Jewish media: Inviting a genocide denier is a disgrace to Israel

(Patria) - The Israeli government invited someone to the Conference on Combating Antisemitism who "built his power and popularity by inciting genocide denial," writes British journalist and political commentator Nick Cohen for The Jewish Chronicle.

In his column, Cohen assesses that this is a disgrace to Israel, and asks - what should Muslims - or anyone with a modicum of decency - conclude from this?

"I want readers to imagine Muslims, men or women, doing everything the Jewish community might ask of them. They are aware of Islamic antisemitism and condemn it whenever they can.

They strive to build interfaith dialogue between synagogues and mosques. They could not be more sympathetic or self-critical. And then they look at the Israeli government and see it laughing at them.

In fact, 'laughing' is too weak a word to describe the sound coming from Jerusalem: it is a mocking, sadistic giggle that ridicules Muslim victims of genocide.

The message is clear: to oppose antisemitism, you must support anti-Muslim bigotry that is so extreme it embraces the modern equivalent of Holocaust denial," writes Cohen.

He reminds that this week the Israeli government is organizing the Conference on Combating Antisemitism and adds that the organizer, Minister for Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli, has already seen "how anyone with a modicum of decency would tear up his invitation".

Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis will not attend due to the "presence of several far-right populist politicians".

Government adviser on antisemitism Lord Mann, along with Bernard-Henri Lévy, David Hirsh - a veteran of the fight against antisemitic boycotts in the UK - and many others, saw what Chikli was planning and were appalled.

The Israeli government has filled the conference with representatives of right-wing and far-right parties in Europe - from Viktor Orbán's Fidesz in Hungary to Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) in France.

"You can imagine how grateful the RN, a party founded by a Holocaust denier, will be. Thanks to Netanyahu's reputation-laundering service, it can now dismiss all accusations of racism and say that the Israeli government, no less, recognizes that the radical right is leading the fight against antisemitism," writes Cohen.


Cohen's column for The Jewish Chronicle

Highlighting this as a "shameful and dangerous moment," he states that (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu "is trying to consolidate his power by imitating Orbán and Donald Trump".

"Like them, he is undermining the system of checks and balances that limits the power of leaders. In this regard, the authoritarian right in Israel, Europe, and the US has a common interest," writes Cohen.

He also points out that what the conference organizers did next "was truly shocking" - they invited the president of the BiH entity RS, Milorad Dodik, to speak.

Cohen then gives a brief explanation of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, stating that "before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the closest Europe came to repeating the Holocaust was the wars in the former Yugoslavia".

He also mentions that his colleagues Ed Vulliamy from The Guardian and Penny Marshall from ITN discovered concentration camps where "starving people watched the world from the other side of barbed wire," and the genocide in Srebrenica in 1995.

"Dodik built his power and popularity by inciting genocide denial. He told his compatriots in Republika Srpska what they wanted to hear - that the Srebrenica genocide 'did not happen'.

As lies about crimes against Bosnian Muslims flooded the public space in the 1990s, I remember telling Vulliamy that this must be like when Nazi sympathizers first denied the news from Auschwitz.

There is a special cruelty in the deceptions of genocide deniers. They tell the families of the dead that there were no killers and, therefore, no victims. They mock them with the cruelest lies they can invent," Cohen further writes.

He then quotes Jean-Paul Sartre, stating that he was right when he said of the anti-Semites of the Nazi era that "they enjoy bad faith, because they do not seek to convince with valid arguments, but to intimidate and confuse".

"He could have been talking about Milorad Dodik and all the Western leftists who mocked the dead Muslims of the Balkan wars. Such is the man whom Israel considers worthy of an invitation to a conference on antisemitism," writes Cohen.

He also highlights "the malicious effort that Netanyahu's government has made to find him across Europe".

"What should Muslims - or anyone with a modicum of decency - conclude from this? That the Israeli government is now so extremely right-wing that it considers creatures who deny the mass murder of Muslims as allies in the fight against antisemitism?

Seriously, I would like to hear an explanation from the Israeli government, because as things stand, its behavior is unspeakably shameful," concludes Nick Cohen in his column, reports N1.