British Government calls summit over rising anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism has become such a problem that the Foreign Office welcomed nearly 100 legislators from 35 countries to a conference this week aimed at tackling the issue.


The inaugural conference of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism (ICCA) is the first of its kind to receive such prominent Government support. The two-day summit was held in the Houses of Parliament and at Lancaster House.

The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, said: “Anti-Semitism has been with us for millennia, but has mutated in form and expression through the ages. Today it has adapted to new technologies and has no defined borders.

“The internet age, with its manifold benefits, has the downside that hate is able to travel faster and further than ever before. Modern and innovative solutions are essential if we are to combat this. So is international co-operation.”

Attacks on UK Jews increased following the Israeli offensive in Gaza in December.

Speaking at the event, Irwin Cotler, a former Attorney General of Canada, said: “What we are witnessing today – and which has been developing incrementally, sometimes imperceptibly, and even indulgently, for some 35 years now – is a new sophisticated, globalizing, virulent and even lethal anti-Semitism, reminiscent of the atmospherics of the 30s, and without parallel or precedent since the end of the Second World War.”

France’s Council of State took the opportunity to coincide their formal recognition of the countries role in deporting Jews to concentration camps. While the senior court admitted culpability beyond simple obedience of Nazi demands, they ruled out further reparations for the victims.

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