Gov't forum against anti-Semitism looks to become int'l coalition

This year's forum, to take place at the Foreign Ministry on Sunday and Monday, will bring together representatives from over 40 countries.

By HAVIV RETTIG GUR
Antisemitism 224.88 (photo credit: AP [file])
Antisemitism 224.88
(photo credit: AP [file])
The Foreign Ministry hopes that the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism, whose latest conference is being held this week in Jerusalem, will transform into an active coalition of governments and groups that will deal with anti-Semitism issues as an active, coordinated and international body. This year's forum, to take place at the Foreign Ministry on Sunday and Monday, will bring together representatives from over 40 countries, along with dozens of groups, academics and journalists, to examine anti-Semitism worldwide, develop a better understanding of the phenomenon and discuss governments' and organizations' responses to it. There is discussion of "having the forum wander the world, and take place in other countries," according to Aviva Raz-Shechter, director of the Foreign Ministry's Department for Combating Anti-Semitism and organizer of the parley. "The goal is clear to the participants," she says, "and the fact that they came together already counts as a coalition. Now the question is how the coalition functions and whether it becomes relevant and active in the field. It's possible that because of the serious participation in the current forum we'll see a more active body develop." The forum, chaired by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Anti-Semitism Isaac Herzog, will meet to discuss phenomena associated with different types of anti-Semitism and what can be done about them worldwide. Some 300 participants include representatives from over 40 countries. In attendance will be Maqsood Ahmed, senior advisor on Muslim communities in the Department for Communities and Local Government of the UK; Gregg Rickman, special envoy who deals with Anti-Semitism at the US State Department; German MP Petra Pau, vice president of Germany's Bundestag, and many others. Jewish community leaders will also attend from all over the world, including Germany, France, the UK, Russia, Holland, the US and Canada, and even Venezuela. The conference will focus heavily on legal issues, with Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein; Canadian MP and law professor Irwin Cotler; UK legal scholar Anthony Julius and Hungarian Supreme Court president Dr. Zoltan Lomnici, among others, expected to speak.