International Conference on Combating Antisemitism 2025

Conference on antisemitism organised in Jerusalem in March 2025 by Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli

International Conference on Combating Antisemitism 2025
Type	Conference
Start date	26 March 2025
End date	27 March 2025
Location	Jerusalem
Participants	Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan Bardella spoke; President Isaac Herzog, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and Lord Mann stayed away
Organisers	Amichai Chikli, Minister of Diaspora Affairs

The International Conference on Combating Antisemitism was a conference organised in Jerusalem in March 2025 by Amichai Chikli, Israel's Minister of Diaspora Affairs. It is not one of the numbered conferences of the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism. The Jerusalem Post reported on 17 March 2025 that the conference, "called 'The International Conference on Combating Antisemitism,' is scheduled for March 26-27." The BBC, writing from Jerusalem on 28 March 2025, reported that the conference had been held and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan Bardella, president of France's National Rally, had spoken there.

Dave Rich of the Community Security Trust, writing before the meeting, contrasted it with the Forum: "Israel used to host a Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism every two to three years, and it was usually an impressive and worthwhile event." He added that "the far right politicians who will be in Jerusalem next week would never have been invited to previous Global Forums anyway."

Date

The Jerusalem Post reported the scheduled dates as 26-27 March 2025. The BBC's report of 28 March treated the conference as having already taken place in Jerusalem. A more precise venue than Jerusalem was not established from the sources opened for this page. The start and end dates in the infobox follow the Jerusalem Post's advertised timetable; they were not independently confirmed by a post-conference programme.

Organisers

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that "the conference is being organized by Amichai Chikli, the minister of Diaspora affairs". It said this was "a first" in the invitation of politicians from European parties the paper described as far-right. The BBC likewise wrote that the conference "was organised by Amichai Chikli, Israel's Diaspora Affairs Minister".

Attendees

According to the BBC, Netanyahu spoke at the conference, and Bardella "spoke on stage at the event in Jerusalem". The BBC said the presence of representatives of European parties it described as far-right, "like France's National Rally, Spain's Vox and the Sweden Democrats, had proven controversial."

The Jerusalem Post, writing before the conference, named among the advertised participants Bardella; Marion Marechal, a French member of the European Parliament; Hermann Tertsch, a Spanish member of the European Parliament representing Vox; Swedish politician Charlie Weimers; and Milorad Dodik, president of Republika Srpska. It reported that those who had "pulled out" included UK Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, Lord John Mann, the UK government's antisemitism adviser, Goldsmiths professor David Hirsh, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, and German antisemitism commissioner Felix Klein. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, in an earlier report, had also listed Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League and Armin Laschet among those then scheduled to speak.

The BBC reported that Mirvis declined to participate "having been made aware of the attendance of a number of far-right populist politicians", and that Mann turned down his invitation, saying: "There is nothing for the UK to learn about tackling antisemitism from some of these characters." President Isaac Herzog "did not attend either. He hosted his own separate event with Jewish leaders instead in what was seen as a compromise."

Details

Netanyahu, according to the BBC, "issued a warning about the rise in antisemitism" and said Europe was "at risk of allowing antisemitism to go unchecked in a similar way to the years leading up to the Nazi Holocaust." The BBC quoted him: "Today, we issue a similar warning. The fate of free societies is tied to the willingness to fight the scourge of antisemitism."

Bardella, the BBC reported, "acknowledged the 'eminent symbolic significance' of his invitation to Israel" and had earlier visited sites of the 7 October 2023 attacks and Yad Vashem. The BBC quoted him as saying "Islamism is the totalitarianism of the 21st century" and "It threatens to destroy everything that is not like it."

Ariel Muzicant, president of the European Jewish Congress, wrote to the Jerusalem Post before the conference that "Extreme-right parties in Europe have been our worst opponents in this fight" and that "This Chikli conference is a major problem for Jewish communities in Europe. It is harming the Jewish existence in the Diaspora. It is as if members of the Israeli government are stabbing us in the back." Chikli, according to the BBC, "defended the inclusion of far-right politicians from Europe, saying they had faced 'lies spread against them by those who slander the State of Israel worldwide'."

Rich wrote that he had attended and spoken at previous Global Forums, and that "even without the issue of a lack of balance, the far right politicians who will be in Jerusalem next week would never have been invited to previous Global Forums anyway. Israeli governments, just like diaspora Jewish communities, did not engage with them. And that has changed."

See also

• Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism
• Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism 2021
• Hasbara timeline
• Timeline of initiatives on Holocaust remembrance and antisemitism