AJC Hails Intergovernmental Commitment to Combat Increased Anti-Semitism

American Jewish Committee
Friday, 8 December 2000

The American Jewish Committee is hailing the decision of an intergovernmental conference to "combat the increase in anti-Semitism and hostile acts against Jews around the world."

The conference, which concluded today in Santiago, Chile, is one of a series of regional meetings in preparation for next year's UN-sponsored World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

AJC successfully advocated in Santiago that the North, South and Central American countries support examining anti-Semitism at the World Conference that will take place in Durban, South Africa, in September 2001.

"The continuance of anti-Semitism today – sometimes in societies with few or no Jews – reveals the attitude of societies not simply to Jews, but towards all those who are different, those who are vulnerable, those who belong to minorities," Jeffrey Weill, deputy director of the American Jewish Committee's Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, said in his address to the regional conference in Chile.

"In the Americas and globally, we have found that combating anti-Semitism is an essential, indeed, intrinsic part of combating all forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance," said Mr. Weill, who set forth a series of recommendations on combating anti-Semitism for endorsement by the Latin American and North American government representatives.

Since its founding in 1906, the American Jewish Committee has vigorously advocated against all forms of discrimination globally, and in 1945 AJC representatives played a decisive role in ensuring that respect for human rights was included in the UN Charter as one of the world body's principal purposes.

Mr. Weill recalled that the drafting of the UN Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination dates its origin to a wave of anti-Semitism and swastika daubing in 1959-60 in Europe and North America.

"Today, while millions of Jews are proud citizens and vibrant contributors to countries throughout the Americas, we also continue to find ourselves as targets of discrimination and violent hate crimes," Mr. Weill said.

Mr. Weill recommended that the Santiago Conference gathering and other preparatory meetings for the world conference include the following recommendations:

- States should ensure that there are effective legal texts and implementation measures for combating anti-Semitism and all forms of racial discrimination.

- States should also ensure that societies clearly and publicly condemn all forms of anti-Semitism when it emerges.

- Political figures who manipulate anti-Semitism and other ingrained prejudices and racial hatreds for political purposes should be identified, condemned, and isolated by their governments.

- Public officials at all levels have a responsibility to publicly disavow hate speech and other forms of expression which spread, incite, promote or justify acts of anti-Semitism.

At the first European preparatory meeting for the World Conference, AJC was the only American Jewish NGO to participate. At that meeting, held in Strasbourg, France, in October, AJC was instrumental in seeing that several of these same strategies to combat anti-Semitism were included in the European declaration and recommendations forwarded to the World Conference.

The World Conference was discussed by AJC officials with the heads of state or foreign ministers of dozens of countries during bilateral meetings in September surrounding the Millennium Summit and the opening of the UN General Assembly.

At the Santiago conference this week, Mr. Weill also successfully urged governments to promote Holocaust remembrance and education.

"Comprehensive reflection on the Holocaust can help inculcate in all of our children the values of tolerance, pluralism, democracy and respect for human rights that can protect and promote the vibrancy of the multi-ethnic societies of the Americas," he said.

The American Jewish Committee earlier this year carried out a comprehensive survey in Argentina and attitudes towards the Holocaust, and is planning to do similar surveys in other Central and South American countries next year.

AJC's Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights participated in previous official UN and non-governmental meetings regarding the broad agenda to be considered at the World Conference, and plans to continue this advocacy prior to and at the global convocation in South Africa.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org