quote:
The Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism (GFCA) will convene its international conference on December 16-17, 2009, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Jerusalem, under the chairmanship of Israel's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Avigdor Liberman, and the Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, Yuli Edelstein. High representatives from around the world - including statesmen, Members of Parliament, diplomats, journalists, legal experts, NGO representatives, and leading academic figures - are expected to attend, along with senior leaders of Jewish communities and organizations world-wide.
This year's conference is the third GFCA conference, following the February 2007 and February 2008 conferences. It provides an occasion to collaborate and exchange ideas in order to prepare constructive, productive and comprehensive strategies to combat global antisemitism. This year the conference will feature both panels and working groups, which deal with, among other things, developing effective means and models to confront the various forms of antisemitism.
Diaspora Affairs and Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli Edelstein, who will address the opening session of the 2009 Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism Conference, notes that, "The goal of the global forum is to formulate coalitions and coordinate activity in the struggle against anti-Semitism in all its forms and against the de-legitimization of Israel, including the war on racism and xenophobia. At present, when Jews around the world are in danger of their lives and when the State of Israel is under repeated assaults that border on anti-Semitism of the worst kind, this conference is especially important. Anti-Semitism is alive and kicking. Hardly a day passes without displays of hatred against Jews in the world. If we do not see fit to act, a major anti-Semitic attack is only a question of time."
The conference will include five panel sessions and two 2-hour working group sessions over the two days, in addition to opening and closing sessions, as well as a special event at the Knesset hosted by the Knesset Speaker, Reuven Rivlin.
The five panel sessions are:
* Dealing with Old and New Forms of Antisemitism
* Trends in the Delegitimization of Israel in the International arena
* Antisemitism in the Arab and Muslim World
* The State of Antisemitism around the World
* Historical Revisionism, Holocaust Denial and the ‘New' Antisemitism
The five working groups are:
* Nationalist Trends in Central and Eastern Europe: New Challenges Facing the Jewish Communities
* Rising Antisemitism in Latin America: The Iranian Influence
* Antisemitism Online: Cyberspace and the Media
* Delegitimization of Israel: "Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions"
* Combating Antisemitism: Models and Best Practices
The Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism (GFCA) is an active and worldwide alliance of statesmen, parliamentarians, diplomats, journalists, legal experts, NGO's and scholars led by the State of Israel. Our goal is to fight the growing expressions of antisemitism and other forms of racism as they manifest themselves around the world. We do so by learning best practices from experts and practitioners in the field, thus enabling us to fight current trends and prepare for future developments.
Over the millennia, antisemitism has taken on many forms, the latest being anti-Zionist and anti-Israel. Through this manifestation - the delegitimization of the State of Israel - antisemites are targeting the Jewish people through an attack on the ancient, yet current, national home of the Jewish people. To confront this ever changing, dynamic antisemitism, in addition to other, more ‘classic’ forms of antisemitism, the GFCA has become an absolutely necessity, and is now the largest international body coordinating efforts to counter global antisemitism.
The GFCA was established in 2000 by former ministers Natan Sharanky and Rabbi Michael Melchior, and has been consolidated by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through its Department for Combating Antisemitism. For the last few years, the GFCA has been co-chaired by both the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister in charge of world Jewish affairs – a move that indicates the priority and gravity that successive governments of the State of Israel place on combating and eradicating global antisemitism.
The GFCA convenes periodically at its international conference, which provides an opportunity to come together, exchange ideas and formulate effective, coordinated and wide-ranging strategies for dealing with the antisemitism that plagues our global society. It was at the 2008 GFCA International Conference, where it was first announced that an inter-parliamentary body was to be established where parliamentarians can share knowledge, experience, best practices, and recommendations in an attempt to deal more effectively with contemporary antisemitism. As a result, in London in early 2009, the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism (ICCA) was convened for the first time under the auspices of the British parliament.