Contemporary Anti-Semitism: An Urgent Challenge MARY ROBINSON Director Ethical Globalization Initiative An Interview with Priya Bindra, Jesse Finkelstein, and Julia Kay; and an Abridged Transcript Brown University, 8 November 2004 The Honorable Mary Robinson was the first female President of Ireland, serving from 1990 to 1997, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, from 1997 to 2002. She is currently Director ofthe Ethical Globalization Initiative, which aims to foster more equitable international trade and development, strengthen responses to HIV/AIDS in Africa, and shape more humane miration policies. Brown Journal of World Affairs: You are speaking today about contemporary anti- Semitism in Europe. Do you think this is a global phenomenon, or is it solely a Euro- pean problem? Mary Robinson: I think it a global phenomenon. It just happens to be particularly virulent in Europe, and I have been conscious of that for a number of years. This is not the first time I am speaking about this; as Commissioner, I wrote to the foreign minis- tries of a number of European governments in 2002 asking them to take more active steps. It was of course the Nazi period in Europe that was one ofthe darkest moments of anti-Semitism, and was what led to global recognition ofthe problem. It prompted the recognition that the world needed a United Nations Charter, and I recall that the Jewish community here in the United States played a very significant role in the draft- Copyrigbt © 2005 by the Brown Journal of World Affairs WINTER/SPRING 2005 • VOLUME XI, ISSUE 2 MARY ROBINSON ing of that charter. With significant Muslim populations in a number of European countries, I think that there is some reinvigoration, but as I say in my speech, it is not a good thing to oversimplify. Some European countries in particular have not dealt with the issue consistently; it is really an issue of racism and should be treated as such. Journal: Do you think current anti-Semitism is different from previous incarnations? Robinson: I deal with that in my speech, and what I say is that there are different reference points today. Nevertheless, it tends to be seen too simplistically, as a rising problem furthered by the current conflict in the Middle East, and due to the fact that there are large Muslim populations in Europe. For various reasons, which I will go through today, that is not an adequate way of explaining it. Journal: What is a more appropriate way of engaging this issue in Europe? Robinson: You have to engage, firstly, by seeing it as a human rights issue, secondly by seeing it as an issue of racism. After you change your perspective, you then need to have appropriate monitoring of hate crimes. There is currently a larger need to have hate crime units, not just for anti-Semitic crimes, but also for anti-Muslim crimes and crimes 12 that target other vulnerable populations. We also need effective ways of dealing with the problem in national legislation; some countries have addressed this, but many have not. In my speech, I comment a little bit on the recent conferences in Europe: the OSCE conferences, the Berlin conference, the Vienna conference, and more recendy, the meeting in Brussels. I take a lot of my information and awareness from the organi- zation Human Rights First. Michael Posner, Executive Director of Human Rights First, is a very close friend and ally, and so I am aware of what he has been trying to do. I have supported him, as he supports the work I am trying to do. Journal: Do you see connections between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in Europe? Does anti-Semitism arise from anti-Zionism, or vice-versa? Robinson: I think that anti-Zionism is a particularly virulent, hateful form of anti- Semitism. The issue came up in the World Conference Against Racism, when I was Commissioner, and it was the reason why I would not accept the text put forward by the NGO forum. Even though there were some very good points in the text on other issues, it tried to say that Zionism is racist. As a result, I made it very clear that I would not recommend the text to the government representatives, which was unprecedented, THE BROWN JOURNAL OF WORLD AFFAIRS Contemporary Anti-Semitism: An Urgent Challenge because normally in a human rights context, one tells governments to look to civil society and to listen to those working on the frontlines of child rights and poverty. Journal: Do you see anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism affecting the United Nation's treatment of Israel? Robinson: What I certainly was aware of during my five years as High Commissioner was that the United Nations has an almost impossible and inappropriate way of deal- ing with the issue, both from the Israeli and Palestinian perspectives. It is a context where both peoples feel victimized. On the Israeli side, victimization comes from the fact that Israel is targeted on the UN Commission for Human Rights agenda, in the General Assembly, and in the Security Council, through various motions that are brought up and through various resolutions and through the fact that many countries vote in support of those resolutions. On the Palestinian side, no matter what is brought up, and even though they may have the support of every other country in the world, the United States will always back Israel. So it is double victimization. It is a very sad situation, because it is all so politicized. It does not actually deal with the human rights situation at all. I tried to deal with that because I had no other agenda. I am neither on the Israeli side nor the Palestinian side; I am on the human rights side. I was helped by an extremely good Israeli NGO telling me ofthe human rights issues that were of concern to me, of certain actions ofthe Israeli military, for example, that were violating human rights norms. Equally, I condemned again and again suicide bombing. Suicide bombing of civilians is never justified and never ac- ceptable. The mechanisms of dealing with the problem have to be inter-governmental, but are currently so politicized that they only lead to this double victimization. Journal: As you mentioned, we have seen this binary emerge in aspects of global poli- tics, with the United States and Israel on the one side and perhaps everyone else on the other. Do you think that rising anti-Americanism in Europe is related to anti-Semitism? Robinson: My personal, subjective sense is that these are less connected in parts of Europe, but they are worryingly related in the Middle East. I was recendy in Cairo, for hearings of the Global Commission on International Migration, and I was in Jordan not very long before. In Jordan, which is by many standards a moderate Arab state, I was shocked by the depth of the anti-Americanism I encountered. The Jordanians would then qualify their dislike by suggesting that is not the American people who they dislike, but rather the Bush Administration, because of the approach it is taking to- wards the Middle East. Now, after President Bush's re-election, will that distinction still WINTER/SPRING 2005 • VOLUME XI, ISSUE 2 MARY ROBINSON be drawn? Anti-Americanism is associated with the very close support ofthe Bush Administration for the government of Prime Minister Sharon and the close re- lationship between President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon. That is very clearly part of a much more outspoken and very strong anti-American senti- ment, which is not good for anybody. Putting the need for a political way for- ward in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the front burner would ease things a lot. It is a problem that is wider than anti- Semitism, and a resolution would ease a whole range of issues; I agree with those Photos Courtesy of Nancy Soukup who think it is a priority. President Mary Robinson speaks at the Watson Institute's Director Series. 14 (8 November 2004) Journal: What do you think are the other human rights priorities for the world today? Robinson: Darfur, naturally. The violence is spinning out of control, and it is appall- ing that the world does not care enough. It was an interesting development when Secretary of State Colin Powell—somebody who I admire greatly—gave evidence be- fore a committee of Congress recently and described what was happening in Darfur as genocide. That was a change in State Department position, and what worried me was that it conveyed a message that what was happening in Darflir was genocide, but that no additional steps were going to be taken. For me, this is the worst of all possible things. I think that the Secretary General was right to set up a commission to investi- gate whether it is, in all its contexts, genocide, but it is terrible to think that in 2004 we can have the Secretary of State ofthe United States say that this is genocide, but then not venture to do anything, and nor does anybody else. That is not to say that Secretary Powell and civil society here have not done much more than has been done in Europe. There is a tension here in the United States, but I think we have to reserve a character- ization of genocide for when we are prepared to do something. It is too serious. In the context of current action, Africa is taking the lead in addressing this prob- THE BROWN JOURNAL OF WORLD AFFAIRS Contemporary Anti-Semitism: An Urgent Challenge lem.