Next week, the “International Conference on Combating Antisemitism” will convene in Jerusalem for the second consecutive year to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day—under the auspices of the so-called Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Amichai Chikli.
This year, President Isaac Herzog wisely distanced himself somewhat from the event: the conference will not be held under his auspices this time, but only with his presence. However, a look at the guest list reveals that once again, Chikli has chosen to surround himself primarily with his ideological friends, the vast majority of whom are men (gender equality, as we know, is not one of our government’s strengths) representing the global far right.
The conference will feature controversial figures such as Sebastian Kurz, the former Austrian chancellor who resigned from his position due to a corruption scandal, and Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of Jair Bolsonaro, the former Brazilian president who is serving a 27-year prison sentence for the coup attempt he orchestrated. Alongside them, the guest list includes representatives from most far-right parties in Europe, as well as dubious figures from the US and elsewhere. Perversely, racists from around the world are uniting in Jerusalem for a discussion on antisemitism.
The xenophobic, homophobic, and anti-Muslim invitees, many of whom also have a record of anti-Semitic statements, are bedfellows of the Israeli government that invited them. They all would like their countries to be ethnocratic without immigrants and definitely no Muslims, just like their hosts.
One panel at the conference will be titled “Antisemitism and the Far Right.” It will be moderated by Dr. Gadi Taub and feature a series of speakers from the American far right, including evangelical pastor Johnny Moore, who was appointed chairman of the failing Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) despite his support for the transfer of Palestinians from the Strip, and Seth Dillon, the CEO of Babylon Bee, a website promoting unfounded right-wing smears under the guise of “satire.” The panel will also include Dr. James Lindsay, whose main area of expertise is peddling conspiracy theories rooted in Nazi ideology—such as claims that LGBTQ+ people “implant” sexual orientations in children to sexually exploit them and that “Marxists,” a code word for Jews, are spreading progressive values as a plot to destroy Christian identity and Western civilization.
When these are the participants in a panel discussing the far-right and antisemitism, and when these are the guests at a conference that claims to combat antisemitism, it seems the panel’s conclusion is predetermined: not a genuine fight against antisemitism, but a transparent attempt at “far-right washing”—a public relations effort to rehabilitate the global far-right.
The truth is that the purpose of the conference is not to combat antisemitism but to legitimize it. In a hall in Jerusalem, many of the world’s leading antisemites will gather. In exchange for directing their racism toward Palestinians and Islam and supporting Netanyahu’s far-right government, they receive a warm embrace and a “seal of approval” from the government of the Jewish people’s nation-state—a government that this conference further proves inflicts terrible damage upon the Jews, both in Israel and around the world.
Nadav Tamir is the executive director of J Street Israel, a member of the board of the Mitvim think-tank, adviser for international affairs at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, and member of the steering committee of the Geneva Initiative. He was an adviser of President Shimon Peres and served in the Israel embassy in Washington and as consul general to New England.