European Jewish Association calls on EU to declare an immediate six-month emergency against anti-Semitism

The European Jewish Association has called on Europe to declare an immediate six-month emergency against anti-Semitism in the face of escalating violence and hatred against the Jewish community in Europe.

In an official statement, the European Jewish Association has issued a serious warning about the danger that continues to loom against Jews on European soil as hostile acts multiply. 

The official communiqué of the European Jewish Association is reproduced below: 

The time has come for Europe to declare an immediate six-month emergency against anti-Semitism. 

A dark curtain of anti-Semitism has fallen across Europe, record levels of hatred are reported and Jewish communities fear the worst. 

Europe's Jews, accustomed to the certainty that ‘Never Again’ meant exactly that, are seeing the weight of these powerful words crumble in real life, every day. 

A fortnight ago, hatred reached its peak in Amsterdam with a pogrom - for there is no other word for it - where Jews were persecuted and assaulted in the streets. 

Indeed, the scenes, though shocking, did not come out of the blue and did not come as a great surprise to the vast majority of Jews on the continent. With the normalisation of Jew-hatred, it was always a question of when, not if. 

The crisis in which we find ourselves began with significant but gradual steps towards this normalisation: swastikas at protests, the blood libel of child murderers and genocide, the denial of the only Jewish state in the world that exists ‘from the river to the sea’, anti-Semitic graffiti and graffiti such as ‘Kill a Jew’, Jews being assaulted in their daily lives, calls day after day for a ‘global intifada’.

There are those who seek to parse words. They claim that criticism of Israel and its policies is never anti-Semitic. To these voices we simply say: if this were true, there would be no anti-Semitic emergency. No record goes up. The Jewish Agency would not report the highest ever recorded numbers of Jews seeking to go and live in an Israel at war rather than remain in a Europe at so-called peace.

If one traces the anti-Zionist discourse as it stands today, one will find the same old stereotypes, the same roots of centuries-old unfounded hatred of Jews. It has just taken the form of finding an acceptable face in the modern era with Israel as its delivery mechanism.

Anti-Semitism - at this moment - is the worst it has been since the Second World War. No one anywhere thought to rewrite these words. But here we are again. 

And right now, today, the European Jewish Association is urging the European Union and its Member States to immediately declare a six-month emergency period against anti-Semitism.

This regrettable but absolutely necessary emergency period would imply a higher level of protection for Jewish communities across Europe, reflecting the nature of the emergency.

This protection must entail three key special security measures: 

• One: ensuring that there is adequate and meaningful regulation of public events, including the prohibition and criminalisation of expressions, badges and banners that are anti-Semitic in nature and incite violence. 
• Two: the requirement of prior authorisation and an enforceable code of conduct and language at public demonstrations and the designation of specific judicial remedies, all of which must comply with European legal frameworks, must be implemented before any public demonstration or protest can take place. It is clear for all to see that the absolute and fundamental right of freedom of expression is abused daily to incite murder, hatred and division. Tolerance of this hatred, under our natural reflex to protect this fundamental right, is directly fuelling the fires of anti-Semitism. 
• Finally, and thirdly: the emergency designation should also mean an increased police presence in Jewish areas and around Jewish communities. 

By adopting these three enhanced precautions for an initial six-month period, the European Jewish Association seeks not only to safeguard Jewish communities, but also to defend fundamental European values. 

Today, Europe's Jews can no longer take these fundamental values for granted: tolerance, mutual respect, freedom to identify, to be and to live. 

Indeed, every Jewish community on the frontline expects the worst and wonders when a real European response to anti-Semitism will come. We are in an emergency. The words of Hillel the elder echo through the ages: ‘And if not now, when?’

Now is the time to act.