New York Times - 06.21.2003

 

 

New York Times

In Austria, an International Conference Examines a New Kind of Anti-Semitism

By RICHARD BERNSTEIN

VIENNA, June 20 - In 1938, after Germany annexed Austria, Hitler addressed a cheering crowd from a balcony at the Hofburg royal palace here, a fact much noted by participants in the first major international conference devoted exclusively to the subject of anti-Semitism. 

The two-day meeting, which ended today at the palace, brought together the 55 member countries of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, including a delegation of members of Congress and Jewish leaders from the United States, led by the former mayor of New York, Rudolph W. Giuliani. 

The overall theme of the meeting was a new kind of anti-Semitism - a virulent hybrid derived from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and old anti-Jewish stereotypes that many believed had long faded into history. 

"We are witnessing an old-new, escalating, global and even lethal anti-Semitism," Irwin Cotler, a Canadian member of Parliament, said in a speech to the conference today. Its chief characteristic, Mr. Cotler and other delegates argued, is that it singles out Israel for criticism and condemnation beyond any other nation, and asserts that a Jewish homeland, by its nature and the nature of its citizens, violates the rights of others. 

"It is anti-Semitism under the banner of human rights at a time when human rights is the new secular religion," Mr. Cotler said. 

In recent years, European countries, in particular, have experienced new waves of anti-Jewish attacks, many of them carried out by young immigrants from North Africa against synagogues and cemeteries in France. The French government, in a move that was widely praised here, has passed new legislation giving greater powers to the police to crack down on hate crimes. 

"We have seen a level of anxiety in Europe that we hadn't seen in a very long time," Andrew Baker, a rabbi and member of the American delegation, said in an interview. 

The conference was initially suggested by members of the Parliamentary Commission, a group of legislators from several countries, which proposed it to the United States Department of State. From that point, according to members of the American delegation, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell pressed the idea against considerable resistance from other states, which argued that anti-Semitism should be taken up in the context of racism and discrimination generally, rather than as a separate subject. 

"Plenty of people came in here kicking and screaming and with the idea that, O.K., we've done it, rather than with the idea of really drawing some lessons," Rabbi Baker, director of international affairs for the American Jewish Committee in Washington, told delegates today. 

The conference itself consisted largely of statements by delegates and members of the many nongovernmental organizations present. There was almost no debate, nor were there authoritative presentations on the level of anti-Semitism or anti-Semitic violence around the world. 

Controversial ideas were raised, but not debated. For example, several delegates said that governments should control publications and Web sites that promote anti-Semitism. One delegate, Jean Kahn, president of the Union of French Jewish Communities, argued that Al Jazeera, the Arab television network, fomented anti-Semitism and its broadcasts should be suppressed. 

The proliferation of anti-Semitic Web sites, and the power of the Internet to spread hate, were general themes of the conference. 

"Hypertexts and cybertexts are mostly imitations through which the social deviancy present in society speaks," Jacques Picard, a professor at the University of Basel told the conferees. His point was that, while the ideas expressed on anti-Semitic Internet sites are generally very old - assertions of Jewish conspiracies and crimes and so on - they can be disseminated more easily than ever before. The Internet, Mr. Picard added, also protects hate mongers who use it. 

"What's new here is that the internet disseminates these ideas with the protection of anonymity," Mr. Picard said. "Anonymity should be lifted." 

Ultimately, the significance of the gathering, for many, was that it put recent violence against Jews and Jewish institutions, especially in Europe, on the international agenda. 

In that sense, the signal event was the invitation from the German ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation, Dieter Boden, to hold a follow-up meeting in Berlin next year. 

"It's truly historic," Mr. Giuliani said during the final session, referring to the prospect that the two most important centers of Jewish persecution in Europe will be where the organization's member countries meet to combat the new anti-Semitism.