In the letter ECI points out that “Israel is the best guardian of an open and inclusive Jerusalem which respects the faiths of all its citizens and guarantees free access to their holy sites”. The letter further states that “it is an indisputable fact that, unlike other guardians of the city from the Romans to the Crusaders to the State of Jordan between 1949 and 1967, freedom of religion has only been preserved under Israeli sovereignty. Jerusalem remains one of the few places in the Middle East where Jews, Christians and Muslims, are able to pray in freedom, security and peace”.
In the letter ECI called on all Member States to “refrain from adopting any resolution which would interfere with or jeopardize this unique status for a city, which is rightfully called holy by three world religions, while calling on the Israelis and Palestinians to unconditionally return to the negotiating table”.

The draft resolution on the Status of Jerusalem which was tabled to the UN General Assembly by Jordan, calls upon all states to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions in Jerusalem pursuant to Resolution 478 (1980) of the Security Council.

In a separate statement before the vote, ECI Legal Counsel Andrew Tucker said that “the draft resolution tabled by Jordan adopts the position that Israel has no legitimate claim over any part of Jerusalem. It is unreasonable for Jordan now, given its conduct between 1947 and 1967, to be allowed to put back on the table a position that it chose in 1947 to reject by seeking to annihilate the Jewish state”.

In a statement after the UNGA vote, ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell said:
“What was planned as a united front against the US and Israel instead revealed a clear division in the UN General Assembly. A total of 65 nations voted against, abstained or did not show up for the vote, in a clear reprimand against the Turkish sponsored resolution. Contrary to the vote in the Security Council on Monday, today’s vote shows that Israel is not isolated in the international community. It is these 65 nations which did not support today’s biased resolution that make up the moral minority in the United Nations General Assembly where close to half of the member states fail to meet the most basic criteria for parliamentary democracies.“

The ECI letter was signed by Director of UN Affairs, Gregory Lafitte, Legal Counsel Andrew Tucker and Founding Director Tomas Sandell.

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“There is a clear link between verbal anti-Israeli statements in the cabinets of governments and physical anti-Semitic violence in the streets of Europe among those who share their dislike of the Jewish state”, ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell said on Monday after a Molotov cocktail had been thrown into a synagogue in Gothenburg, Sweden, on Saturday night. The US decision had received especially harsh criticism in Sweden where Foreign Minister Margot Wallström called for a UN Security Council emergency meeting in New York on Friday to condemn the US move. In a separate tweet, former Swedish government minister and current MEP Marita Ulvskog called the decision “a declaration of war.”

“Words have consequences and can lead to action”, Sandell warned.

While protesters were hailing the Swedish Foreign Minister on the streets in Stockholm and Malmö they shouted “we will kill the Jews” without any reaction from the local police. In Gothenburg a group of masked men threw a Molotov cocktail into the local synagogue where young Jews were attending a party. The youth managed to escape to the cellar and the police were called to the scene, but the incident has caused an increased sense of fear among the Jewish communities across Scandinavia.

“Violent statements against Israel from leading politicians and biased media reports form a deadly cocktail which can easily spill over into street violence in societies where the Jewish state has been demonized for years and even church groups openly campaign for sanctions against Israel”, Tomas Sandell said.
“The State of Israel is not and should not be immune to criticism but when the action of a third party, in this case the United States, is automatically used to condemn Israel and the Jewish people, it is no longer acceptable”, he added.

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström was quick to criticize the US unilateral recognition of Jerusalem on Thursday while forgetting that the first decision of her own government three years ago was to unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state.

On Sunday she condemned the firebombing of the Jewish synagogue by saying that “there is no room for antisemitism in Sweden.”

“Statements of solidarity with the Jewish communities after an attack have little effect if leaders engage in anti-Israeli rhetoric in between incidents such as this”, Sandell noted.

The European Commission is increasingly concerned about the rise of antisemitism in Europe and has ordered a new survey on this issue for 2018. Already in 2013, before the current wave of terrorist attacks in Europe, as many as two thirds of those interviewed from Jewish communities across Europe acknowledged that they had experienced an increase in antisemitism.

In a joint statement on Monday afternoon in Brussels by First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans and European Commissioner Věra Jourová said, “We are shocked and outraged by the wave of anti-Semitic attacks and demonstrations that are spreading hatred against Jews in European cities over the last days. There can be no justification and we stand in full solidarity with the European Jewish communities in condemning these vile attacks in the strongest possible way.”

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Author of a recent book about the Balfour Declaration, Lord Turnberg from the House of Lords in the UK noted that “it would not have been possible for the British Government to announce the Balfour Declaration without the support of its Allies. It was the endorsement of the French, the Italians, the Russians and the Americans that allowed them to proceed. Even the Pope gave verbal support and, at least initially, so did the Grand Sharif Hussein and his son Prince Faisal in Mecca.”

But he went on to explain that it was in San Remo, in 1920, and at the League of Nations, in 1922, that the internationally agreed legal basis of a home for the Jewish people in Palestine was established. It was here that the Balfour Declaration was converted from a simple, non-legal, expression of support – a ‘view with favour’ – into the legal foundation for the Jewish state.

ECI Legal Counsel Andrew Tucker pointed out that the Balfour Declaration is extremely important because it laid the basis for the creation of the State of Israel thirty years later in 1948. “The State of Israel is remarkable for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is a Jewish state, which means it is the expression of the right of the Jewish people to self-determination. Secondly, it is a democratic state, which means it seeks to protect the civil and religious rights of all of its citizens – Jews, and non-Jews – just as was envisaged in the Balfour Declaration. Thirdly, it has sought to remain a democracy built on the rule of law, despite the fact it has to fight daily for its survival against the threat of terrorism. And despite those threats, it has managed to become one of the most successful nations on earth”, he explained.

The second part of the conference dealt with Israeli innovation in technology. Israeli Minister of Public Security and Strategic Affairs MK Gilad Erdan urged the EU-member states to enhance their cooperation with Israel in every field, from fighting terror to developing hi-tech products. “European countries must stop funding NGOs promoting BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions). The anti-Israel BDS campaign is illegitimate and immoral, and any form of European support for it undermines the chances for peace”, he said.

Other speakers included Israeli Ambassador to the EU and NATO, Aharon Leshno-Yaar, Members of Knesset Robert Ilatov and Yoel Hasson, MEP Arne Gericke and Rabbi Menachem Margolin. Examples of Israeli innovation projects were presented by Liron Rosenbaum of Orcam Technologies and Hila Glick from Innovation Without Borders. ECPM European Affairs Director Leo van Doesburg moderated the second session.

ECI Brussels Representative and conference co-host Ruth Daskalopoulou-Isaac thanked the participants and speakers and summarised the event by declaring that “from Zion shall go forth new technology which will benefit the whole world!”

Photo credit ©European Union 2017

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“This announcement, whilst long overdue, is a recognition of reality”, ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell said in a statement on Wednesday evening. “The undisputed facts on the ground are that Jerusalem is the seat of the Israeli government, its judiciary and its parliament, the Knesset. Each time a foreign dignitary has travelled to Jerusalem to meet with Israeli leaders, they have already recognized its status as the de-facto capital of Israel.”

He noted that “since King David made Jerusalem the capital of Israel some 3,000 years ago, the city has served as the national capital of only one people group, the Jewish people”.

While the US announcement recognises Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel, it leaves many of the most contested issues open to final status negotiations.

In a conference in the European Parliament in Brussels earlier in the day, ECI Legal Counsel Andrew Tucker reminded the audience that “Israel is a democratic state built on the rule of law which seeks to protect the civil and religious rights of all its citizens, Jews and non-Jews alike.” “There can be no better guarantee for an open and inclusive Jerusalem where Jews, Christians and Muslims can continue to worship side by side at their respective holy sites than under Israeli sovereignty.”

While welcoming the US recognition, ECI calls for moderation, calm and dialogue among all parties.

ECI calls on all faith leaders to renounce violence and seek paths to peace and co-existence and calls for prayer for the peace of Jerusalem.

The European Coalition for Israel has consistently campaigned for international recognition of a united Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel. On 5th June 2017 in New York, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, ECI handed over an open letter entitled “Keep Jerusalem United as the Capital of the State of Israel ” to Jerusalem’s Mayor Nir Barkat, which was signed by more than 100 global leaders, among them government ministers and parliamentarians of many nations.

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But in speeches from US Vice President Mike Pence, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, Ambassador Ronald Lauder from the World Jewish Congress and Israeli Minister Yisrael Katz it was made clear that it was not the UN who created the Jewish state but the Jewish people themselves.

“The United Nations did not create the Jewish state, they simply reaffirmed the natural and irrevocable rights of the Jewish people to their own state in their historical homeland,” US Vice President Mike Pence pointed out at the event.
“Israel did not need a resolution to call for its existence, because its right to exist is self-evident and timeless,” Pence said.

Ambassador Ronald Lauder from the World Jewish Congress reminded the audience that Jews had been living in Judea for eight centuries before they were dispersed from the land by the Romans in 135 AD.

“We know who we are and we know where we came from. This is why we are called Jews. These historical facts cannot be changed by any new UNESCO resolutions or others who try to deny our history,” he said.

Permanent Representative of Israel to the UN, Ambassador Danny Danon thanked the 33 nations which voted for UN General Assembly Resolution 181 in 1947 but went on to say that today Israel has diplomatic relations with over 160 nations.

“Today there are peace treaties with former enemies such as Egypt and Jordan and growing relations with many other Arab countries, especially in the Gulf region.”

Each speaker quoted from the Bible in explaining how the miracle of 1947 was possible.

“While Israel was built by human hands, it is impossible not to also see the hands from heaven,” Mike Pence said.

Ambassador Danon called the UN vote on 29th November “the longest three minutes in Jewish history” but saw the results as a fulfilment of Bible prophecy which speaks of a time when the Jews would return to Israel.

European Coalition for Israel was part of the organizing committee behind the event which was hosted by the Israeli Permanent Representation to the UN. ECI was represented by Founding Director Tomas Sandell, ECI Director of UN Affairs Gregory Lafitte and Honorary Chairman J Rudolf Geigy.

“Our presence here today as the only non-Jewish organization in the hosting committee is important in that it shows that support for the State of Israel extends beyond the Jewish world,” Tomas Sandell explained.

“UN General Assembly Resolution 181 is a historical achievement that we can be truly proud of.” Whilst the Jewish people did not receive all that had been promised to them by the international community in 1920 it re-affirmed the right to self-determination of the Jewish people in their historical homeland.

“The singular message from this commemoration is that the Jewish people said yes to peace and co-existence already in 1947 and have continued to do so for the last seventy years.”

“It is now high time that also the enemies of the Jewish state recognize that Israel is here to stay and come back to the negotiating table.”

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“This visit is long overdue and is a good prelude to the upcoming 70th anniversary of Israeli independence next year”, ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell said in the televised European Report talk show in the European Parliament on Thursday. He was supported by co-panelists Alex Benjamin from Europe Israel Public Affairs and Danish MEP Anders Vistisen who is the current Deputy Chair of the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee.

This will be the first time in over 24 years that an Israeli Prime Minister has been invited to Brussels in an official capacity.
“The State of Israel is the natural partner for Europe in the current fight against radicalization and terrorism”, Sandell said in Brussels on Thursday.
Since the latest wave of terrorist attacks hit Europe, security cooperation between EU member states and Israel has reached an all time high. This is also the case in France where Netanyahu will make a stop-over to meet French President Emmanuel Macron before arriving in Brussels.

Earlier in the autumn, a small political group on the extreme left hosted Leila Khaled, a convicted Palestinian terrorist, at an event in the European Parliament which drew strong criticism from other members of the chamber. MEP Anders Vistisen and MEP Bas Belder initiated a letter of complaint to the President of the European Parliament asking him to take action in order to prevent convicted terrorists from entering the European Parliament. The letter was signed by 59 Members of the European Parliament.
In a statement in Brussels on Wednesday, European Parliament President Antonio Tajani condemned the visit of Khaled, saying that Europe should not give a platform to a convicted terrorist, and promised to systematically deny access to all persons, groups or entities involved in terrorist acts.

In the European Report talk show on Thursday, one of the initiators of the letter of complaint, MEP Vistisen, welcomed the decision by the President and said that he was looking forward to the visit of the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to Brussels.

The international board of the European Coalition for Israel was officially received by the Israeli Prime Minister in Jerusalem in the autumn of last year when he expressed his desire for closer relations with the nations of Europe.

His visit is scheduled to take place on December 11th, just two weeks after the 70th anniversary of UN General Assembly Resolution 181 and one day before the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

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In his speech on Thursday Sandell pointed out that the Balfour Declaration is something to be celebrated by everyone who subscribes to the right to self-determination for all people groups, including the Jewish people.

The event host, Dr Anders Gerdmar, quoted Heinrich Himmler who in 1943 sent a telegram to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, expressing his regrets for the “wretched” Balfour Declaration.

“Also today there are those who reject the Balfour Declaration and categorically dismiss the idea of a Jewish state in their ancestral homeland”, Sandell said. “It is this rejectionist position which has prevented peace between Jews and Arabs for the last 100 years,” he added.

Newly appointed Israeli Ambassador to Sweden, Ilan Ben-Dov, also spoke at the event, expressing his gratitude for the show of support.

In a separate interview ahead of the Balfour Centenary, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström expressed her desire for better relations with the Israeli government.
As a first small step in the correction of the one-sided Swedish policy in the Israeli-Arab conflict, the Swedish Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday that they will withdraw their supply of funds to a Palestinian women´s centre which has been named after a convicted terrorist. This is the first time that the current Social-Democratic government has given in to mounting criticism over its unconditional aid to the Palestinian Authority, despite clear proof of corruption and an institutionalized culture of martyrdom and hatred in the Palestinian territory.

In London, the home of the Balfour Declaration, the centennial anniversary was celebrated on Thursday evening with a dinner for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hosted by Jacob Rothschild, the 4th Baron Rothschild, and Roderick Balfour, the 5th Earl of Balfour. At the dinner British Prime Minister Theresa May reaffirmed her commitment to stand with Israel and said that she is proud of the pioneering role of the British government in the creation of the State of Israel.

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On Thursday, the research group, represented by Marcus Sheff and Arik Agassi, had the opportunity to present their findings in the Finnish capital.

The report concludes that radicalization is pervasive throughout this new curriculum, even to a greater extent than before. The new textbooks groom young Palestinians to sacrifice themselves to martyrdom and promote hate. The textbooks are committed to jihad war and present a radical Islamist and, in part, a Salafist worldview.

“The results are shocking and disturbing”, said State Secretary Samuli Virtanen in a meeting with researchers. He promised to look into the matter and see how corrections could be made to bring the new curriculum into compliance with UNESCO standards.

“This curriculum is not only a catastrophe for the Palestinian youth and the future of the peace process, but also for the reputation of the Finnish education system, as the curriculum has been renewed under the clear supervision of Finnish experts and officials”, commented ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell at the meeting.

IMPACT-se has studied how textbooks in several countries comply with UNESCO standards and has now concluded that the new Palestinian curriculum is missing essential values and principles such as peace, tolerance and mutual respect, while promoting martyrdom, sacrifice and war.

At the meetings Marcus Sheff pointed out that the new Palestinian curriculum does not even support the prospect of a two-state solution, which under the Oslo Accords was a pre-condition for creating the Palestinian Authority and a Palestinian Ministry for Education.

Also during the consultations, concrete examples on how radicalization and martyrdom are underpinning the new curriculum were presented.
In a mathematics book for children in elementary schools, addition is taught by the following example: “If the number of martyrs from the first intifada is X and the number of martyrs from the second intifada is Y, what is the total number of martyrs in both the first and the second intifada?”
In a basic physics course, Newton’s law of gravity is explained by the firing of a slingshot, and is illustrated by a picture of a young Palestinian aiming a slingshot at an Israeli officer.

School textbooks are the key to the future as they represent the values of the official government. Today many countries in the Arab world are trying to adapt their curriculums to a more pluralistic society, whereas other governments promote radicalization. “Sadly, the Palestinian Authority is moving in the wrong direction”, Marcus Sheff concluded.

Member of Finnish Parliament Peter Östman demanded a swift change, saying that “as co-financers and pedagogical supervisors of this process, the government of Finland needs to promote progress and moderation in the Middle East and not allow further radicalization”.

The European Coalition for Israel has been raising the issue of the Palestinian text books for several years, both at a national level and a European Union level. ECI will continue to monitor the situation both in Helsinki and Brussels as the Finnish and the Belgian governments are co-chairing the EU-coordination group which is responsible for funding and supervising the Palestinian Authority on matters concerning education.

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In a first round of voting in the Executive Committee of the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) earlier this week, the Qatari candidate Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari came first with 19 out of 58 votes, followed by the French nominee Audrey Azoulay who received 13 votes. Research by the Simon Wiesenthal center has revealed that Al-Kawari had overseen the distribution of anti-Semitic literature while serving as minister of culture in his country and his candidature has been contested by the Israeli delegation to UNESCO.

The international community, led by the US administration, has expressed grave concerns about the recent resolutions from the Paris based UN body which has repeatedly denied any historical Jewish links to the holy sites in the State of Israel and the Palestinian territories. Last year the 58 member strong executive committee of UNESCO, led by Qatar, declared the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron to be an exclusive Muslim holy site. In a similar fashion, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee has previously added the Western Wall in Jerusalem to its World Heritage List, but only by its Arab name.

“This culture of historical falsification and politicization will have to stop if the UN body is going to retain its reputation as a respected UN agency for education, science and culture”, Sandell added. In April, outgoing Director-General Irina Bokova sent a written statement to the Annual Policy Conference of the European Coalition for Israel in the European Parliament in Brussels where she clarified her stance on Jerusalem. In the statement, which was conveyed by UNESCO Director Gene Seiti, she reaffirmed the historic bonds between the Jewish people and Jerusalem by saying that “Jerusalem is the capital of King David, where Solomon built the Temple and placed the Ark of the Covenant”. She went on to say that “to deny, conceal or erase any of the Jewish traditions undermines the integrity of the site and runs counter to the reason that justifies its inscription in the UNESCO World Heritage List”.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres has also publicly distanced himself from the recent UNESCO resolutions by stating that “there can be no doubt that there has been a Jewish temple in Jerusalem”.

“The next Director-General of UNESCO must be a reformer who can renew the trust in the UN body by expressing full respect for the undisputable findings of science and promote a culture of co-existence and dialogue”, Sandell concluded.

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It was only last year that the United Nations finally recognized Yom Kippur as an official UN holiday after more than 67 years of Israeli membership in the world organization. At the meeting President Lajčák stressed how this recognition was long overdue, and how the acceptance of Yom Kippur and the five other religious holidays* makes the UN more inclusive and reflects the religious diversity of the world organization better today compared to its founding in 1945.

Adding Yom Kippur to the list of official UN holidays was made possible thanks to the generous support of the US administration, which gave up its Presidents’ Day as one of the existing holidays in order to make room for Yom Kippur and the five other religious holidays as rotating UN holidays.

At the meeting, ECI stressed the importance of not only respecting the holiest day in the Jewish calendar year but also emphasizing the universal values of forgiveness and reconciliation which this holiday conveys. The ten days between the Jewish New Year (Rosh HaShana) and Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) are marked by deep introspection and soul searching.

“In an international community with increasing tension and polarization, these fundamental values and principles are now more important than ever,” ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell said at the meeting. He pointed out that next month will mark the 40th anniversary of the first-ever visit of an Arab leader to Jerusalem, which paved the way for the peace accord between Israel and Egypt in 1979. “The historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt proves that even long-standing conflicts can be resolved when there is a genuine will for peace, and when this is translated into concrete acts of reconciliation, such as the historic visit of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to Jerusalem in 1977,” he said.

In his remarks, ECI Director of UN Affairs Dr Gregory Lafitte pointed out that the Book of Jonah, which is read in Jewish synagogues around the world during Yom Kippur, has a universal message for all humanity and not only for the Jewish people.

“The story of Jonah is unique in that it illustrates God´s compassion for all people. This compassion also goes so far as to include animals, which is unique to the Jewish culture,” he said.

In 2014, ECI hosted its first official diplomatic high-level Yom Kippur breakfast meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, where keynote speakers from Europe and Africa shared concrete examples on how forgiveness and reconciliation have been implemented in international relations in our days, from postwar reconciliation in Europe to the justice and reconciliation process in Rwanda after the genocide of 1994.

The meeting on Thursday morning in New York was part of the activities of the Forum for Cultural Diplomacy, and consisted of its Co-Founders Tomas Sandell and Gregory Lafitte as well as the Honorary Chairman of ECI, J. Rudolf Geigy.

*The other five religious holidays which were recognized by the UN alongside Yom Kippur are the Day of Vesak, Diwali, Gurpurab, Orthodox Christmas and Orthodox Good Friday.

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