MK Hendel in Vienna: UNHRC blacklist is surrender to antisemitism
The UN Human Rights Council’s blacklist of companies operating in the West Bank is part of an antisemitic discourse, Blue and White MK Yoaz Hendel warned the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly in Vienna on Friday.
The list is “an ethical stain on that organization and its member states,” Hendel, one of Blue and White’s outspoken right-wing MKs, said. “The publication of this blacklist embraces the false narrative promoted by the BDS movement and gives in to the very antisemitic and anti-Zionist discourse that this forum seeks to combat.
“This extreme narrative needs to be uprooted, and here, too all the countries in this forum must make their voices heard loudly and clearly” against the list, Hendel stated.
Hendel represented the Knesset at the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s 19th Winter Meeting on Friday, which included a debate on combating antisemitism, discrimination and intolerance in Europe.
“Violent antisemitism is again raising its head,” Hendel said. “Who will protect the Jews in your countries from rising antisemitism? Who will defend the liberal values that developed after World War II and the Holocaust?... Will you allow the return of this shameful disease to our lives?”
The OSCE is the largest security-focused intergovernmental organization in the world, encompassing 57 countries in Europe, northern and central Asia and North America.
Austrian National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka called last week’s meeting on antisemitism, and about 30 parliamentarians took part in the debate.
US Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland), the OSCE PA’s special representative on antisemitism, racism and intolerance, said in a speech via video link that hatred and intolerance threaten democracy.
“It is our responsibility as leaders to safeguard our democracies by speaking out and using our tools and voices as legislators against those who would divide our societies,” Cardin said.
Rabbi Andrew Baker, the personal representative of the OSCE chairperson on combating antisemitism, described his work to the MPs, stressing that antisemitism takes many forms and can be found across the political spectrum.
Hendel met with Sobotka after the meeting, thanking him for his efforts to fight antisemitism and for a bill condemning antisemitism and the BDS movement that is expected to pass in the Austrian parliament next week.
The two also discussed how to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.