Each club has its own entrance ticket which sets its members apart. Political parties, teams, sports associations and even gyms issue unique membership cards, symbols or flags to define who belongs to them and who does not.
The ‘International Morals Club’ also has an entrance ticket. The ‘entrance ticket’ to this club is called hatred of Israel. Members can be found at student gatherings at universities abroad, on social media forums, at demonstrations and during every speech of an Israeli ambassador or personality.
The International Morals Club’s flags include a wide variety of symbols and slogans:‘Boycott Israel,’ ‘Apartheid State,’ ‘IDF slaughters children’ and more.Do you wave these flags? If you answered yes, you may enter the ‘Morals Club.’ Do you reject it? You will be declared simpleminded, ignorant and fascist.
The extreme, abysmal, borderless and illogical hatred of Israel is the antisemitism of today. The hated Jews who dared to establish a state for themselves that they could finally maintain are now absorbing the thousand-year-old hatred. Young people in the United States and Europe acquire this hatred by virtue of the propaganda spread by various ‘human rights’ organizations. For them, Israel is to blame for all the evil in the world.
This week, on January 27 (the day Auschwitz was liberated), International Holocaust Remembrance Day will take place. Known in Israel as Antisemitism Day, we use this day to unite with seekers of truth and historical justice from all over the world. We come together to fight against a common goal: all manifestations of antisemitism. Whether it be modern antisemitism – that is expressed via incitement on the Internet, or in riots leading to the desecration of tombstones, or that leads to shootings in synagogues, is promoted by politicians and universities, or leads to murderous terrorist attacks here in Israel – we are against them all. This is the day when a shout goes out from one end of the world to the other; antisemitism is antisemitism is antisemitism, no matter what cloak it tries to hide behind.
The most effective way for us to fight antisemitism today is to combine raising our heads with Jewish pride, while at the same time removing the antisemites from the club. We must do everything in our power to expel them from our club and impose heavy sanctions and penalties on them.
In order to accomplish this, I am working to recruit heads of state from around the world to officially adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of ‘steps to combat antisemitism.’ By adopting this definition, governments around the world will be able to take significant steps against manifestations of antisemitism. These efforts are bearing fruit and many countries are joining the struggle. Recently, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison wrote to me that he had publicly announced his intention to adopt the definition. “We must act together resolutely and reject every word and action that has manifestations of antisemitism towards individuals, communities or religious sites.” If this is indeed said and done all over the world, then the number of antisemites will steadily decrease, and they will crowd the only place they deserve to be – outside the club.
Yaakov Hagoel is Chairman of the World Zionist Organization and Acting chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel.