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December 26, 2003/Tevet 1 5764, Vol. 56, No. 14
E.U. mends fences with Europe's Jews
PHILIP CARMEL
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
PARIS - The European Union is beginning to address the concerns of the continent's Jewish leaders - if admitting the existence of a problem is halfway to solving it.
Coming on the heels of stinging criticism from Jewish leaders after the failure of the 15-member bloc to publish a report on anti-Semitism, last week's meeting between the president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, and a joint delegation made up of the European Jewish Congress and the Council of European Rabbis, appeared to be a step forward.
Following the meeting with Prodi, European Jewish Congress President Cobi Benatoff told JTA that the European Union had started to become "sensitized" toward anti-Semitism.
"Before, they refused to even acknowledge the existence of the problem," Benatoff said.
He added that Prodi had promised to convene a seminar on anti-Semitism in Brussels early next year "and we will insist that its session is held in public."
The seminar, likely to be held in Brussels in February, will involve religious and com-munity leaders from across Europe as well as E.U. officials, Benatoff said.
The meeting with Prodi also comes after a EJC request to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that the E.U.'s heads of state condemn anti-Semitism as part of a closing statement at last week's E.U. Council in Brussels that marked the end of Italy's presidency of the body.
That request was upheld, as the European Union expressed "its deep concern at the increase in instances of anti-Semitic intolerance" and condemned "all manifestations of anti-Semitism, including attacks against religious sites and individuals."
Although the condemnation from the heads of state represented only a few lines in a closing statement addressing more than 50 separate items of E.U. policy commitments, its significance was not lost.
According to the EJC's vice president, Pierre Besnainou, Jewish leaders were appreciative that E.U. leaders were able to relate to the problem of anti-Semitism "despite the heavy agenda devoted mainly to the European Union constitution."
At the last E.U. Council in September, the EJC had blasted the E.U. heads of state for refusing to condemn anti-Semitic remarks by then-Malaysian Prime Minister Mohammed Mahathir.
Reports at the time sug-gested that French President Jacques Chirac and his Greek counterpart, Costas Simitis, had blocked the inclusion of a condemnation, although Chirac later denied this.
Since then, relations between the European Union and European Jewry have gone from bad to worse, with the publication of an E.U. poll showing that more Europeans see Israel as a threat to world peace than any other country. Also, the European Com-mission temporarily refused to publish a study that largely blamed Islamic and pro-Palestinian elements for the dramatic increase in anti-Semitic attacks.
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