Lobby Watch 12 December 2024
Katharina von Schnurbein attending a conference organized by a pro-Israel lobby group. (Via X formerly Twitter)
Gideon Sa’ar seems to be playing the right mood music. Relations between the European Union and Israel have improved markedly since he became foreign minister.
Sa’ar cannot claim total credit for replacing discord with harmony. Another factor is the changing of the guard in Brussels.
The EU has a new foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas. Sa’ar was in contact with her as she prepared to take up her post and announced that she had agreed to “deepen the political dialogue.”
Through that late November announcement all the bad vibes of recent weeks and months were magicked away. The fact that Josep Borrell, Kallas’ predecessor, had recommended a suspension of “political dialogue” with Israel was pushed down a memory hole.
Sa’ar has been in contact with Kallas again this week. He injected a little comedy into his summary of their latest conversation by tweeting, “Israel is a pillar of strength and stability in the turbulent Middle East.” So far Kallas has not risked souring the romance by telling the truth. In her new role, she has been silent about the Gaza genocide and now Israel’s brazen theft of Syrian land.Josep Borrell, it should be stressed, humored Israel for most of his five-year term. Yet after opposing the bombing of a Gaza school, he was labeled an anti-Semite by the Tel Aviv establishment.
In most circumstances, EU representatives facing baseless accusations can expect support and solidarity from their colleagues. In Borrell’s case, the Brussels hierarchy and most, if not all, officials couldn’t be bothered to defend him.
Katharina von Schnurbein, the EU’s coordinator for combating anti-Semitism, implicitly went along with the smears against Borrell.
In June, she addressed a conference organized by the European Jewish Association (EJA), a lobby group which works closely with the Israeli government.
A resolution adopted at the event condemned Borrell for allegedly displaying a “clear and repeated anti-Israel bias that has been a significant contributory factor to the ongoing anti-Semitism and the vilification of the state of Israel as a whole in the European public space.”
Rather than distancing herself from the attack on Borrell, von Schnurbein stated that she was “honored” to join the conference and outline how the EU is fighting “all forms of anti-Semitism.”
Von Schnurbein is in regular contact with the EJA. Two weeks earlier, her team took part in a separate event it held to address a so-called “anti-Semitism emergency in Europe.”
Among the topics on the agenda for that discussion were giving “greater legal weight” to the definition of anti-Semitism approved by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). That definition conflates criticism of Israel and its state ideology Zionism with bigotry against Jews based on their religion or ethnicity.
Featuring several pro-Israel lawyers, the event considered the practicalities of drafting a “legal guidebook for government and law enforcement.” The book would set “clear guidelines for university management and boards,” according to the agenda.
Through a freedom of information request, I obtained the presentation which von Schnurbein’s team gave on that occasion. The presentation – see below – referred to “systematic problems regarding the prosecution of hate speech” such as “ineffective prosecution and sentencing” by the authorities in EU countries.
Tarnished credibility
Von Schnurbein’s credibility as a campaigner against hate speech has subsequently been tarnished.
Last month Israeli football hooligans went on the rampage when Maccabi Tel Aviv played Ajax in Amsterdam. By chanting “fuck you Palestine” and “no children left in Gaza,” the hooligans were clearly practicing hate speech and inciting violence.
On 19 November, von Schnurbein conceded that those “anti-Arab slurs” were “fully unacceptable.” She nonetheless continued to portray the Maccabi fans as victims of a “Jew hunt.”
Eleven days prior, she was among the first “public servants” to spread a dishonest version of events. Von Schnurbein claimed that Maccabi fans had been “attacked,” whereas they had actually gone on the attack.
The episode was “reminiscent of Europe’s dark days,” she added, noting that the anniversary of the 1938 anti-Jewish pogrom was then approaching.
The 1938 pogrom is known as Kristallnacht (The Night of the Broken Glass) as Nazis smashed up synagogues and Jewish property in Germany.Since October 2023, almost every night has been a Kristallnacht (and often much worse) for the people of Gaza.
That analogy is apposite. Yet anyone who draws it could be considered an anti-Semite under the IHRA definition that von Schnurbein champions.
Von Schnurbein has held her current position for nine years.
Throughout that time, she has weaponized anti-Semitism to cast aspersions against defenders of Palestinian rights, particularly those who support the call for boycotting Israel.
Her team’s work on “hate speech” is almost certainly an attempt to criminalize college encampments and other protests against the Gaza genocide.
While “hate speech” targeting people based on their race or religion is abhorrent, hating a government that commits genocide is commendable.
It is entirely legitimate to hate Israel, the crimes committed by that state and the toxic ideology called Zionism – just as it was entirely legitimate to hate South Africa’s white regime and the doctrine of apartheid.
Decent people everywhere have filled their hearts with hatred of Israel’s crimes. Von Schnurbein will not succeed in removing that hatred.
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