What are the driving forces of modern anti-Semitism? This is the question that will be discussed at the conference in Jerusalem, organized by the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora and the Fight against Anti-Semitism.
Who are among the invited guests
However, the list of invited guests has provoked sharp criticism - as it includes the most prominent far-right politicians in Europe. Among the invited are the party leader of the right-wing radical “National Assembly“ in France, Jordan Bardella, a representative of Viktor Orbán's “Fidesz“ party in Hungary, and an MEP from the far-right Swedish party. The president of the Republika Srpska in Bosnia, Milorad Dodik, considered a friend of Putin, is also expected. And the biggest star of the conference is likely to be Argentine President Javier Milley. What the guests have in common is their closeness to the Israeli government. And their anti-Muslim positions.
The host is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Minister of Diaspora Amichai Shikli. Selected guests will also attend a reception with President Yitzhak Herzog.
Alliance of the far-right against Islam?
The program indicates that the topic of anti-Semitism will be mainly Islamic anti-Semitism: “How Radical Islam Fuels Western Anti-Semitism“. And in the person of Milorad Dodik, an invited guest who denies the massacre of Muslims by Bosnian Serbs in Srebrenica in 1995 is a Serbian nationalist who was sentenced to arrest in February 2025 for not complying with international regulations.
The program does not include discussions on the connection between right-wing extremism and anti-Semitism. And researchers of anti-Semitism and Jewish organizations have been warning for years about the dangerous rise of the far right, which poses a threat to Jewish life worldwide.
The invitation to far-right politicians has provoked sharp criticism. “Whoever convenes a conference against anti-Semitism cannot invite anti-Semites who spread the poison of prejudice and hatred“, German lawyer Michel Friedmann told DW. He is a former president of the European Jewish Congress and was on the presidium of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
„Netanyahu's government is acting increasingly recklessly and is looking for coalitions that are simply unbearable. It is known that the relationship with Viktor Orbán in Hungary is also important to him. This government is moving more and more in a far-right direction, which is very dangerous for Israel“, Friedman believes.
Many refusals due to far-right participants
Many in Europe share this criticism. A number of invited guests have refused to attend - such as the head of the American organization “Anti-Defamation League“ Jonathan Greenblatt and the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy.
Felix Klein, the Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life and the Fight against Anti-Semitism, has also sent a refusal. Here is how he explains his reasons to DW: “My refusal is due to the fact that I do not want to participate in the same conference with people with whom the Jewish communities in the diaspora do not maintain contact“.
The president of the German-Israeli Society, Volker Beck, who will also not be attending, wrote to DW the following: “I was struck by the fact that almost only parliamentarians from far-right parties were invited to the conference. Many of these parties do not respect the Jewish religion in their own countries“.
Indulgence for right-wing extremists?
The conference is a serious problem for Jewish communities in Europe, wrote the president of the European Jewish Congress, Ariel Musicant, in the “Jerusalem Post“. “The far-right politicians are not participating in the conference out of love for Israel or in defense of the Jews, but mainly to gain a kind of indulgence.“
According to Michael Brenner, professor of Jewish history and culture at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, the conference represents a capitulation to the right. “In Jewish communities outside Israel, which feel under increasing pressure due to verbal and physical attacks directed at them, there is a growing tendency to perceive right-wing and anti-Muslim forces as allies in the fight against terror,“ Brenner analyzes. “In doing so, they forget that these far-right hate both Muslims and Jews, who are also on their blacklist.“
The government of Prime Minister Netanyahu is often at the center of criticism. The Diaspora Alliance, an organization that opposes anti-Semitism and its instrumentalization, has long criticized the Netanyahu government for using the accusation of anti-Semitism to delegitimize criticism of government policy.
The conference has also drawn criticism in Israel itself. In a hearing before the Knesset's Migration and Integration Committee, representatives of the Jewish diaspora criticized the government for not coordinating with them the invitations of far-right politicians. The Diaspora Ministry responded by saying that it had invited representatives of different political currents.
„United in the fight against anti-Semitism“
In response to a query from DW, Diaspora Ministry spokesman Gilad Zwick defended the choice of guests: „The event welcomes guests from different countries and with different political views. They are all united by one goal: the uncompromising fight against anti-Semitism and the delegitimization of Israel“. He denied that many people had refused to participate.
Protests against the government have been taking place in Israel for days now. The government's opponents accuse it of failing to negotiate the release of hostages taken by Hamas. They are also protesting the resumption of fighting in the Gaza Strip.
According to Michel Friedman, the protests are a good sign. "This country is at war, and yet people protest against the government every day," he told DW.
Authors: Hans Pfeiffer | Tanya Kremer