UK Chief Rabbi Mirvis has withdrawn from Israel’s International Conference on Combating Antisemitism after learning about the participation of several far-right populist politicians, his office confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
The announcement was made shortly after UK politician and antisemitism adviser Lord John Mann, along with Goldsmiths University professor David Hirsh, also canceled their participation in the event.
The conference, organized by Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, has drawn criticism due to the invitation of right-wing politicians such as French far-right leader Jordan Bardella, Marion Marechal, a French member of the European Parliament, and Hermann Tertsch, a Spanish member of the European Parliament.
“The quality of some of the opposition politicians speaking is not sufficiently high enough to entice me from competing priorities,” Mann told the Jewish News.
“There is nothing for the UK to learn about tackling antisemitism from some of these characters.”
Hirsh similarly issued a statement, explaining, ”I was due to participate in the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism, organized by the Israeli Diaspora Ministry on 26 and 27 March, but I have now reluctantly decided to pull out.
“There are too many far-right speakers on the agenda who associate themselves with anti-democratic and anti-egalitarian movements.”
Hirsh added, "It is clear to me that anti-democratic thinking is fertile ground for antisemitism and that the best way to undermine antisemitism is to support democratic thinking, movements, and states.”
Revoking invitations to far-right politicians
On Monday, Knesset Aliyah and Absorption Committee chairman MK Gilad Kariv (Democrats) urged the government to reverse a decision to invite far-right European politicians from parties with “definitive antisemitic roots” to the conference, the Post previously reported.
In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Kariv wrote that the invitation constituted a “deviation from the longstanding policy of Israeli governments and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and it directly contradicts the positions and policies of the representative organizations of Jewish communities in those countries and on the international stage.”