OSCE MEETS IN SPAIN ON ANTI-SEMITISM AND RACISM

Following the conferences in Berlin, Paris, Brussels and Warsaw, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe brought together in Cordoba the delegations from its 55 member States as well as numerous Non Governmental Organizations.

The OSCE concluded the Cordoba meeting stating, “International events and political issues in Israel or elsewhere in the Middle-East can never be a justification for anti-Semitism.

The Conference insisted upon the rise of anti-Semitism in the Eastern European countries, as in Poland. “Until now, discrimination in Eastern Europe went almost unnoticed, even as it was constantly increasing,” said Floriane Hohenberg, Advisor to the Bureau for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, an OSCE Direction located in Warsaw. “The widening of the EU to Eastern European countries slated for 2007 compels the future members states to be more transparent on their policy regarding racist acts and apology of violence.

On the issue of the confusion of the public between Islamic terrorism and Muslims in general, the Conference also condemned the identification of terrorism with “A religion, an ethnic group or a culture.”

Following is the full text of Elisabeth Cohen-Tannoudji’s speech to the general assembly.

« I would like to express the deep concern of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, the CRIF, that I represent as a member of the French delegation, over issues relating to the propagation of anti-Semitic stereotypes in the media. This problem presents a major challenge to our societies, which have a need to find a point of balance between, on the one hand, the principles of freedom of expression and of the free circulation of information – which are among the founding principles of democracy -, and on the other hand the propagation, by way of those very same media, of anti-Semitic but also racist and xenophobic stereotypes.

France is very vigilant in this regard and has given itself a highly effective legislative framework, indeed and without a doubt among the most effective known today. Anti-Semitism cannot be considered to be the expression of an opinion, and French law reproves and condemns it as a criminal offence. This is a fundamental principle of respect for human dignity, a principle defended by European and international institutions.

There is an urgent need, at a time when the media no longer know any borders, for those same institutions to set up effective instruments that will enable their member States to counter incitement to racial hatred. The media that are being referred to during this session all present different characteristics in this area. The most worrisome, of course, are first and foremost the Internet and satellite television, because of the tentacular mode of dissemination that characterizes them both. For the purposes of this forum, I wish to restrict myself to satellite television.

France has undertaken a successful action that we salute, by banning, after long and difficult procedures, the broadcasting of two satellite television channels, the Lebanese Hezbollah channel Al Manar and the Iranian channel Sahar1, because their programs presented and still present a violently anti-Semitic character.

This is good, indeed very good, but we must enlarge the scope of our thinking and our action.

We need to enlarge it because, on the one hand, these two television channels are the trees that hide the forest. To say the truth, there are many other channels that broadcast such programs and all of them are likely, sooner or later, to be received in our countries thanks to the satellites. We also need to enlarge it, on the other hand, because we have to give ourselves the legal and technical means to extend the control of such deviances to all our countries.

It is our duty to not allow the preachers of hate to pursue their obstinate work of disseminating anti-Semitism, xenophobia, negationism and the apologetics of terrorism.

On behalf of the CRIF, I wish to make three proposals.

The first is that member States could extend their practices regarding the problem of racist and anti-Semitic content to certain satellite televisions.

The second is that the member States could pool their resources with regard to the monitoring of such racist and anti-Semitic contents.

Finally, the member States could, in the framework of their national legislations, encourage satellite television professionals, in particular those who are in charge of establishing uplinks, to make sure that the programmes do not have any illicit content. »