New York, September 25th, 2023

In a joint statement on Monday the two Co-Founders of Forum for Cultural Diplomacy (FCD), Gregory Lafitte and Tomas Sandell said, “The overriding theme in the speeches made at this year’s UN General Debate has been the acknowledgment of the fact that the international system is broken. The Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur provides a unique opportunity for a reset. Through self-reflection, sincere repentance and by asking for forgiveness, not only individuals but also nations can begin the year on a clean slate.”

Yom Kippur was recognized as an official UN holiday only in 2016 after ECI had presented the idea to the Israeli government in 2013 and then worked together with the Israeli Permanent Representation to the UN for over two years to ask member states to support the proposal.

In past years FCD has co-hosted Tashlich ceremonies at the UN Rose Garden in New York together with the Israeli Permanent Mission where the sins of the past year, symbolized by breadcrumbs, have been tossed into the East River by UN diplomats. The Jewish ritual, which is based on the Book of Micah, has featured both current Secretary-General António Guterres and former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

In this year’s private meetings on the sidelines of the UNGA the FCD team has met with government leaders and senior diplomats to present them with the launch issue of the Old New Jewish Review which is the official journal of the UN Group of Friends of the Jewish Culture. The aim of the group, which has brought together member states from all continents, is to explore the many contributions of the Jewish culture to humanity and to celebrate the universal values and principles which are expressed in the Jewish High Holidays, such as Yom Kippur, and which have later been incorporated as universal values in the UN charter.

ECI travelled to the UNGA High-Level week for the first time in 2011 and has since attended most of the annual sessions except for the years of the pandemic when meetings were severely restricted. As of 2014 the work at the UN goes under the name of Forum for Cultural Diplomacy. The FCD team will return to Europe on Tuesday, one day after Yom Kippur.

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“Many Christians know about Jerusalem from the Bible but not everyone has had the chance to personally visit Israel’s capital. This is our way of bringing Jewish life and culture in Jerusalem home to thousands of people from around the world”, says ECI Communications Officer Rebeka Goba who is the producer and presenter of the video clips. She continues,
“It is important that we can introduce Israel and Jerusalem to a younger generation which may not have been exposed to Jewish life and culture in the same way as previous generations.”

The video clips have already been an instant success. Thousands and thousands of viewers who otherwise do not attend Israel related meetings at home have discovered another side of Israel that they can relate to via various social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.

The campaign comes only some months after an estimated ten million people prayed for Israel in what was called The Isaiah 62 Fast.
“It is important that we as believers are connected to the city that gave us our faith”, says ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell. “This is also our way of expressing our appreciation of the Jewish people for having faithfully been the custodians of the Bible for thousands of years, thus enabling us to discover biblical truths today. Furthermore, it is an important antidote to historical distortions, such as the recent UNESCO initiative to declare Jericho a Palestinian heritage site. Only by reconnecting to the land and culture of Israel can we avoid these kind of replacement theories”, he said.

You can follow the campaign on our social media accounts (the icons can be found both at the upper and lower part of this page).

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Jerusalem, September 7th, 2023

Congratulating Prime Minister James Marape (picture) for his courage to open an embassy in Jerusalem despite pressure from the international community, ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell called upon European nations to adhere to conventional protocol in international relations in accepting the right of a sovereign nation to choose its own capital. He noted that in the case of Israel, the Jewish connection to their spiritual and national capital Jerusalem, stretches more than 3000 years. It has never been the capital of any other nation, he said.

In his speech Prime Minister Marape explained why this Pacific Island nation made the conscious decision to become only the fifth nation to move its embassy to Jerusalem, quoting his Christian faith and saying that “Jerusalem is the universal capital of the people and nation of Israel.”

Apart from the United States, Guatemala, Honduras and Kosovo, who presently have embassies in Jerusalem, several other nations have indicated their desire to also open embassies in Jerusalem, among then EU member states Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic.

European Coalition for Israel was represented in the inauguration ceremony by Founding Director Tomas Sandell, Director for UN Affairs, Gregory Lafitte, and Communications Officer Rebeka Goba.

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Jerusalem, September 1st, 2023

In a statement in Jerusalem on Friday, where the international board of the European Coalition for Israel is currently meeting, he said: “No single event after the end of the Second World War has contributed more to the resurgence of antisemitism than this conference. Behind the noble cause of fighting racism, murky but powerful forces managed to divert the attention away from fighting racism to simply blaming the Jews. The late Congressman Tom Lantos has rightly described the treatment of Jews in Durban in September 2001 as ‘the worst display of antisemitism after the Second World War’. Today we know how, among others, the Islamic regime in Tehran managed to manipulate civil society organizations, including churches, into demonizing Israel and the Jews.”

Still today we see the devastating consequences of the conference on college campuses around the world through the so called “Apartheid week” where Jewish students are being harassed for showing support for Israel. In Christian circles the so-called Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme has effectively influenced a new generation of Christian activists in believing that Israel is the only obstacle to peace in the Middle East. Both initiatives were launched in Durban.

Sandell continues, “As we mark this sad anniversary, we need to remain vigilant against new forms of deception. Over the summer Islamic clerics and government representatives from Tehran have been warmly received at the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva whereas the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) has joined forces with Iran, Pakistan and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to discuss ‘the role of religion in protecting human rights’ despite the fact that the co-organizers are some of the worst human rights violators and persecutors of Christians in the whole world.”

“When Christian organizations turn a blind eye to the persecutions of fellow believers it usually goes hand in hand with also turning their backs on the Jews”, Tomas Sandell said.
Neither organization, WCC or WEA, have to date adopted the IHRA working definition on antisemitism but have instead remained highly critical of the State of Israel. There have, however, been no protests over the fact that the Islamic Republic of Iran will soon chair the UN Human Rights Council’s upcoming Social Summit *) despite its continuous human rights violations, its support of international terrorism and persecution of Christians in Iran. ECI calls upon the Iranian Chair, Ambassador Ali Bahreini, to immediately step down from his position to restore faith in the legitimacy of the UN Human Rights Council.

Furthermore, European Coalition for Israel calls upon the World Council of Churches and the World Evangelical Alliance to show their unwavering support for the persecuted church in Iran as well as for Iranian women and youth who are currently out on the streets, risking their lives, for simply exercising their fundamental rights and freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Only by removing the current chair of the Social Summit can the objectives of the summit be given a fair and proper attention.

*) The upcoming Social Forum takes place in Geneva on 2-3 November and focuses on “the contribution of science, technology, and innovation to promoting human rights, including in the context of post-pandemic recovery”.

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The recommendation, which is drafted by Swedish Socialist MEP Evin Incir, takes a very critical line against the Israeli government whereas the Palestinian Authority, which has been the subject of much discontent within the European Parliament in recent years, gets a free pass. In one of the most appalling clauses the recommendation urges the Palestinian Authority to release all political prisoners, which include convicted terrorist operatives from EU black-listed terror groups such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

However, a proposal from the extreme left to remove these same terrorist organizations from the EU black list did not get the required support of the other parties.

The recommendation, which was adopted by 41 votes in favor and 21 opposed and with 9 abstentions also called for the EU to help the International Criminal Court to prosecute Israel for war crimes.

In a statement on Wednesday, ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell promised to continue raising awareness of the flaws of the proposed recommendation before it reaches the plenary session of the European parliament for a final vote either next month or in the first plenary session in September at the latest.
“Europe cannot compromise on its core values and principles by continuing to turn a blind eye on Palestinian terrorism and its culture of hate and incitement”, he said.

In April ECI issued the first comprehensive vote ranking on the national parties represented in the European Parliament and their views on Israel.

“We will continue to keep a close eye on how these various party groups vote in the next plenary session as we prepare for a new vote ranking ahead of next year’s elections to the European Parliament in June, Sandell concluded.

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In a telephone conversation with the European Coalition for Israel on Thursday, the convening chair of the new network, MEP David Lega from Sweden emphasised the great potential of the Abraham Accords for the Middle East as a whole. “When the treaty establishing the Coal and Steal Community was signed by Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Netherlands in 1952 it was not clear to everyone that this treaty would lay the foundation for the longstanding peace project that would later become the European Union. I believe the Abraham Accords have the same potential to transform the Middle East”, he said.

“Expanding the Circle of Peace” was the theme of ECI’s 20th anniversary symposium in the European Parliament in March where MEP Lega was one of the keynote speakers together with the new network’s co-chair MEP Nicola Beer and vice chair MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen. At the conference Lega called upon the European Union to sign the Abraham Accords as a symbolic gesture of support. This is one of the five objectives of the new network which also include promoting understanding of the importance of the Abraham Accords, reacting to EU proposals and reports, formulating its own proposals and policy initiatives as well as joining forces with similar parliamentary caucuses around the world.

In a concept paper spelling out the vision of the new network, it reads that the Abraham Accords are based on mutual understanding and coexistence, as well as respect for human dignity and freedom, notably religious freedom.

In a statement on Thursday, ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell congratulated the initiators of the new network with a reminder of one of the conclusions of ECI’s 20th anniversary symposium in March: if peace through closer cooperation was possible in Europe it can also happen in the Middle East!

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ECI was represented at the March of Life in Geneva on Sunday by Dr Gregory Lafitte who spoke at the Place des Nations, alongside the Israeli Ambassador to Switzerland, Ifat Reshef and Hillel Neuer from UN Watch. In his message Lafitte spoke about the significance of the Jewish holiday of Purim in understanding modern antisemitism and suggested a threefold antidote to Jew hatred.

“The first key is fasting, weeping and wailing, an attitude of humility”, he said. “The second key is to listen to the millenary narrative of the Wandering Jew, and to keep telling this to our children. The third key is to be found in the question asked by the King in the story of Esther; what recognition have we given for what Mordechai has done for us?” Lafitte concluded by asking , “Could it be that King’s question provides the core of an antidote to the deadly scourge of antisemitism?”

In a separate statement in Helsinki ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell added, “The church should be the first to repent for its open and latent antisemitism throughout the centuries. Instead, many church bodies are still reluctant to adopt the IHRA working definition on antisemitism as it points out that anti-Zionism is also a form of antisemitism.”

Many Christian denominations have a long history of anti-Israel rhetoric which culminated at the UN World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa in September 2001. Most western nations have since distanced themselves from the conference which many historians consider the launching pad for modern antisemitism. Still, international church bodies such as the Geneva based World Council of Churches has not backed down from its support.

Sandell concluded, “Whereas many progressives have a problem with the State of Israel, there are also those on the political right who support the State of Israel while at the same time have difficulties relating to their own Jewish communities. This is often expressed in the open embrace of various conspiracy theories which put Jews at the front and centre of all things evil. As an organization we want to condemn all forms of antisemitism, regardless of theological or political connotations.”

The Isaiah 62 Fast will conclude on May 28 when up to 100 million Christians are expected to join the prayer initiative.

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Brussels, April 26th, 2023

“As the voting records in the European Council, where the EU Foreign Ministers meet and make formal decisions in relation to Israel, are not open to the public, the only way to measure how parties and nations relate to Israel is to look at the voting records in the European Parliament which is the only directly elected political body in the European Union,” ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell explains.

The results, which were presented in the European Parliament on Tuesday night, on the eve of Israel’s 75th Independence Day, do not come as a surprise to anyone who has studied EU-Israel relations over the years.

The biggest support for Israel can be found among parties on the right of the centre in the European Parliament. The most pro-Israel of all political groups is the European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR), followed by Identity and Democracy (ID), the European People’s Party (EPP) and the liberal Renew group. The further one gets to the political left the more critical are the attitudes towards Israel with Spanish government coalition partner Podemos scoring the lowest of all parties, that is 0 percent (!) in support for Israel of the 71 votes which were analysed. Three of the four least supportive parties in the European Parliament are Spanish left-wing parties.

“This result is a combination of two factors,” Sandell explains. As a typical populist left-wing party Podemos is highly critical of Israel. Combined with the fact that it originates from Spain, which has a history of anti-Israel rhetoric, it is not a surprise that it ends up last on the list. Still, looking at individual countries it is not Spain but rather Ireland which is the least supportive of Israel.

The same logic is true for the parties which score the highest support for Israel. The Civic Democratic Party from Czech Republic does not only represent a long-held tradition of Czech support for Israel, but this is amplified by the fact that the party is politically situated on the right.

“The idea with the study is not to explain why the parties vote in a particular way but simply to present hard facts,” Sandell clarifies. Still, the survey gives interesting reading for all national constituencies. While Ireland ends up last on the list on its support for Israel, followed by Spain, support for Israel is more common in the new EU member states. Among the four largest EU member states, Italy and Poland score some of the highest points in support for Israel, which is also symptomatic for the fact that they are currently governed by the right-wing parties.

The ranking, which is planned to be released annually, comes only one year ahead of the next European Parliament elections.
“Despite its limitations, the matrix is an important first step to a more informed debate about EU-Israel relations,” Sandell explains and concludes, “It is a right of the EU-citizens to know how their national parties vote on issues related to Israel. This does not only contribute to a better and more informative debate, but it also strengthens EU participatory democracy.”

You can find the report on European Parliament Israel ranking here.

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New York, April 12th, 2023

This shared holiday would have provided a unique opportunity for people of different faiths to show their love and respect for each other as they and their families celebrated their holidays. Sadly, instead we witnessed the eruption of violence on the Temple Mount by Palestinian extremists and a wave of antisemitic terror attacks leading to the killing of Lucy, Rina and Maya Dee in the settlement of Jordan valley in Judea while Italian tourist Alessandro Parini was killed in another terror attack in Tel Aviv.

The European Coalitions for Israel calls upon leaders of all three faiths, as well as government leaders, to condemn this current wave of violence and killings by Palestinian terrorists. In a statement in New York on Tuesday evening ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell said,
“The city of Jerusalem is unique in that it guarantees the freedom of worship for all three monotheistic religions. This freedom of religion however should not be misused by using places of worship for stirring up violence or hiding explosives. Furthermore, it is important to remember that this freedom did not exist under the Jordanian occupation from 1949-1967 but was only introduced after Israel gained control over the Old City of Jerusalem in the Six Day War in 1967. The Israeli government should be commended for maintaining this unique freedom of worship while keeping the Temple Mount safe for worshippers.

It is important however to point out that the Palestinian terrorists who killed the four people this past weekend are not representative for the majority of the Muslims living in the region. The recent terror and rocket attacks fired at civilian population in Israel are clearly orchestrated by the Islamic regime in Tehran and its terrorist proxies in the region. It is high time for the international community to call out those who are responsible for the latest wave of violence and make them accountable for the lost lives. If the European Union wants to prevent another major regional flash point from erupting into a full-scale war it will have to take immediate action by adding the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to the terrorist list as called for by members of the European parliament and a growing number of member states.

As the Abraham Accords have proven in recent years, religion does not have to be a source of conflict and violence but can instead help build peace and coexistence, as stated in the joint declaration from the First Abraham Accords Global Leadership Summit in Rome in December. ECI remains fully committed to these shared Abrahamic values but will continue to call out religious extremists and radicals of all religious persuasions who break this bond of peace”, Sandell concluded.

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Danish MEP Anders Vistisen noted that the Supreme Court in Israel has taken a more active role in the legislative process than what is the case in most other democracies, including in his native Denmark where the Supreme Court has only interfered in the legislative process once in its whole history! The Israeli Supreme Court on the other hand has cancelled 32 Knesset laws just in the last thirty years.

Still, in order to make constitutional reforms one needs to seek a broad consensus, something which is apparently missing in Israel society today, Vistisen said. Speaking from a Nordic perspective he therefore recommended a process of broad consensus which would guarantee the support of the judicial reform also by subsequent governments, regardless of their political compositions. But he also added that this is something for the Israeli citizens to work out and not for any outsiders such as the European Union to interfere.

Answering a direct question from program host Yossi Lempkowicz if the proposed judicial reform is posing a threat to the vibrant Israeli democracy, as has been suggested by the protestors, ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell answered that the future of Israeli democracy has to be decided in open and democratic elections and not by those who are screaming the loudest on the streets of Tel Aviv, by trade unions who are shutting down the international airport or by influential media pundits who are critical of the current government.

However, Sandell agreed with MEP Vistisen that there needs to be a broad consensus for the current judicial reforms. He was confident that a compromise can be reached if all parties show good will. The current situation is not an option as it poses a national security threat to the Jewish state at the same time as it puts into questions the stability of Israeli society as a whole which is a prerequisite for the success of the Start-up Nation and the financial system.

But the current unrest is not unique for Israel, Sandell added. In France President Emmanuel Macron is currently opposed by violent street demonstrators for having pushed through an unpopular pension reform in the national Parliament. Also other leading Western democracies are challenged by similar trends as those in Israel and France.

Therefore, those who are criticising Israel from the outside are simply throwing stones in their own glass houses, Tomas Sandell concluded.

You can watch the newly released European report here.

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