The Anti-Defamation League withdrew its participation from Israel’s International Conference on Combating Antisemitism, according to a spokesperson, joining the ranks of attendees who have pulled out over some of the guests and speakers invited by the government.
“In light of some of the recently announced participants at the Israeli government’s antisemitism conference, [ADL CEO] Jonathan [Greenblatt] decided last week that he would no longer be attending the event, and he notified the Israeli government about the decision after the weekend.”
The March 26-27 conference was intended to gather experts, government officials, civil society groups, Jewish community leaders, and academics in Jerusalem to address the challenges of post-October 7 antisemitism, but the inclusion of right-wing European politicians such as Jordan Bardella, president of France’s National Rally, and Hermann Tertsch, vice president of the European Parliament’s Patriots for Europe group, has led to disconcertion among other participants.
Former ADL head Abe Foxman said the invitation of “authoritarian neo-fascist political parties” legitimized them and made the conference about the participants rather than antisemitism.
“Israel’s government’s first responsibility is to protect its country and citizens, and [its] second [is] to defend Jews around the world. This conference is more about the first and less sensitive to the second,” said Foxman. “The Diaspora [Affairs] Ministry should have consulted Jewish leadership of those European countries [on] whom to invite.”
Withdrawal from the conference
UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, British politician and antisemitism adviser Lord John Mann, and Goldsmiths, University of London professor David Hirsh announced their withdrawal from the event on Monday. Haaretz reported on Friday that French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy and German antisemitism “czar” Felix Klein had canceled their attendance.
Former Bundestag member Volker Beck said on X/Twitter on Friday that he was withdrawing because he did not find the conference to reflect the democratic values that informed the fight against antisemitism.
“If we associate ourselves with extreme right-wing forces, we discredit our common cause; it also goes against my personal convictions and will have a negative impact on our fight against antisemitism within our societies,” said Beck.
Democrats MK Gilad Kariv, chairman of the Knesset Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Affairs Committee, called on the government to disinvite the controversial guests, explaining the invitations constituted a “deviation from the longstanding policy of Israeli governments and the Foreign Ministry, and it directly contradicts the positions and policies of the representative organizations of Jewish communities in those countries and on the international stage.”
Eliav Breuer contributed to this report.