Contemporary Anti-racists and the problem of fighting

antisemitism By Ronald Eissens

SPEECH GIVEN BY Ronald EISSENS TO THE NGO PREPARATORY MEETING FOR THE OSCE
CONFERENCE ON ANTISEMITISM IN BERLIN,
APRIL 28-29, 2004

WORKSHOP I
CIVIL SOCIETY FIGHTING BACK AGAINST ANTISEMITISM
On November 9 last year the Jewish Community of the Netherlands organized a Kristallnacht
remembrance, as a reaction on the growing antisemitism in society. Up until 2003, the annual
Kristallnacht remembrance in Amsterdam had been used (and sometimes abused) by
antiracism and left wing NGOs to promote several causes, sometimes displaying signs and
behaviour that was not appropriate for occasions like that.The Jewish Community, never very
comfortable with what is after all a typical German remembrance, decided to take matters in
their own hands last year. The Kristallnacht remembrance of 2002 ended in anti-Israel
speeches by a known antisemite. That should not happen again. So November 9, 2003
turned out to be a good and dignified remembrance and protest against antisemitism, with
speakers from the Jewish Community, the Muslim community and the City of Amsterdam.
A number of (mainly Jewish) NGOs supported, but the traditionally left-wing antiracism
community and other left wing NGOs took the opportunity to not
only organize a
manifestation in another part of town against the so-called apartheid wall in Israel, but also
openly warned people against
participating in the 'Jewish' Kristallnacht remembrance,
portraying it as an Ultra-right wing and Zionist event, 'which will be very different from
Kristallnacht remembrances in the past'. This sums up the problems with the Dutch and
European anti-racism scene and the action-oriented left-wingers. They pay lip service to the
fight against antisemitism, they say they want to combat it -but without Jews. The nasty
rhetoric around the Kristallnacht remembrance prompted me to write an article in which I
stated that anti-racism organisations seemed to
prefer their Kristallnacht remembrance
Judenrein'. For that I was branded a Zionist, a mossad-agent and an Israel-lover, and not for
the first time. All this should not surprise me after the events during the WCAR in Durban
in 2002. I will not go into that, since I can talk about it for hours. This workshop is called
'CIVIL SOCIETY FIGHTING BACK AGAINST ANTISEMITISM'
So is civil society fighting back? After the Shoah, Dutch society -and if I'm very much
mistaken this goes for the rest of Europe as well- still had antisemitic undertones -and
sometimes overtones. For 55 years it was not very politically correct to express antisemitism,
and those who did mainly
were old and new nazi's, extreme-right individuals who were
marginalized by society for their opinions. Meanwhile the breeding ground was still there
and if you listened closely during left-wing gatherings or meetings you could sometimes hear
criticism of 'Zionism', 'Those who support the Zionist state' and 'those capitalists that work
for the interest of the U.S.and Israel'. All code words for Jews. It took until the beginning of
the new millennium before the real trouble began, and after 9/11, the start of the second
intifada and the WCAR in Durban it is no longer a taboo within the far-left to express
antisemitism cloaked or disguised as 'anti-Zionism', 'Pro-Palestine' or 'anti-capitalist' rhetoric.

Left-wing organisations go hand in hand with extreme and fundamentalist NGOs like the
Arab European League and others, sporting swastikas and demanding from the Jewish
Community that they should distance themselves' from Israel. Not from Israeli politics or
policy, no, from Israel. At the same time they say that Palestine should be liberated and that
Israel has no right to exist. That's what I call a genocidal mindset, coming from people who
say that they are against antisemitism. So what are the Dutch Jewish NGOs doing? Most of
them are doing excellent work, monitoring and combating antisemitism, protecting the
Jewish community, doing outreach. Like the Centre for Information and Documentation
Israel, which monitors antisemitic incidents, and the Central Jewish Consultative Committee,
which does a lot of outreach work. The Jewish community is not being silent, not being
passive. But more could be done. Just last week a spokesmen of the Dutch Jewish Youth, Itai
Gross, held a speech during the Yom Hashoa service in Amsterdam and said: 'Being passive
has never brought us anything. As we see things happen around us with which we don't
agree, let's fight against those'.The mainstream non-Jewish antiracism NGOs speak out
against antisemitism once in a while but are very reluctant to do so, and are even more
reluctant to openly speak about where it originates today. Since antisemitism no longer
comes only from neo-nazis but also from left-wingers and radical Muslims, anti-racism
organizations have a problem. A double
problem really, since the antiracism sector
traditionally has its roots in the left, and antiracism has always been about promulticulturalism and the protection of migrants. Now all of a sudden antisemitism coming
from traditional allies shatters the dream and upsets the cosy stability.Then there is the
balancing act that Dutch government and politicians face.Trying to fight antisemitism and
'keeping everybody together' as Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen says. Fear of public unrest or
race riots, the guilty memories of the collaboration of many Dutch with the Nazis, fear of
being branded anti-Muslim or a racist, it all adds to the impotency of Dutch politicians when
it comes to antisemitism. Sometimes this translates into 'blaming the victim' behaviour. You
can see it on faces and sometimes hear it in the corridors of power: 'those bothersome Jews
again '. I can tell you lots of stories of how antisemitism is still present in Dutch society, but I
will keep it to one anecdote. During a side event at an OSCE Parliamentary Assembly session
last year in Rotterdam, after a heated debate on antisemitism with the American delegation, I
overheard a Dutch Parliamentarian remarking to a friend: 'That's why I don't like the
Americans, they're being controlled by the Jews'. Right now there are only two Dutch nonJewish NGOs which, on a regular basis, speak out loudly and clearly against antisemitism.
That's my own organisation, Magenta Foundation, and the Fabel van de Illegaal, a Dutch
refugee & illegal immigrant rights NGO. De Fabel van de Illegaal is left-wing but strongly
against antisemitism, a rare species these days. The result is that they're called Zionists,
Sharon-henchmen, and friends of the new Nazi state. They wanted to come to this conference
but unfortunately were not able to do so. To come back to Magenta Foundation, we take on
any kind of racism or discrimination, wherever it comes from, whoever perpetrates it. We
really don't care. So we are always under fire, if not from the ultra-right, then from the ultraleft. I vividly remember the outcries from left-wing and Moroccan radicals last year when we
went after the websites of Indymedia Netherlands and Maroc.nl, since those spread
antisemitic and revisionist texts and images. Never since the Shoah were Jews in the
Netherlands treated in the way they are now. Antisemitism coming from the extreme-right,
with acts like desecration of Jewish cemeteries and arson-attempts, Holocaust denial and
antisemitic rhetoric on the Internet, Moroccan boys who threaten Jews or perceived Jews,
boys who do not want to talk about the Shoah at school, who do not want to hear the word
'Jew' in class and who learn from their friends, their parents, certain Moroccan web forums
and the Arab satellite TV stations that Jews are enemies that should be killed. 'The Jews, the
dirty Jew, the dirty Jews which should be killed' as a Turkish-Moroccan rap-song goes that is

being disseminated through the Internet. Of course I'm not talking about the majority of
Moroccans here. Unfortunately there is a very loud minority that is openly antisemitic and
uses 'solidarity with the Palestinian-Arab brothers in their struggle
against the Israeli
apartheidsregime' as an excuse. The new excuse, Israel.The old crime, antisemitism. Old
vinegar in new bottles. So what to do with the antiracism organisations? How to push them
into action? How to sensitise them? I have given up on most of the left-wing NGOs. But let's
try to save the mainstream organizations. Leadership from International Human Rights NGOs
might help here. Since Durban, a number of those have concluded that antisemitism is indeed
back with a vengeance and they are willing and able to work on it. I take this opportunity to
mention the just-released report Antisemitism in Europe - Challenging Official Indifference,
by Human Rights First, a U.S.-based International NGO that also works in Europe. The
Jewish Community is suspicious of the antiracism and Human Rights NGOs, and rightly so,
but bridges need to be build. The Jacob Blaustein Institute for the advancement of Human
Rights has been in the forefront of that by organizing seminars that deal with the topic of
Jewish and non-Jewish NGOs fighting antisemitism together, and I think that is certainly a
way to go. So, what I think is needed is:

- Jewish and non-Jewish NGOs, should try to agree on a definition of

antisemitism

- Jewish and non-Jewish NGOs should jointly agree on the importance of fighting
antisemitism together, in the form of a declaration. This can
set an example.
- As Jewish NGOs, speak out against all forms of discrimination, noting that right now in
Europe (institutional) Islamophobia is also a large problem
- Show solidarity, If the hand is not taken, at least the attempt was there and this also
sets a good example and it can be a very small start of a process.