Across Europe, reports of Anti-Semitism have surged. At the last European Committee of the Regions plenary, Anne Rudisuhli, member of the Bouches-du-Rhône departmental Council put this issue on the agenda, unequivocally condemned all anti-Semitic acts and contributed to the debate on how to locally reinforce the fight against anti-Semitism in the EU.
Rudisuhli took the floor on a subject she would never have thought it would be relevant again: the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe. Since October it has reached proportions unseen since the Second World War with more than 1,500 anti-Semitic acts in France alone, hate messages on social media, desecrated graves in Belgium, Molotov cocktails sent to a synagogue in Germany, the same in the Netherlands, in Austria etc…
“The scourge of the resurgence of antisemitism in Europe does not fall from the sky. It is our responsibility as elected officials to name things – to stop just formulating empty phrases like “stop anti-Semitism”. Anti-Semitism has several faces, let us recognize them with courage and lucidity: it ranges from right-wing and left-wing extremism to the Islamist political ideology. Denouncing this fanaticism is not shaming Muslims.”
“We must close the places where hatred is preached; we must systematically take legal action; we must assure our teachers that they will be protected when they teach the history of the Shoah; philosophy or science, we must strengthen educational programs and better support and transmit the universalist values that underpin our Europe, from a very young age. And above all stop this guilty silence which ends up killing. Are we going to tolerate children being anxious every morning on their way to school for long?”
“Our Committee of the Regions must answer these questions and face them – let’s together create a space for discussion, exchanges of practices, solutions that work, innovative educational programs like that of the foundation of the Camp des Miles in Aix. Anything that can help us dismantle prejudices and fight against misinformation. Education does not currently fall within the competence of the EU but in the face of these tragedies we can ask ourselves whether it should become one and as quickly as possible.”
