Brussels, December 7th, 2019

Conference co-host, ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell, reminded the audience that 60 years does not tell the whole story of the long and sometimes complicated relations between the Jewish people and Europe. “Jewish life in Europe dates back more than 2000 years, and in Israel for more than 3400 years”, he said.

He added that there could be no Europe without the influence of the Jewish people, but it is equally true that there would, humanly speaking, be no modern State of Israel if it were not for important decisions made in European cities such as Basel (1897), London (1917) and San Remo (1920). But the complicated, and sometimes tragic relationship between Europe and the Jewish people is also sadly recorded at other European locations, such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Mauthausen and Theresienstadt.

Next year will mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps and the beginning of the end of the Holocaust (Shoah). Only three years later, in 1948, Israel declared independence and in 1957 the European Community was born. Two years later diplomatic relations with Israel were established.

In his speech, ECI Director for UN Affairs, Dr. Gregory Lafitte elaborated on the important contributions which the Jewish people have made to Europe. “A central part of Jewish thinking is that we should not make a census, in order to measure our strength as a people, but rather that each one should make his or her own contribution to the common good”, he said, and added: “Whereas the Jewish people are small in numbers and the State of Israel is not a large country, their impact and contributions to Europe have been immense. Starting with the Mosaic law, Jewish thinking has laid the foundation for much of what we today call Western civilization. Today, Jewish contributions span from philosophy to technology.”

“The day all Israeli technology would be removed from Europe, our continent would come to a standstill”, said ECI Special Envoy, Dr. Andreas Kelling. “The fact of the matter is that Europe may need Israel more than Israel needs Europe, hence the EU should cherish this special relationship instead of adding restrictive conditions.”

Israeli Ambassador to the EU and NATO, Mr. Aharon Leshno-Yaar, called for the political high-level dialogue, an essential component of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, to be resumed and not be made conditional on the progress of the peace process. He warned of the consequences of the current rise of antisemitism which could ultimately destroy Europe and called upon all member states to action.

This call was echoed by both Katharina von Schnurbein from the European Commission and MEP Karoline Edtstadler from Austria. Edtstadler, who chairs the European Parliament working group against antisemitism, found the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition on antisemitism to be helpful in that it enables national authorities to clamp down on new forms of antisemitism. She found the recent parliamentary debates in France and Portugal to be important in terms of having an open discussion on the subject but was at the same time surprised and concerned over the many anti-Semitic attitudes which have been revealed in these discussions.

EU-coordinator on combatting antisemitism, Katharina von Schnurbein, shared about the many measures that the European Commission has taken in order to combat antisemitism during her four years as the EU-coordinator, but reminded the audience that it is up to the member states to implement these decisions. She also noted that she made her first public appearance as EU-coordinator at the ECI Annual Conference in 2015 and thanked ECI for the good cooperation.

The European External Action Service (EEAS), the foreign policy arm of the EU, was represented on the highest level through the Managing Director for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Fernando Gentilini, who assured the audience of the importance of good relations between Europe and Israel. The EU is today Israel’s largest trade partner and Israel is part of many important EU-programs such as Horizon 2020 for research and innovation. Thanks to the EU Open Skies initiative, Israelis can today fly to 70 European destinations from the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. Whereas the relations are deep and wide, he admitted that there are also political differences, but concluded that these differences are among friends, not enemies.

ECI Director for Outreach, Dr. Emilie Noteboom, gave a historical overview on EU-Israel relations over the last sixty years, noting that a major shift took place in 1973 during the Yom Kippur war and the subsequent oil embargo when the European Community adopted the Arab narrative of the conflict and became more critical of Israel. “Until then, the European countries had been predominantly pro-Israel. It is speculation, but it is plausible that the Arab pressure invited European nations to re-interpret established legal wisdom, resulting in different interpretations of their long-standing legal positions,” she said.

In his concluding remarks co-host MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen from the Netherlands painted his own future scenario of EU-Israeli relations in 2030, where he hoped that the EU and Israel would be working in an even closer partnership and where the former arch-enemy of Israel, the Islamic Republic of Iran, would finally be a democratic state.

In conjunction with the conference, MEP Charlie Weimers from Sweden hosted a reception for MEPs and international guests to celebrate the 60 years of diplomatic relations, expressing his support for stronger relations with the Jewish state.

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Brussels, November 15th, 2019

The ruling comes only two days after Jewish communities across Europe have commemorated the 81st anniversary of the “Kristallnacht” on November 9th – 10th, 1938, during which over 7000 Jewish businesses across Germany were marked, damaged, looted or completely destroyed.

In a statement on Thursday, November 14th, ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell called the EU court ruling “counterproductive to peace and a gift to radical forces in Europe and the Middle East who want to isolate, boycott and delegitimize the State of Israel and demonize the Jewish people”.

When the European Commission, in November 2015, adopted an “interpretative notice” on the indication of origin of goods from the West Bank territories occupied by Israel since June 1967, it was said to be motivated by consumer protection. In this week´s ruling the court adds that this consumer information “could influence consumers’ purchasing decisions”, some of whom choose not to buy products because of “ethical considerations and considerations relating to the observance of international law”.

“This statement echoes calls from some of the darkest chapters of European history when the labelling of Jewish businesses with a Star of David was also seen as a form of consumer information”, said Sandell.

He then added: “The ruling sends the wrong message to European citizens at a time when antisemitism has reached alarming levels in the EU-member countries, and where the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians is seen as a catalyst for fuelling Jew hatred.” In a recent survey in Sweden, over 85 percent of those polled considered that the current Middle East conflict directly influenced how they view the domestic Jewish population.

“By insinuating that Israeli economic activities in the disputed territories are unethical, and require special labels, the EU helps fuel this sense of suspicion”, he noted.

Instead of promoting economic cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians, the EU seems to prefer to advance division by making industrial activities in the territories increasingly difficult. Following the “interpretative notice” from the European Commission in 2015, the Israeli company SodaStream had to relocate their factories from the disputed territories, leaving behind 600 unemployed Palestinians. It is estimated that up to 25,000 Palestinians are dependent for their livelihood on jobs in Israeli companies in the disputed territories of the West Bank.

“The court decision is a blow to these Palestinians and to all other moderate forces in the region who want to see business cooperation as a tool for peace and co-existence”, Sandell concluded.

The US State Department has expressed grave concern over the court decision in that it exposes an anti-Israel bias and encourages the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Meanwhile a spokesperson for the European Commission defended its position by stating that “the EU rejects any form of boycott or sanctions against Israel.”

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“It is a dark day for Germany and for Europe as a whole when Jews can no longer gather for prayer in their local synagogues on their holiest day in the year, Yom Kippur, without having to fear for their lives,” ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell said in a statement.  He continued, “Any deadly attack against Jewish targets needs to be condemned in the strongest possible way, but the fact that the perpetrators in yesterday’s attack were motivated by the same demonic ideology of National Socialism that only two generations ago led to the greatest crime against humanity shows that we are losing the fight against antisemitism.

“The rise of antisemitism has today reached such epidemic levels that it poses an existential threat to the very soul of Europe. We cannot build a future for Europe if we compromise with our foundations. As the new European Commission is being confirmed by the European Parliament in Brussels this week, they need to make the fight against antisemitism a top priority. ECI therefore calls upon the President designate of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen to immediately on her installation call together a European crisis summit in Brussels on the alarming rise of antisemitism.

“As we approach the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and the end of the Shoah we owe this to the six million Jews who were killed in the Nazi concentration camps for the simple fact that they were Jewish. Never again means now,” Sandell concluded.

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On Monday September 23rd the US government hosted a high-level UN summit on religious freedom where US President Donald Trump highlighted the challenges facing religious minorities around the world and called on the UN to take concrete action for the protection of religious freedom. At the seminar, Secretary-General Guterres mentioned the rise of antisemitism and the deadly attack at the synagogue in Pittsburgh last year as an expression of religious persecution.

On Friday September 27th, Brazil and Hungary co-hosted a seminar focusing specifically on the persecution of Christians worldwide with additional contributions from panellists from the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, the Holy See, the Philippines and Lebanon. The seminar concluded that while Christians make up the most persecuted religious community in the world, they have mostly been ignored by the international community with the exception of Israel which has raised the issue on the UN Security Council level.

British Secretary of State, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon summarized the seminar in saying that “religious persecution around the world is not only a Christian concern but a human concern”.

In bilateral meetings with government leaders throughout the week, ECI reminded them about the urgent need to address the rise of antisemitism by learning about the immense contributions of the Jewish culture to humanity. These concerns were echoed in a unique report issued earlier in the week by the UN Special Rapporteur for freedom of religion and belief, Ahmed Shaheed, who warned about the threat of rising antisemitism and called for the UN to take concrete action. The report recommends the creation of a new position at the office of the Secretary-General to help coordinate the global fight against antisemitism, and recognizes the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism as an important tool to help fight Jew hatred.

In its letter to the Secretary-General, ECI thanked the UN secretariat for the good cooperation over the years, which in 2016 led to the recognition of the Jewish religious holiday, Yom Kippur, as an official UN holiday. The recognition came about as a result of three years of campaigning by ECI and the Israeli government to prevent any important future UN meetings to be held on Jewish holidays.

“This is a small but important step in the better inclusion of the Jewish state in the family of nations,” the letter concluded.

The ECI delegation consisted of Gregory Lafitte, Tomas Sandell (picture) and J. Rudolf Geigy.

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The official program of the high-level week starts already on Monday with a Climate Action Summit where sixty world leaders are expected to speak. In a statement on Monday, ECI warned of another existential threat to the world community, namely the alarming spread of the deadly virus of antisemitism, which in some parts of the world has already reached epidemic levels. World leaders need to pay proper attention to this climate change of the hearts and minds of people which 80 years ago resulted in the Holocaust and subsequently in the creation of the United Nations in order to prevent similar human tragedies.

“But if Europe was the source of the problem 80 years ago, today we want to offer creative solutions,” ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell said.

In high-level meetings with government leaders from several continents, ECI will present a concrete proposal on how to stop the spread of this toxic scourge of antisemitism.

“The antidote to Jew-hatred is not passive tolerance but rather an active expression of appreciation and celebration of Jewish culture and its immense contribution to humanity as well as to the creation of the United Nations 74 years ago. As we approach the 75th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust and the creation of the UN, we need a two-fold strategy: better coordination in the global fight against antisemitism, at the same time as we highlight the immense contributions of the Jewish people to all the communities where they have settled throughout history, including in the reborn state of Israel,” ECI Director for UN affairs Gregory Lafitte said.

For the last seven years, ECI’s UN initiative, the Forum for Cultural Diplomacy, has worked in close partnership with the UN Secretariat to support a better inclusion of Israel in the family of nations by highlighting the universal messages of the Jewish holidays and their relevance for today. In 2014, ECI initiated, together with the Israeli government, a process which in 2016 led to the addition of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur as a floating UN holiday.

Last year, UN Secretary-General António Guterres participated in a Jewish New Year event which was co-hosted by ECI together with the Israeli Mission to the UN. During his term as Secretary-General of the UN, Guterres has often pointed out the tragic loss for Portugal after having expelled their Jewish communities in the 16th century, and as Prime Minister he has offered a historic apology.

The General Debate of the UNGA is scheduled for 24-30 September. The ECI delegation consists of J. Rudolf Geigy, Gregory Lafitte and Tomas Sandell.

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Whereas the UN sponsored NGO-conference against racism in Durban, South Africa in 2001 is widely believed to have been the launching pad for the BDS movement “the tide is now turning as the movement is pushed back on many fronts”, Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan said in his opening speech.

He went on to express his gratitude to the German parliament for its recent resolution, which calls out the BDS movement as anti-Semitic. The German parliament is backed up by world leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and British Prime Minister Theresa May who have all publicly condemned the BDS movement.

Many speakers noted that today the BDS movement has become a safe place for modern anti-Semites who are trying to whitewash their Jew hatred as criticism of the State of Israel.

“Anyone can criticise the policies of the government of Israel but when they openly seek the destruction of the Jewish state or try to compare the Israeli government to that to the Nazi regime, it is clearly anti-Semitic”, Erdan said. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism gives clear guidelines as to what constitutes legitimate criticism of the policies of the government of Israel on the one hand and what, on the other hand, is crossing the red line to become antisemitism.

European Coalition of Israel, together with Christians United for Israel (CUFI) and Eagles Wings from the USA had been invited to the conference to represent worldwide Christian support for the State of Israel. In a statement on Wednesday ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell said that “unity is of essence when fighting back against antisemitism and anti-Israeli sentiments in our time. This unity should include Christians and Jews of all strands working together as one, as well as people of other faiths and of no faith. In this battle Christian organisations can play a key role as many of the instigators of the modern BDS movement represented Christian NGOs and Church bodies.”

Today there are international campaigns orchestrated in order to erode Christian support for Israel in the Western world. Surveys reveal that the support for Israel among Jewish youth on college campuses in Northern America has never been weaker as the BDS movement seeks to involve Jewish youth in leadership positions. Similar trends can be seen on the Christian side. Still, Christian support for the State of Israel is growing at a rapid pace in the global south, representing the fastest growing segment of the church worldwide.

“If Christians and Jews are to preserve a solid support base for the State of Israel we need to win back our college campuses”, Sandell said.

“But instead of only accusing the BDS activists of antisemitism we should engage with them and help educate them”, he said. Many young activists today are simply misled as they have been influenced by the well-funded propaganda machine of the BDS movement, according to a recent study, worth $100 million of funding from private donors and governments during the period 2014-2017.

“Although we are winning on many fronts, the work is anything but over,” warned Minister Gilad Erdan. “But if we work together as one, we can push back these forces of hatred.”

“We are one”, was the theme of the conference, which featured numerous prominent speakers, among them, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, Chairman of the Jewish Agency Isaac Herzog and the US Special Envoy in the combat against antisemitism Elan Carr.

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Berlin, June 6th, 2019

“Germany without its Jewish population is not the same. Take away the German Jews from the list of German Nobel prize winners and the list suddenly gets significantly shorter,” he said.

He added, “Germany will continue to fight antisemitism and stand by its commitment for the safety and security of the State of Israel. These historical commitments are non-negotiable for every German government, regardless of background or political composition.”

During the meeting ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell shared how the Coalition was formed in Brussels in 2003 and how in April of 2004 he had participated in the OSCE conference on antisemitism in Berlin, hosted by the Germany government under then Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

“It was here in Berlin that we laid the foundation to our work, inspired by this German led conference. As a coalition we wish to see Germany at the core of any future activities, both on a government level and in relation to civil society,” Sandell said.

He added, “As Europeans we have a duty to share our collective experience and lessons learnt from the darkest chapters of our history so that we can prevent history from repeating itself.
But as long as we only fight antisemitism we will not succeed. It is when we recognise the immense positive value of our Jewish heritage and the many contributions of the Jewish people to our communities that we can find an antidote to Jew hatred.”

Wolfgang Schäuble is one of the most experienced and longest serving politicians in German history whose political career spans more than four decades. He became the president of the German parliament in 2017.

Today, Thursday, Sandell will have a private visit to the Jewish Museum in Berlin, hosted by the director of the Museum, Dr Peter Schäfer on the official invitation of President Schäuble. The Museum, which was opened in 2001, is the largest of its kind in Europe. It documents Jewish life in Germany spanning over a thousand years.

In 1933 Germany had a Jewish population of 565,000 people. In 1950 this number was down to 37,000. Today there are roughly 100,000 Jews living in Germany, among them some 12,000 Israeli citizens.

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Brussels, May 27th, 2019

The new European Parliament, which will be in office from 2019-2024, seems to be politically more fragmented than ever before. Based on the election results on Monday, the two leading party groups, the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats have lost some ground and are being challenged both from the EU-sceptics on the right and from a strong showing from liberal parties and the Greens.

“antisemitism starts with the Jews, but it never ends with the Jews. Now it is high time for all respectable forces throughout the political spectrum who care about the future of Europe to come together to fight this deadly disease,” ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell said on Monday.

European Coalition for Israel was founded in Brussels in 2003 at a critical time of rising antisemitism in Europe but with no organisation working at the EU-level to specifically counter this major threat to European democracy.

Much has happened since. New organisations have appeared on the scene, but antisemitism continues to pose a deadly threat to European Jewry. In 2015 the European Commission finally acknowledged the magnitude of the problem by appointing a special coordinator in the fight against antisemitism, Katharina von Schnurbein. Still to this day, ECI is the only non-Jewish advocacy group accredited to the European Union to combat Jew hatred.

“In this current climate of Jew hatred and bigotry it is important for the EU-decision makers to understand that the rise of antisemitism is of grave concern, not only to the Jewish communities, but to every European citizen who cares about the future of our continent,” Sandell said and added that “the next European Commission President must do more to combat antisemitism.”

Whereas former European Commission President José Manuel Barroso had Katharina von Schnurbein working directly under him in his own cabinet, when she was the EU-liaison for religious communities, the current Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has distanced himself from the portfolio.

“This is regrettable. We now need a Commission President who makes the fight against antisemitism a key priority and not a side issue”, Sandell concluded.

The first plenary session of the new European Parliament will take place on 2nd-4th July but already tomorrow, on Tuesday 28th May, the EU heads of state or government will meet for a summit in Brussels to discuss the outcome of the elections and start the nomination process for the next heads of the EU institutions. The new European Commission President is expected to be nominated in June.

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“Our main message ahead of the European Parliament elections is that we all need to pray and vote. The Bible urges us to “pray for all those in authority.” This is especially relevant at a time and age when we are entitled to vote in free and open elections for those who will be placed in authority,” ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell said in a statement on Monday.

He added, “there are good candidates across the party lines but for anyone who cares deeply about the safety and security of European Jewry and for the State of Israel there are several guiding principles that will help identify a suitable candidate, either by looking at the voting record of their respective political party group or by asking the candidates directly on their stances on the following questions.

– What is their opinion on the International Human Rights Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism that includes anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism?

– What is their view on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement which was just declared anti-Semitic by the German Bundestag?

– What is their opinion on ritual kosher slaughter and the right for Jews to circumcise their male babies at the eighth day of the infant’s life?

– Should EU-funding to the Palestinian Authority be conditioned on respecting fundamental rights and should there be a zero tolerance for incitement to hatred and violence?

“Good candidates can have different convictions and opinions on many issues, but these are critical questions which give a good indication on how they stand in relation to Israel and the Jewish people”, Sandell explained.

As Europe is facing existential challenges in the years ahead, many Christian leaders have called for prayer for the elections. In Sweden, the Pentecostal movement has just launched a national prayer campaign for the European Parliament elections. Also in Germany and the Netherlands Christian leaders have issued calls to pray for the elections.

* The polls will take place in the UK on May 23rd, 2019. Voters in Ireland turn out the following day. Those in the Czech Republic, Latvia, Malta and Slovakia vote on May 25 and the remaining 21 EU nations cast their ballots on May 26.
The results from every nation will be released on the evening of May 26 after the last polling station in the continent has closed.

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In a statement on Thursday, ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell said that “it is now high time that the European Union recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel.
There would be no Europe as it is today without the Jewish people. For over two thousand years Jewish communities across Europe have helped shape the continent to become the Europe that we live in today. During these same times Europe has been the most important continent for the Jewish people, where they have sometimes flourished as they built local communities, but at other times they have experienced severe persecution.”

It was in Basel, in 1897, that the vision for a Jewish state was first announced. It was in London in 1917 that the right of the Jewish people to a national home in Palestine was first recognized and later incorporated in to international law in Sanremo, Italy in 1920. Out of the four nations which signed the San Remo Resolution, three were Europeans: Britain, France and Italy.

“Given the long history of European-Jewish relations, the European Union should now mark these 60 years of diplomatic relations by officially recognizing Jerusalem as the rightful capital of the State of Israel”, Sandell said.

It was their constant prayer “next year in Jerusalem” which gave the Jewish people hope and kept their dreams alive as they suffered pogroms and discrimination in Europe through the centuries.

It is no coincidence that the name of the Jewish national movement for self-determination is called Zionism after their capital Jerusalem – Zion. No other people group have such strong bonds to their national capital as the Jewish people.

In a reception marking the first anniversary of the US Embassy move to Jerusalem on Tuesday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted that many people groups have lost their ancient homelands, just as the Jewish people did in AD 70. “But contrary to all other ethnic groups, the Jews never gave up their aspirations to one day return to Jerusalem. Unlike other people groups, they never conquered any other territory in order to make it their national home. When the Jewish people today are back in Jerusalem, with the same religion and the same language as 3000 years ago, it is unprecedented in human history and nothing short of a miracle”, he said.

During his four day visit to Jerusalem, Sandell attended the official reception to mark the first anniversary of the US Embassy move to Jerusalem on Tuesday night, hosted by the Friends of Zion Museum, and a one-day conference near to the Kotel (Western Wall) on Wednesday, hosted by the Latino Coalition for Israel.

On Thursday Sandell had a meeting with Israeli government officials in the Prime Minister´s Office in Jerusalem and on Friday he is scheduled to meet with the EU Ambassador to Israel, Emanuele Giaufret.

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