This Sunday, May 4th, the “European Dissidents Congress” was to take place in the heart of Europe: Brussels. The event planned to gather Europe’s most prominent anti-Semites, among them Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, who has been already convicted in court eight times on charges of anti-Semitism, Alain Soral, who considers Zionism Judaism a mental illness or Kemi Seba, a promoter of racial violence who has terrorized the Rue des Rosiers Jewish quarter in Paris with his Parisian political group Tribu KA.
EUJS strongly condemns such gatherings of hate, and welcomes the city of Brussels’ decision to ban the event. We call on all municipalities across Europe to follow Brussels’ lead, and to publicly oppose events that openly promote anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. The city of Brussels sends a strong message to its citizens about the fundamental values it is built on: Equal rights for all, and a spirit of multiculturalism that respects and protects all groups and identities.
However, we remain deeply concerned about this so-called “congress” and its aims to further mobilize supporters for its heinous ideologies and merge far-right and far-left racist propaganda. This event, though prevented at the last minute, is merely the latest expression of a movement that is continuously growing around Europe. The rise and connectivity of far-right and populist parties that openly promote anti-Semitism, racism and hate speech is well monitored and documented. It is evident that they threaten not only minorities around Europe, but the fundamental democratic values on which our societies are built on.
Hence, monitoring and documenting is not enough anymore. We have a clear understanding of the threats – We need to follow the example of the Belgian and French organizations – Le Comité de Coordination des Organisations juives de Belgique (CCOJB), L’Union des Anciens Etudiants de l’ULB – ULB Alumni (UAE), l’Union des Etudiants Juifs de Belgique (UEJB) , la Ligue internationale contre le racisme et l’antisémitisme (LICRA) et l’Association des Cercles Etudiants de l’ULB (ACE) – who worked hard to prevent this event in Brussels today. We need to begin acting, now!
Watch out for the launch of the EUJS campaign with facts on far-right and populist parties across Europe and ideas on how to mobilize in your community.
Join EUJS in the call on all European citizens to vote in the European Parliament elections, expose the worrying ideologies behind the far-right and populist parties, and ensure that their municipalities don’t tolerate activities that incite against any group or identity!
For more information, please contact eu-affairs@eujs.org or call +32 2 647 72 79.
