Combating Antisemitism – Challenges and Successful Strategies - EXPERT FORUM
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Conference Documentation: Best practices on Combating Antisemitism 1 German Delegation of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly & Gert Weisskirchen Personal Representative of the Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE on Combating Antisemitism Combating Antisemitism – Challenges and Successful Strategies - EXPERT FORUM - Berlin, 25 January 2008 Conference Documentation 2 Combating Antisemitism – Challenges and Successful Strategies Program of the Conference 09:00 – 10:00 Service of remembrance in the German Bundestag on the occasion of Vic- tims of National Socialism Day (video transmission to conference room) -------------------------- 11:00 – 11:30 Opening and greetings Dr. Norbert Lammert President of the German Bundestag Dr. Angela Merkel Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Ambassador René Nyberg Representative of the Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, Finland 11:30 – 13:00 Panel: Education on the Holocaust and Antisemitism Speakers: Aycan Demirel, Kreuzberg Initiative against Antisemitism (KiGA e.V.), Germany Michał Bilewicz, Forum for Dialogue Among Nations, Poland Alla Gerber, Holocaust Foundation, Russia Wolf Kaiser, Memorial and Education Center Haus der Wannseekonferenz Chair: Ingolf Seidel, Task Force: Education on Antisemitism, Germany 13:00 – 13:30 Buffet in break-out area 13:30 – 15:15 Panel: Antisemitic Tendencies in Football and Successful Strategies to Combat Them Speakers: Carine Bloch, Vice-President, Ligue Internationale Contre le Racisme et l’Antisémitisme (LICRA), France Dr. Rafał Pankowski, Never Again Association, Poland Martin Endemann, Alliance of Active Football Fans (BAFF e.V.), Germany Dr. Gregor Rosenthal, Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance (BfDT) Chair: Michael Whine, President, Government and International Affairs, Community Security Trust, United Kingdom Contributions from the Experts 3 15:15 – 16:45 Panel: Antisemitic Tendencies in the Academic Context and Successful Strategies to Combat Them Speakers: David Hirsh, University of London, founder of "Engage", United Kingdom Prof. Dr. Lars Rensmann, MMZ Fellow, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA Dr. Yves Pallade, B’Nai Brith Europe, Germany Irina Scherbakova, Memorial, Russia Chair: Prof. Gert Weisskirchen, Member of the German Bundestag, Personal Representative of the Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE on Combating Antisemitism, Germany 16:45 – 17:00 Coffee break 17:00 – 18:45 Panel discussion: The Role of Europe's Parliaments in Combating Antisemitism Speakers: Prof. Dr. Cornelius Weiss, Member of the State Parliament of Saxony, Germany Gitta Connemann, Member of the German Bundestag, Germany Petra Pau, MdB, Vice-President of the German Bundestag, Germany Hellmut Königshaus, Member of the German Bundestag, Germany Jerzy Montag, Member of the German Bundestag, Germany Chair: John Mann, Member of Parliament, House of Commons, United Kingdom 18:45 – 19:15 Conclusions Rabbi Andrew Baker, American Jewish Committee (AJC), USA Prof. Gert Weisskirchen, Member of the German Bundestag, Germany 4 Combating Antisemitism – Challenges and Successful Strategies Table of Contents 1. Summary of the Conference................................................................... 6 1.1. Opening and Greetings .......................................................................................6 1.2. Panel 1: Education on the Holocaust and Anti-Semitism ....................................8 1.3. Panel 2: Anti-Semitic Tendencies in Football and Successful Strategies to Combat Them ...................................................................................................11 1.4. Panel 3: Anti-Semitic Tendencies in the Academic Context and Successful Strategies to Combat Them ..............................................................................14 1.5. Podium Discussion: The Role of Europe’s Parliaments in Combating Anti- Semitism ...........................................................................................................17 1.6. Closing Speeches .............................................................................................22 2. Panel: Education on the Holocaust and Antisemitism ...................... 24 2.1. Introduction to the Panel on Education on the Holocaust and Antisemitism .....24 Ingolf Seidel 24 2.2. History as a Problem in Antisemitism-Reducing Educational Projects: Experience of Forum for Dialogue among Nations............................................27 Michał Bilewicz 27 2.3. Educational Work on the Topic of the Holocaust and Antisemitism ..................31 Wolf Kaiser 31 3. Panel: Antisemitic Tendencies in Football and Successful Strategies to Combat Them .................................................................................... 38 3.1. Keynote.............................................................................................................38 Theo Zwanziger 38 3.2. Racism, Xenophobia and Right-Wing Extremism in Spectator Behaviour and the Development of Counter Strategies ..................................................................39 Gunter A. Pilz 39 3.3. Sport, Racism and Citizenship ..........................................................................43 Carine Bloch 43 3.4. Antisemitic Tendencies in Football and Successful Strategies to Combat them54 Rafal Pankowski 54 3.5. Antisemitic Tendencies in Football and Succesful Strategies to Combat them.57 Gregor Rosenthal 57 Contributions from the Experts 5 4. Panel: Antisemitic Tendencies in the Academic Context and Successful Strategies to Combat Them.............................................. 63 4.1. Hostility to Israel and Antisemitism....................................................................63 David Hirsh 63 4.2. Antisemitic Radicalism: Challenges and Policy Recommendations ..................67 Lars Rensmann 67 4.3. Antisemitic Tendencies in the Academic Context – The case of “new antisemitism”.....................................................................................................84 Yves Pallade 84 4.4. Old Roots and Dangers...................................................................................100 Irina Scherbakova 100 5. Panel discussion: The Role of Europe's Parliaments in Combating Antisemitism ........................................................................................ 105 5.1. Combating the ultra-right NPD in Saxony .......................................................105 Cornelius Weiss, MdL 105 5.2. About the Parliamentary Committee against Antisemitism..............................110 Jardena Lande 110 6. Participants of the Conference........................................................... 112 7. Further Links........................................................................................ 119 Combating Antisemitism – Challenges and Successful Strategies 6 1. Summary of the Conference 1.1. Opening and Greetings The Expert Forum was opened by Dr Norbert Lammert, the President of the German Bundestag. He began by talking about other things that had happened on the same date. For instance, 25 January 1945 had marked the beginning of the so-called ‘evacuation’ of Stutthof Concentration Camp near Danzig, which cost more than 20,000 Jewish people their lives. Furthermore, David Ben Gurion had been appointed the first prime minister of the newly es- tablished State of Israel on 25 January 1949, and ‘The Final Solution’, the third part of the Holocaust miniseries, had been broadcast in Germany on 25 January 1979. This series had es- tablished the word ‘Holocaust’ as the accepted term for the genocide committed against the Jews. This genocide had neither happened in a vacuum nor been unavoidable, but had grown over a long time and by no means in secret. The President of the German Bundestag quoted from a letter written by the composer Arnold Schönberg to Vassily Kandinsky in 1923 after Kandin- sky had been accused of anti-Semitism: ‘I have finally understood what I have been forced to learn in the last year, and I will never forget it. That really I am not a German, not a European, yes I am probably hardly a human being (at least, the Europeans prefer the worst of their race to me), but that I am a Jew. I have heard that a certain Kandinsky too sees only the bad side of what is done by the Jews and only the Jewish side of the bad things they do, and at this point I give up any hope of reconciliation. It was a dream. We are two different kinds of people. Definitely!’ The President of the German Bundestag underlined that there were definitely not two differ- ent types of human being and nor should anyone ever believe as much. He recalled the cere- mony in the plenary chamber and the impressive words of Lenka Reinerová, stressing that, al- though it might be impossible to remould humanity, occasions like the Expert Forum could help in their way to draw attention to dangers and ways of combating them. When the Conference on Anti-Semitism had been held at Berlin in 2004, the then President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the sadly deceased Paul Spiegel, had said: ‘The question that has to be answered in Berlin is: How can we counter growing global anti- Semitism? There have been various conferences and seminars in the past. So far, they have only ever produced declarations of intent; fine speeches and declarations that gather dust. What I hope for from the Berlin conference is that the ideas focused on there will influence the day-to-day work of our governments. However, our civil societies too have to recognise that this concerns them. As a form of racism,