Hatred of Jews at ‘Highest Level of Our Lifetimes,’ Israeli Diplomat Tells UN Antisemitism Forum
Barney Breen-Portnoy, Algemeiner, September 7, 2016
Hatred of Jews and demonization of Israel are at “the highest level of our lifetimes,” Israel’s UN envoy warned on Monday during a high-level forum on antisemitism held by the world body at its headquarters in New York.
“Over 1/3 of European Jews are afraid to wear a yarmulke or Star of David in public,” Danny Danon said in an address to the forum. “More than half of French Jews have considered emigrating because they don’t feel safe living as Jews in France. Today we hear things about Jews and the Jewish people that we thought belonged to the pages of history…Antisemitism is returning to everyday life without shame.”
There has been a noted rise in antisemitism in Europe in recent years. In France, for example, as reported by The Algemeiner, a teacher at a high school in Paris was suspended this summer for making comments hostile to Jews on social media. And in May, The Algemeiner reported that rising antisemitism in the Paris area was forcing French Jews to move elsewhere in the country or immigrate to Israel.
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The one-day forum that took place on Wednesday was a follow-up to a special General Assembly meeting on antisemitism that was convened last year. Participants in Wednesday’s event included UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Ambassador Samantha Power, Canadian Ambassador Marc-André Blanchard and EU Ambassador João Vale de Almeida, among other officials.
