JAFI Chairman Calls on Countries Worldwide to Condemn Anti-Semitic Acts and to Enact Appropriate Laws

Sallai Meridor, Chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive and World Zionist Organization, welcomed the UN Human Rights Committee's decision to condemn acts of anti-Semitism. "This is an important step in the right direction, and I congratulate both the Jewish communities and the Foreign Ministry for their intensive activity that brought about this decision".

Meridor also called on all those involved not to make do only with this step, but to act in two other areas: "I call upon the UN to pass a resolution condemning anti-Zionist incitement that is based on the hatred of and discrimination against the Jews as a nation and their national home. Such incitement is the most prominent expression of modern anti-Semitism".

The JAFI Chairman also called on national leaders who voted in favor of the UN decision to enact laws against anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activity in their parliaments, to prescribe minimum penalties and to ensure that they are enforced. "Exactly 60 years after the Holocaust, anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are once again rearing their ugly heads in the western world - on university campuses in the US, in the bastions of European democracies, in the major cities in Australia and Canada and throughout the Arab and Moslem world. The nations of the world must act to root out such "cancerous" phenomena, and intensify their efforts in the fields of education, legislation and law enforcement", said Meridor.

For further information contact:
Michael Jankelowitz
Liaison to Foreign Press
The Jewish Agency for Israel
Cell: 050-7601706
Voicemail: 02-6202780
e-mail: michaelj@jafi.org