U.S. envoy to Israel previews OSCE conference in Berlin in April

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer says the United States plans to press the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) at its ministerial meeting in Berlin in April to adopt measures to fight anti-Semitism and track hate crimes as part of the OSCE structure.

"It is important that OSCE members set up processes to monitor, track, and report hate crimes. Ultimately, the real test of progress after establishing this OSCE monitoring, tracking, and reporting mechanism will be the expansion of effective law enforcement measures to prevent and to punish such crimes," Kurtzer said in a speech to the Global Coordinating Forum against Anti-Semitism in Jerusalem January 29.

Kurtzer said the "next frontier" in fighting anti-Semitism is confronting anti-Semitic myths that originated in Europe, have been revived in the Middle East and are being piped back to Europe, the United States and other parts of the world.

"In the Middle East, we face the repackaging of the ‘big lie' of the bogus Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the equally ‘big lie' of the blood libel in new and disturbing ways -- the goal of which is often to dehumanize and to demonize Jews as a collective group. The effect of such speech and such actions on those who do not know better is to mark Jews as a collective group and to justify, and even actively incite, violence against them," Kurtzer said.

The ambassador said the conference in Berlin will discuss the experiences in North America and Europe in using courts to punish anti-Semitic speech and actions across national boundaries. He expressed support for Arab and Muslim associations that protect Jewish communities and for Jewish and pro-Israel groups that protect Arab, Muslim and other minorities under siege.

"Some of these alliances are undoubtedly already happening: in Europe, in North America, in Turkey, just to name a few, and even in North Africa," Kurtzer said.

Following is the transcript of Kurtzer's speech:

(begin transcript)

American Embassy Tel Aviv -- Press Section

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel C. Kurtzer
Global Coordinating Forum against Anti-Semitism
Inbal Hotel, Jerusalem

January 29, 2004
AMBASSADOR KURTZER: Distinguished guests. Unfortunately, too often we start out on occasions like this with messages of condolence. I bring that both personally and on behalf of the American people and the government over the murder of Jews, Israelis, this morning in Jerusalem.

As Minister Sharansky just said, it is cruel irony that during the midst of a conference focused on ways of dealing with the problems of anti-Semitism, we are reminded in such a horrific manner. So, please Mr. Minister, convey to the government and through all of you distinguished guests to the people of Israel and around the world the anger and horror of the American people over what happened this morning in Jerusalem.

The event that you have organized, Mr. Minister, provides a unique opportunity to reflect on the global challenge of anti-Semitism. Against the backdrop of rising bigotry and racism, of xenophobia and prejudice, it is imperative that this unique form of prejudice that is anti-Semitism be beaten back.

I want to share with you today a sense of what the United States government is doing and what our strategy is. As the minister indicated, we are leaders in the effort not only to counter terrorism but also to counter anti-Semitism and hatred. What I will talk about today will include our views on the methods and strategies for combating anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic violence and hate crimes.

The United States government is confronting the disease of anti-Semitism on many levels. First, we call it as we see it. Following the lead of President Bush, United States representatives at home and abroad name and condemn incidents of anti-Semitism whenever and wherever they occur. Our objective is to work bilaterally to address and remedy the offending incitement and/or to bring to justice the perpetrators of anti-Semitic hate crimes.

Let me provide several examples. In March 2002, an article was published in the Saudi newspaper Al Riyadh that resurrected the 1840 Damascus blood libel -- that hateful assertion that Jews used human blood in their holiday rituals. The United States reacted immediately in protest. In response, the editor of the paper issued an apology and eventually fired the author who had worked previously at King Faisal University.

In the fall of 2002, the United States Embassy in Cairo protested the series "Horseman without a Horse," which was full of anti-Semitic myths, messages and themes. At the same time, the United States Congress threatened to cut off a significant portion of United States assistance to Egypt. Our Ambassador protested to the Egyptian government over the dehumanizing and inciting aspect of the television series. Although the series was not cancelled, the producers added a new disclaimer in the opening segment each night that indicated that some of the events were real and some were imaginary. They noted that the series was not meant to prove the authenticity of the evil "Protocols of the Elders of Zion." This was not enough, but it was in reaction to our protest.

Later, President Mubarak's advisor, Dr. Osama el-Baz, responded to the avalanche of protests from the Administration and the Congress and elsewhere in the world by publishing a series of articles in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram that broke new ground in Arab and Muslim relations with the Jewish people. Dr. El-Baz specified the many myths about Jews which Arabs and Muslims should drop once and for all in his words.

Last October, during Ramadan, the domestic and international satellite TV station of the terrorist organization Hizbollah broadcast a 29-part series, which was financed and produced by the Syrian government, and which was full of anti-Semitic and demonizing representations of Jews based on the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion." Our Ambassador in Lebanon and our Chargé d'Affaires in Syria, as well as the State Department spokesman in Washington, immediately reacted that such broadcasts have no place in the civilized world.

After Malaysian Prime Minister Mohammed Mahatir included anti-Semitic remarks in his address at the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which opened October 16th of this past year, President Bush confronted him just three days later at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and said to the Prime Minister that his remarks had been "wrong and divisive...and stand squarely against what I, George Bush, believe in."

When Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis made anti-Semitic comments publicly, our Ambassador in Greece spoke out publicly, regretting that such an important cultural figure would criticize policy or seek to criticize policy in ethnic and hateful terms.

And our Ambassador in Egypt and the State Department and the United States government reacted swiftly to news recently of the offensive display of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" at the Alexandria library, and it led to the removal of the display.

These were bilateral interventions made both privately and publicly. In addition, United States representatives have been active multilaterally in order to pool our own as well as others' legal and governmental efforts with those of our partners in the global struggle against anti-Semitism and to fight for tolerance, mutual understanding and individual rights and freedoms. Several examples:

The United States was a leading force in working to forge a consensus last summer with our partners in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe regarding the need to focus on the threat of anti-Semitism in Europe and to put in place practical measures within the OSCE structure to combat anti-Semitism.

The Administration pressed for an OSCE meeting in June 2003 in Vienna, and in bilateral and multilateral efforts over several months, the U.S. urged our partners and allies to adopt practical measures.

A key result of the consensus reached at the June Vienna meeting is that anti-Semitism was for the first time recognized as a human rights issue, not just an issue of religious freedom, and it was acknowledged as a "unique form of prejudice."

The work within the OSCE is far from over. The OSCE Ministerial summit in Maastricht in December approved a follow-on meeting to be hosted by the Germans this April in Berlin. The United States continues to work with all our partners to get real, tangible, and effective multilateral measures against anti-Semitism adopted at that meeting.

Ambassador Edward O'Donnell, our special representative for this issue, asked that I share with you the state of our preparations for the Berlin meeting:

The United States government is currently in touch with various U.S. non-governmental organizations to solicit their opinions and suggestions leading up to the Berlin Conference. The State Department is asking United States embassies to report all hate crimes and is asking for their input to the Department on best-practice measures abroad for dealing with hate crimes.

Our goal in Berlin will be to obtain results that make fighting anti-Semitism and tracking hate crimes a part of the OSCE structure, through the work of the Warsaw-based Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

It is important that OSCE members set up processes to monitor, track, and report hate crimes. Ultimately, the real test of progress after establishing this OSCE monitoring, tracking, and reporting mechanism will be the expansion of effective law enforcement measures to prevent and to punish such crimes.

The United States and its partners are also continuing work within the 16-nation "Task Force on International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research" to promote Holocaust education in Europe. Such education is in our view the key to countering anti-Semitism in Europe and will be the key elsewhere as well.

Small academic and research grants like those carried out through this Task Force are essential elements of a larger strategy to counteract the rampant ignorance on which anti-Semitism is based. A special focus of the Task Force for the future is to look at how to present the Holocaust and the lessons of the importance of religious tolerance and respect to students in multi-cultural communities in Europe and elsewhere.

A major aspect of our multilateral efforts against anti-Semitism also focuses on the United Nations system. We, as well as Israel, were clearly disappointed that the Irish resolution on anti-Semitism in the 58th United Nations General Assembly was withdrawn, and we share the view of the government of Ireland that anti-Semitism should be squarely on the agenda of the UN. There were other important resolutions that were adopted in UN bodies recently, including the Irish-sponsored resolution in the 2003 Commission on Human Rights on the elimination of all forms of religious intolerance, including language on anti-Semitism this year, which the United States co-sponsored.

And of course we all remember well when Secretary Powell and the U.S. delegation walked out of the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, when the Zionism as Racism crowd decided to re-instate the offensive 1975 mantra that the United Nations General Assembly had finally and appropriately repealed in 1991.

President Bush, Secretary Powell, and all of our Administration leaders continue to speak out on these issues. Members of Congress and leading members of the American public do so as well. For example, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's European Affairs Subcommittee held a public hearing on anti-Semitism in Europe on October 22nd of last year, with U.S. government and non-government experts testifying.

The U.S. State Department has a Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues as I mentioned, Ambassador Edward O'Donnell. The Special Envoy's office was introduced in the mid-1990s while Stu Eizenstat, then the Undersecretary of State, was leading negotiations to resolve claims through compensation agreements. The Special Envoy's focus is on Holocaust restitution and on working to achieve a measure of justice for Holocaust survivors and victims' families. He and his team are also charged with working with our allies and with our partners to combat anti-Semitism in Europe, including through promoting Holocaust education, remembrance, and research. In all of these efforts, the Administration's cooperation with the U.S. Congress and with U.S. Non-Governmental Organizations remains essential to the success of what we do.

I would also like to take a moment to address the "next frontier" in the global struggle to contain and combat anti-Semitism, starting with the so-called "new" anti-Semitism. Addressing the problem of anti-Semitism in Europe is obviously only part of the battle. You just heard from Professor Lewis about anti-Semitism, which is rampant and rife throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds. In the Middle East, we face the repackaging of the "big lie" of the bogus Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the equally "big lie" of the blood libel in new and disturbing ways -- the goal of which is often to dehumanize and to demonize Jews as a collective group. The effect of such speech and such actions on those who do not know better is to mark Jews as a collective group and to justify, and even actively incite, violence against them. Both myths are essentially European in origin, and are largely discredited in Europe; but both, as we have seen in the last years, are resurging in the Middle East and being piped back into Europe, the United States, and the rest of the world via satellite and the Internet.

I understand that this conference has panels addressing case studies comparing the experiences in North America and Europe in using the courts to punish anti-Semitic speech and acts, including suing those that produce or originate anti-Semitic hate information from across national boundaries. A developing issue in the legal fight against "imported" anti-Semitism will be whether and how to legislate or limit hate speech on the Internet, which in the United States faces a high legal bar to limiting freedom of speech and expression which is enshrined in the First Amendment of our Constitution.

Recourse to appropriate courts by appropriate litigants around the world against perpetrators of hate crimes and incitement is a key area for additional discussion and cooperation. It is an area where there should be natural alliances and strategic partnerships between those working for mutual tolerance and respect of the rights of people from all the world's religions.

This is where we should look for examples of Arab and Muslim associations in the world who are willing and able to come to the defense of Jewish communities under siege in their own back yards, and Jewish and pro-Israel support groups working to protect Arab, Muslim and other minorities under siege in their communities. There are common interests. Some of these alliances are undoubtedly already happening: in Europe, in North America, in Turkey, just to name a few, and even in North Africa.

We hope there continue to be voices in the Arab and Muslim world to advance a public diplomacy campaign of their own, with articles, speeches, or books in Arabic -- to spread that message among their own populations. That kind of effort could move the religious and political dialogue to a healthier and more productive plane that would advance the interest of peace and stability in this region and throughout the world.

Mr. Minister, let me wish you all the best with this conference. Let me thank all the participants for coming and may we not experience again the tragedy that occurred this morning in Jerusalem.

Thank you so much.

(end transcript)

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)