| European Leaders Challenge Churches Worldwide to Renew Their Vow for Support of Israel |
European Leaders Challenge Churches Worldwide to Renew Their Vow for Support of Israel on Holocaust Remembrance Day
The commemoration event was held in conjunction with the European Coalition for Israel’s Fifth Annual Policy Conference, that took place in the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday. Several Members of European Parliament, among them MEP Ingo Friedrich and MEP Elmar Brok from Germany, spoke about the importance of educating the new generations about the horrors of Holocaust in order to prevent Holocaust denial and loss of collective memory. At the conference representatives from Sweden, Germany and Bulgaria shared examples of best practice in how churches in each of the three EU-member states are currently involving their communities in the “Learn from History” campaign by visiting concentration camps and commemorating the victims of the Holocaust. But the conference also focused on current threats to the modern state of Israel and European Jewry. Shimon Samuels from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Paris gave several examples on how anti-Semitism is still flourishing in the world - event at conferences with the specific aim of fighting racism. The examples he cited showed that this trend has been ongoing. “-The UN conference on Racism in Durban in 2001 completely neglected current forms of racism, such as the situation for the Roma people in Europe or that of the Dali in India, by instead demonizing the modern state of Israel,” he said. He concluded by saying that “anti-Semitism is still a burning issue in Europe and in the international organizations which have been set up to fight it. He feared that the upcoming UN conference on Racism in Geneva in April next year may turn out to be another hate fest of Israel and the Jewish people. In one of the draft resolutions Israel is already accused of crimes against humanity. Glyn Gaskarth from the UK Taxpayer Association gave an update on the hate education in the Palestinian territories, which also is continuing to flourish also after the Annapolis treaty. He demanded an immediate stop to all hate education and that European Commission, being the single largest donor to the Palestinian Authorities, takes its full responsibility for better monitoring the Palestinian education system. Also MEP Paulo Casaca from Portugal added to these his own expressions of grave concern that the European Commission, through its European Initiative for Democracy & Human Rights Project, is funding projects which seeks to undermine democracy and human rights by glorifying terrorism and fanaticism. He gave a concrete example of a website, run by Hizbollah and supported by the European Commission, which openly praises a convicted terrorist as a “hero.” European Commission Head of Unit for the Near East, Leonidas Tezapsidis defended the EU-policy by giving several examples of projects which promotes peace and reconciliation but he admitted that the situation is by no means perfect and that more can be done to prevent hate education. At the conference the European Coalition for Israel presented its new policy paper on how the European Commission can support peace building and conflict prevention in its neighborhood policy, which also includes the Middle East. Mr. Tezapsidis willingly accepted the invitation to engage in a continuous dialogue on the issue, based on the new policy paper. The conference concluded with a personal message from European Commissioner for External Affairs Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who stressed the importance active remembrance. The European Coalition for Israel used the opportunity to launch the “Learn from History” campaign by commending all Christian faith communities to mark Sunday January 25 as a European Holocaust Remembrance Sunday in which they will recommit to the security of European Jewry and the modern state of Israel. The campaign will conclude with a symposium in the European Parliament on Tuesday, January 27. More information on the campaign can be found on www.learnfromhistory.eu |
Brussels 12 November, 2008 – Christian leaders from over twenty
European nations, together with members of European Parliament,
commemorated on Tuesday the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, Night of
Broken glass, by launching this year’s educational campaign “Learn from
History” which aims at mobilizing Christian faith communities in Europe
to teach about the Holocaust and to recommit to the safety and security
of European Jewry and the state of Israel.