitism.org, Internet Archive capture of 10 June 2012, accessed 2 November 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Hana Levi Julian, World Anti-Semitism Alive, Well Israel National News, 15 December 2009, accessed 2 November 2026.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 US Department of State, Panel One: Dealing with Old and New Forms of Anti-Semitism state.gov, 16 December 2009, accessed 2 November 2026.
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