[House Hearing, 114 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
AFTER PARIS AND COPENHAGEN: RESPONDING TO THE RISING TIDE OF ANTI
SEMITISM
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,
GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
MARCH 24, 2015
__________
Serial No. 114-28
__________
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida BRAD SHERMAN, California
DANA ROHRABACHER, California GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
JOE WILSON, South Carolina GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida
TED POE, Texas BRIAN HIGGINS, New York
MATT SALMON, Arizona KAREN BASS, California
DARRELL E. ISSA, California WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina ALAN GRAYSON, Florida
MO BROOKS, Alabama AMI BERA, California
PAUL COOK, California ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California
RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas GRACE MENG, New York
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania LOIS FRANKEL, Florida
RON DeSANTIS, Florida TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
TED S. YOHO, Florida ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois
CURT CLAWSON, Florida BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania
SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee
REID J. RIBBLE, Wisconsin
DAVID A. TROTT, Michigan
LEE M. ZELDIN, New York
TOM EMMER, Minnesota
Amy Porter, Chief of Staff Thomas Sheehy, Staff Director
Jason Steinbaum, Democratic Staff Director
------
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and
International Organizations
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman
MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina KAREN BASS, California
CURT CLAWSON, Florida DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island
SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee AMI BERA, California
TOM EMMER, Minnesota
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
WITNESSES
The Honorable Ronald S. Lauder, president, World Jewish Congress. 5
Mr. Roger Cukierman, president, Representative Council of Jewish
Institutions of France......................................... 13
Mr. Dan Rosenberg Asmussen, president, Danish Jewish Community... 17
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
The Honorable Ronald S. Lauder: Prepared statement............... 8
Mr. Roger Cukierman: Prepared statement.......................... 15
Mr. Dan Rosenberg Asmussen: Prepared statement................... 19
APPENDIX
Hearing notice................................................... 38
Hearing minutes.................................................. 39
The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress
from the State of New Jersey, and chairman, Subcommittee on
Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International
Organizations:
Statement of the Honorable Eliot L. Engel, a Representative in
Congress from the State of New York.......................... 40
Statement of Dr. Zuhdi Jasser.................................. 42
Statement of the Anti-Defamation League........................ 45
AFTER PARIS AND COPENHAGEN:
RESPONDING TO THE RISING TIDE
OF ANTI-SEMITISM
----------
TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2015
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health,
Global Human Rights, and International Organizations,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:43 p.m., in
room 2175 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H.
Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Smith. The subcommittee will come to order. Good
afternoon and welcome to everyone joining us today. I
particularly want to welcome our witnesses and Ambassador
Ronald Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress; Mr.
Roger Cukierman, president of the Representative Council of
Jewish Institutions of France; and Mr. Dan Asmussen,
chairperson of the Danish Jewish Community.
In 1982, during my first term in Congress, I traveled with
the National Conference on Soviet Jewry to Moscow and
Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, to meet with Jewish refusniks in
their homes and to engage Soviet leaders. Mark Levin invited me
to be on that trip and has been a friend and a mentor ever
since. For hours on end, Mark and I and a delegation that
included former Democrat member of this committee, who was a
ranking member, Sam Gejdenson, heard stories of the Soviets'
physical and mental abuse, systemic harassment, gulags and
psychiatric prisons, and an array of similarly wanton and
brutal acts of anti-Semitism.
To apply for an exit visa, a universally recognized human
right, which on paper, at least, the Soviet Union had acceded
to, was to invite the cruelty and the wrath of the KGB and
other small minded, morally stunted thugs. To courageously seek
freedom rendered you ineligible for employment in Lenin's
farcical workers' paradise. The Soviet system, militantly
atheistic and morally incoherent, wouldn't let Jews leave, but
didn't want Jews to stay either, a bizarre paradox.
To a brand new, 27-year-old Congressman, it was bewildering
and deeply troubling. Why do they hate Jews? And I pondered
that question over and over again and why the anti-Semitic
obsession? Well, sadly, it has not changed and it is getting
worse.
This is the ninth hearing I have chaired on combating anti-
Semitism. The first was right after the Republicans took
control. We put together a hearing called ``The Rising Tide of
Anti-Semitism.'' And even though the Soviet Union had
matriculated to Russia, we heard how anti-Semitism had become
privatized and the government was doing little or nothing to
mitigate its occurrence. We also heard that it was rising
everywhere as well.
However, never in modern times has the need to defend Jews
everywhere been greater. Our next hearings will be on the
explosion of anti-Semitic hate on college campuses and Jewish
community security which increasingly has to be addressed and
real dollars put in place to lessen that threat as well.
For the first time since the Holocaust, the physical
security of Jewish communities in Europe have become a top
level concern. Our hearing today will examine the horrifying
state of affairs facing Jewish communities in Europe at this
time.
At a congressional hearing that I had in 2002, Dr. Shimon
Samuels of the Wiesenthal Center in Paris testified and I quote
him, ``The Holocaust for 30 years after the war acted as a
protective teflon against blatant anti-Semitic expression,
especially in Europe.'' `` deg. That teflon,'' he
said, ``has eroded and what was considered distasteful and
politically incorrect is becoming simply an opinion. But
cocktail chatter,'' he went on to say, ``at fine English
dinners can end as Molotov cocktails against synagogues.''
That is exactly where we are now, 13 years later. What was
anti-Semitic cocktail chatter then, has now led to two people
shot and killed at a synagogue and a Jewish cultural center in
Copenhagen and four killed in a terrorist attack on a kosher
supermarket in Paris. These are only the most recent outrages
in a terrifying increase of extreme anti-Semitic violence. Let
us not forget the May 2014 murder of four people at the Jewish
Museum in Brussels and the March 2012 murder of three Jewish
children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in the French city of
Toulouse.
Each of these four attacks was perpetrated by a killer who
has links to a jihadist movement. For far too long, far too
many government officials, many of them mired in what Natan
Sharansky summarized as ``the application of double standards
and the demonization of Israel'' have reacted weakly to this
danger. Meanwhile, the threat has grown exponentially.
Today, at least 3,000, perhaps more than 5,000 EU citizens
have left to join ISIS in Syria, Iraq, and other conflict
zones. This is the recent estimates of Europol, the EU's joint
criminal intelligence body. It would be criminally
irresponsible not to take this number as a warning of events
much worse to come and to make every effort to prepare
accordingly. And of course, that also applies to those who have
gone to those battlefields from the United States.
In 2002, in response to what appeared to be a sudden
frightening spike in anti-Semitism in several countries
including the U.S., I first proposed the idea of conferences on
combating anti-Semitism under the auspices of the Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Convinced we had an
escalating crisis on our hands, I teamed with several OSCE
partners, including Germany and members of the Bundestag, to
push for action and reform. Many of the people in the NGOs
present in this room played leading and pivotal roles in that
effort. Those efforts directly led to the creation of the OSCE
Chairperson-in-Office's Personal Representative on Combating
Anti-Semitism, which has been filled with great distinction by
Rabbi Andy Baker since 2009.
Rabbi Baker has done outstanding work, dogged and
energetic. He has been the driver behind everything the OSCE
has done, has accomplished in fighting anti-Semitism in recent
years.
My efforts with partners to put anti-Semitism on the OSCE
agenda also led to important conferences in Vienna, Berlin, in
Bucharest, and last fall in Berlin. In each of these,
participating states have made solemn, tangible commitments to
put our words into action. In some countries progress indeed
has been made. Institutions that fight anti-Semitism have been
created and they have done excellent work. They have also done
the all-important work of chronicling it. As Sharansky said at
one of our hearings, ``If you don't chronicle the crime, how
can you fight it?'' But it has not been enough to reverse the
new anti-Semitism sweeping Europe and it has failed miserably
to anticipate and prevent the arrival of jihadist anti-Semitism
in Europe. That is why we are here today, to review, recommit,
and reenergize efforts to stop the evil of anti-Semitic
violence that is threatening the Jewish communities of Europe.
And again, this is worldwide, but our focus primarily is on
Europe today.
We need to learn more about what must be done to ensure
community security, how the community sees the threats they
face, what they are doing about them, what the European
governments are doing about them and how everyone can and must
do more.
We can also learn how the U.S. should do more and be more
effective in this fight. And this is especially in light of
World Jewish Congress President Lauder's all-important
question, who will lead off our witnesses, when he says in
testimony today, ``Where is the United States?'' Ambassador
Lauder will say, ``Once again, like the 1930s, European Jews
live in fear. In my travels to all of these communities,'' he
goes on, ``I am asked the question around Europe and the world.
Where is the United States? Why isn't the United States leading
the world in this crisis?''
I would like to now yield to my good friend and colleague,
Mr. Mark Meadows, for any comments he might have.
Mr. Meadows. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank each of you
for being here and also thank you to the 60 or so of you who
are here from the World Jewish Congress. I noticed that you
were here because you were arguing with each other on which way
to get to the hearing room and it is a pleasure to have you
here.
Sadly, this is an all too familiar theme and what we have
heard and I will speak from the heart today because for this
particular issue, it is a passion for me. It is one that we
must continue to not only voice and articulate, but do it in a
way that is persuasive where we can bring the rest of the world
to an understanding of what happens each and every day. And I
say each and every day because there are over 550 violent anti-
Semitic crimes that are perpetrated every year. And so when we
look at that and I am not just talking about slights, I am
talking about violent incidents, so almost two a day, that are
being experienced across the country and across the world.
And when we look at that, to put it in context, we have not
seen this level since the days of World War II. And when we
look at that, it is troubling when we can see that kind of
rhetoric, hostility, and truly a hatred that continues to come
out and honestly be justified because of some action that is
happening somewhere else. To think that this would be an action
that could somehow be justified because of a political,
geopolitical thing that is happening throughout the world is
inexcusable.
But I also think that it is critical for us to continue to
raise the awareness. There is a generation that is coming up
that do not know from history other than reading in textbooks
what happened during World War II. It is not personal. The
Holocaust survivors are truly disappearing at an alarming rate
just because of age and yet, we are not doing a good job of
truly educating and informing the generation to come.
And so my plea to each one of you is as Chairman Smith
raises this issue in this hearing and the witness testimony
hopefully will highlight it today, is that I need you to
redouble your effort in your communities, in your synagogues,
in the places where you do business, to make sure that this
message continues to get told to the generations that are
coming.
I will close with this. It is a personal story of my wife
and I on the banks of a river in Budapest and there on the
banks are some shoes, some bronze shoes. They are a reminder of
a terrible, terrible thing that happened long ago. And yet, if
we do not stand firm today, that same tragedy could happen
again, and in ways is happening again today. And so I look
forward to the testimony and I join the chairman in an
unyielding resolve to make sure that we address this particular
issue. And I thank the chairman.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Meadows, thank you very much for your
opening comments and thank you for your leadership. I would
note for the record that Mr. Meadows is not only one of the
leaders on religious freedom in general, believing that we all
need to protect the rights of people of faith to act and
believe and follow their conscience, but he has been especially
tenacious on the issue of combating anti-Semitism and I want to
thank him for that.
I would like to recognize our distinguished witnesses
beginning first with Ambassador Ronald Lauder, who has served
as President of the World Jewish Congress since June 2007 and
has championed the safety and security of the State of Israel
in the public arena for many years. From 1983 to 1986, he
served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European
and NATO Affairs. And in 1986, he was appointed by President
Ronald Reagan as Ambassador to Austria. He is the former
chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American-
Jewish Organizations and has made the fight against anti-
Semitism a life-long endeavor. He is a man who has truly made a
difference.
We will then hear from Mr. Roger Cukierman who was elected
as President of the Representative Council of Jewish
Institutions of France in 2001. He was reelected in 2004 and
again in 2013. He is Vice President of the World Jewish
Congress and serves as Treasurer of the Foundation for the
Memory of the Shoah. He is active in many of the social and
educational institutions of the Jewish community and has made
the fight against anti-Semitism his main priority, demanding
French Government action to fight hate crimes, defending the
safety and security of Jewish schools, houses of worship, and
urging solidarity with victims of terror.
We will then hear from Mr. Dan Rosenberg Asmussen who was
elected as the chairperson of the Danish Jewish Community
Center in 2014. In his professional career, he is the Deputy
Director of the Association of Danish Pharmacies. He played an
important role in the immediate aftermath of the attack at the
Copenhagen synagogue last month by managing the crisis unit and
liaisoning with local law enforcement authorities as well as
political leaders.
So Ambassador Lauder, if you could begin your statement.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE RONALD S. LAUDER, PRESIDENT, WORLD
JEWISH CONGRESS
Ambassador Lauder. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. But
before I start, Mr. Meadows mentioned the shoes along the
Danube. What had happened in the closing days of World War II,
as the Russians were surrounding Budapest and they cut off the
rail lines, they still wanted to kill more Jewish people. They
took something like 5,000 Jewish people, had them undress, put
10 and 20 together, roped together with wire and pushed them
into the Danube and let them drown together, just as a last
ditch effort to kill people. It was the Arrow Cross that did
most of it and interestingly enough the Arrow Cross has been
re-erected in Budapest and it is now an organization there with
a terrible history. Thank you.
I would like to thank you personally, Mr. Chairman, for
your support of every religion, race, gender, and age who live
in this great country.
The particular topic today at this particular moment in
history after Paris and Copenhagen, responding to the rising
tide of anti-Semitism, is sadly all too timely. It is
reminiscent of an even darker age that we thought was behind
us. With your permission, I would like to submit a statement.
Exactly 70 years ago, as American GIs advanced into Nazi
Germany in the last days of the most devastating war in
history, the world had a glimpse of the horror of unbridled
anti-Semitism. The images of the concentration camps that were
liberated throughout Europe in the spring of 1945 still cause a
universal shudder to this day. For the first few decades after
World War II, we mistakenly, all of us, believed that anti-
Semitism, the age-old hatred of Jews, had finally disappeared
from Europe and everywhere else. That is because in the 1950s
and 1960s, no one in their right minds wanted to be associated
with Nazis. It is because we all saw where this kind of hatred
leads. And, perhaps, people who still harbored these beliefs
were too embarrassed to express them openly.
I now tell you with the greatest sadness that 70 years
later, the age-old virus of anti-Semitism has returned in all
its evil and ugliness. Anti-Semitism has returned to streets of
Paris and Toulouse, to the streets Brussels and Copenhagen. It
has even returned to Berlin.
You will hear the personal accounts from my friend, Roger
Cukierman, the head of the Jewish community in Paris, but
listen to these frightening facts.
Jews make up less than 1 percent of the population of
France, but they were victims of more than half of all the
racial attacks in that country last year. The number of anti-
Jewish attacks in France in 2014 doubled from the year before.
In Great Britain, the number of anti-Semitic attacks also
doubled from the year before. In Austria, again we saw the
amount of anti-Semitic attacks doubling. In fact, the EU report
from 9 nations showed that 16 months ago, long before the
latest wave of terror, Jews in these countries were already
concerned about growing anti-Semitism. You don't have to be a
mathematician to see an obvious trend here.
There is a hatred growing throughout Europe that is causing
Jews to wonder if they should leave. They are asking if there
is a future for Jews on that continent.
Last fall, I sat with representatives of the Jewish
community in Rome and they told me that although they may stay,
their children and definitely their grandchildren will leave.
They told me that the Jewish community in Rome, that has
existed since the time of Christ and survived Hitler, would
disappear within 25 years. How could this happen in 2015?
The answer is that a strange confluence of hatred has taken
hold across Europe today that comes from many different
corners. There are huge populations of Muslim immigrants
throughout Europe. Most are peaceful, but far too many of them
have adopted radical Islam. There are thousands of young
European Muslims that have left to fight with Islamic radicals
in Iraq and Syria, and there is a real fear that they could
return, bringing the bloodshed with them. Some have already
returned and we have seen the consequences.
At the same time, we have seen the rise of smaller right
wing Neo-Nazi extremist groups that have become political
forces in Hungary and Greece and have been seen on the streets
in Germany and France. And there is a third force that may
appear more benign, but it adds fuel to this fire. I am talking
about an educated, elitist class, from universities to the
media, that has a pathological hatred of Israel. They would
never consider themselves anti-Semitic, but they are quite open
in their opinion that only Israel is the source of all of the
problems in the Middle East. This is intellectually dishonest
and devoid of reality. But too many people have accepted their
lies as the truth.
And then there is technology. Seventy years ago, Josef
Goebbels used newspapers, film, and marches to infuse hatred of
Jews into mainstream society. Today, the power of the Internet
sends out a constant stream of anti-Semitic ideas at hyperspeed
and there are not enough people speaking up to counter these
lies.
Do you want to know what it is like to be openly Jewish in
Europe today? Just go to YouTube and watch what happens when a
young man simply walks down a European street wearing a
yarmulke. He is insulted, shoved, spat on, and as we saw in
France, Jews who are openly Jewish can also be killed.
Once again, like the 1930s, many European Jews live in
fear.
Members of the committee, in my travels to all of the
communities, I am asked the same question around Europe and the
world, I have been asked where is the United States? Why isn't
the United States leading the world in that crisis? Right after
the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the kosher grocery store in
Paris, over 1 million people marched in defiance of those
murders. Many of the leaders of Europe linked arms in
solidarity in the very front row. But there was not one U.S.
representative with them in the front row.
I believe this sent a very negative message around the
world. European leaders have stepped up and strongly condemned
these attacks on Jews and the rise of anti-Semitism. The United
States must do the same. The United States must lead. When a
Neo-Nazi party like Jobbik in Hungary or Golden Dawn in Greece
wins substantial votes in elections, the United States must
condemn in the strongest possible terms these anti-Semitic
parties. My fear is that muted condemnations or worse, silence,
could lead to what we saw in Europe 70 years ago. and that led
to deaths of 60 million people and the destruction of a
continent.
We must insist that European nations better share
intelligence on anti-Semitic Islamic hate preachers. All
countries must better monitor radical Islam recruiting in
prisons, on the Internet, and in mosques. And without question,
we must closely monitor European and U.S. nationals returning
from the Middle East and Africa. The United States can and must
speak loudly and clearly to condemn this evil for what it is,
the radical Islamic hatred of Jews.
Mr. Chairman, one of the bravest men in history, Sir
Winston Churchill, came to Westminster College in Fulton,
Missouri in 1946 and he warned us that the Soviet takeover of
Eastern Europe was complete and an Iron Curtain had descended
across the continent. Churchill was trying to wake up a
sleeping world because too many people didn't want to believe
him. We had just fought a war against totalitarianism and we
were tired. We didn't want to fight another one.
Well, today, it is not an Iron Curtain that is descending
across Eastern Europe. It is a white-hot fire and its reach is
much greater. This new, incandescent flame is scorching the
entire Middle East from Tehran, across Iraq, and through Syria,
Lebanon, Gaza, and now Yemen. It stretches across parts of
North Africa. It destroys everything in its path and leaves
nothing alive, not Jews, not Christians and not Muslims who
don't share their exact beliefs.
Unless we act now, the flame of radical Islam could stretch
across all of Europe as well. After Churchill's speech in
Missouri, it took 44 years and billions of dollars to defeat
Soviet Communism. We were focused back then, we were committed,
we were united with our allies, and we were able to win the
Cold War without horrific bloodshed.
But in order to defeat this new flame of radical Islamic
terror and survive, the United States must lead. I fear that if
we do not stand up to this new foe immediately, it will take us
much longer than 44 years to defeat it. I fear it will cost us
much more of our treasure and, most tragically of all, I fear
it will consume many, many more lives, not just in the Middle
East and Europe, but here as well.
Members of the committee, we must not let this happen
again. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ambassador Lauder follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
----------
Mr. Smith. Ambassador Lauder, thank you very much for your
very powerful and sobering comments to the subcommittee and by
extension to the Congress and to the American people, thank
you.
I would like to now recognize Mr. Roger Cukierman.
STATEMENT OF MR. ROGER CUKIERMAN, PRESIDENT, REPRESENTATIVE
COUNCIL OF JEWISH INSTITUTIONS OF FRANCE
Mr. Cukierman. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee,
thank you for the opportunity to appear before this
subcommittee.
Jews have lived in France for the last 2,000 years. One
thousand years ago, at the time of the crusades, the famous
Talmudist Rachi was living in the city of Troyes. He was
producing wine, a typical French job, and he was also famous
for his expertise in old French language. More than 200 years
ago in 1791, at the time of the French Revolution, French Jews
were given full French citizenship. Today, we are \1/2\ million
Jews in France, less than 1 percent of the French population.
And the CRIF which I chair is the roof body of French Jewish
institutions. It is comparable to the President's Conference of
Major Jewish Institutions.
Today, in 2015, our synagogues and our Jewish schools have
to be protected by the police and even by the army with machine
guns. Why is that so? Because there is a World War started by
Middle Age barbarian fanatics who are cutting heads, are
stoning women, are killing kids, and want to impose to the rest
of the world the Sharia, their concept of what Islam should be
in their views.
The first victims are the moderate Muslims. This is a war
against Western modern civilization. And the Jews are seen by
these jihadists as a privileged target. We Jews are the
sentinels at the forefront of this war. But we are not the only
victims. Military forces, policemen and women, and journalists
are also targeted and killed. These jihadists are acting under
different names: Daesh, ISIS, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, AQIM,
Hamas. It started in the Middle East: Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and
Gaza. It reaches Africa: Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad,
and Tunisia and now it is in Europe: France, Belgium, and
Denmark.
In France, small children were killed in March 2012 in
Toulouse, at point-blank at the entrance of a school by Mohamed
Merah. In 2014, four people were killed in the Jewish Museum of
Brussels by Mehdi Nemouche. And then in January 2015, four
people were killed in the Paris kosher grocery store, and then
in front of the Copenhagen Synagogue. All victims were targeted
because they were Jews. All these killers were jihadists.
In front of that situation the French Government shows a
perfect understanding of our situation. Prime Minister Manuel
Valls said that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. And President
Hollande said that ``it is not the Jews who should leave the
country, it is the anti-Semites.'' And immediately after the
grocery attack, the government added close to 8,000 military to
the police forces to protect the Jewish places.
From where are these jihadists coming? They come from the
Muslim community which is estimated in France around 10 percent
of the total French population. And the French jihadists is
estimated at 1,300 people who are presently combating in Syria
and Iraq. And among them many French ethnics recently converted
to Islam.
It seems that they are generally not influenced by the
French imams, not influenced by the press which they don't
read, nor by the TV that they don't watch. They were educated
to the jihad in the French jails and by Internet.
This is why the CRIF, our organization, bought a full page
ad in the New York Times on March 2, 2015, which was an appeal
to our American friends and also to you asking that they should
put pressure on the Internet providers to set a limit to the
swarm of hate which can be found on Internet, to remove anti-
Semitic contents as soon as it is flagged. On the Internet ways
were found to ban child pornography. Likewise anti-Semitism
must be banned. The providers of Internet must understand that
they bear a responsibility when murders are committed by
youngsters who became jihadists through Internet.
Now the question that I am asked daily is whether there a
future for Jews in France?
An increasing number of French Jews are considering leaving
France. The French Jewish population which is estimated at \1/
2\ million people, is the third largest Jewish community in the
world after Israel and the U.S. In the last 3 years, 12,000
French citizens left to Israel. Others chose the U.S., Canada,
or Australia. Many people refuse to see the future of their
kids if they have to study in schools or to go to synagogues
which appear as fortresses protected by military and heavy
machine guns. The atmosphere is tense. One cannot travel in the
subway with a yarmulke. Anti-Semitism is active in many suburbs
and in many public schools.
Nevertheless, I believe that a big proportion of the French
Jews will remain in France where their roots and their culture
incite them to confront adversity as their parents or ancestors
did at difficult periods like the Dreyfus Affair or the Vichy
period.
Thank you and I am, of course, ready to answer any
questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Cukierman follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
----------
Mr. Smith. Mr. Cukierman, thank you very much for your
insights and counsel and your historical perspective which is
very, very illuminating. We look forward to questions when we
get to that point.
I would like to now ask Mr. Asmussen, if you would proceed.
STATEMENT OF MR. DAN ROSENBERG ASMUSSEN, PRESIDENT, DANISH
JEWISH COMMUNITY
Mr. Asmussen. Dear Mr. Chairman, dear Members of Congress.
It is a great honor for me to testify before the United States
Congress, although it is on a sad occasion.
You probably think of Denmark as a small and peaceful
country. And it is basically also the way we think ourselves.
We are people of 5.5 million, 5,000 Jews.
Only 2 years ago, October 2013, the Danish society
celebrated the 70 years commemoration of the saving of the
Danish Jewry from the Nazi onslaught. It was an amazing
achievement of the Danish society to stand up, come together
and to save its Jewish minority. The Danish population believed
that its Jewish neighbors and friends were an integral of the
Danish society, making Denmark a country that could rightfully
be defined as righteous among the nations.
On February 15th this year, the Danish society once again
came together. This time in order to mourn the loss of Dan
Uzan, a 37-year-old Jewish man, who was murdered while
protecting the guests at a Bat Mitzah party in the Jewish
Community Center. Thousands of Danes came together in order to
speak out against terror.
While the community was in shock and despair, Danes showed
again how much they care for their Jewish citizens. In the days
following the attack, thousands of people showed their respect.
They laid flowers in front of Copenhagen's synagogue.
So on February 15, the Jewish community and the whole
Danish society was brutally awoken to a new reality. We had
warned the authorities for years that such an attack like that
could happen on Danish soil. We had urged them to take warning
signs seriously, while we, the Jewish community in parallel,
took it upon ourselves to safeguard our community.
The terror attack against the Jewish community in Denmark
did not occur in a vacuum. It did not happen in Copenhagen just
by chance. It was, unfortunately, the culmination of years of
growing anti-Semitism. It happened in a country where it has
become widely acceptable to criticize and question both Israel
and Jews with a carelessness that we did not expect or imagine
just a few years ago.
During the Gaza conflict last summer, a few hundred people
were evacuated by police because police could not guarantee
their safety due to aggression from Hamas supporters during a
demonstration calling for peace, calling for a two-state
solution.
A few days earlier, almost 4,000 people signed a petition
urging Danish media not to use journalists with Jewish heritage
for coverage of Middle East conflict. Yet, it was not before
the Jewish school in Copenhagen was vandalized with graffiti
that politicians decided to react and speak out against these
incidents.
It is, however, important to understand that the Danish
society itself has never been anti-Semitic and that many of the
threats facing Danish Jewry, like in the rest of Europe, come
from marginalized and radicalized Muslims, and these form, I
believe, a small minority of all Muslims in Denmark.
The terrorist who committed the two murders was born and
raised in Denmark and used his religion to justify the crime.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that he is alone with this view.
That was demonstrated when more than 700 people participated in
his funeral cheering at him.
At this point, four people are jailed, accused of helping
him.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have witnessed how
Muslim organizations spoke out against hatred and prejudice
against a fellow citizen. We truly appreciate that expression
of support and we welcome any such initiatives. It is important
for me to emphasize that we have good relations with moderate
Muslim organizations. We work together on issues of common
religious rights.
However, we still need for the Muslim community to do more,
to become more outspoken against violence and hatred, to
confront hate and prejudices toward Jews.
Danish society can only do so much. The real long-term
solution needs to be found inside the Muslim community, and we
need them to take more responsibility in speaking out against
anti-Semitism and against terror committed in the name of their
religion.
In recent weeks, the Jewish community received strong
support from the Danish politicians through the media. We
believe it served as a wake-up call and we expect that our
problems will now be taken more seriously than in the past.
Last week, Ira Forman visited Copenhagen. Ira Forman is a
Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism. He made it
clear to us that the Danish Government in his opinion is not
doing enough compared with the European countries to combat
anti-Semitism. And he said that it could never be justified
that the Jewish community, or any other minority group for that
matter, should have to prioritize security over education or
ultimately prioritize security over the future of the
community.
Mr. Forman is right. If we spend all our resources on
security, our children won't have a future. Yet, if we fail to
protect our children, Danish Jewry won't have a future either.
The parents simply won't send them to the Jewish school.
We need at this point a long-term governmental plan that
will keep our community safe as much as possible. The Justice
Department has said that such a plan is in the making. And we
need the Muslim community to speak out and help in building a
democratic, tolerant, and peaceful society. This is the only
viable and long-term solution, so we one day will not need to
risk the lives of our children in order for them to protect the
community as Dan Uzan did.
I feel truly grateful toward the Danish society for
standing up for the Jewish minority in these difficult times. I
just wish they had done so when we asked for help after the
incidents in Toulouse and Brussels.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Asmussen follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
----------
Mr. Smith. Thank you so very much, Mr. Asmussen, for your
statement and insights. We have been joined by some members who
weren't here during opening statements so before going to
questions, I would like to briefly ask if they would like to
give an opening, beginning with David Cicilline who is the
acting ranking member.
Mr. Cicilline. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you
for your leadership and for calling today's hearing on
responding to the rising tide of anti-Semitism, to give us an
opportunity examine in depth, the alarming increase in anti-
Semitic incidents in Europe and begin to discuss what
approaches should be used to temper this extremism that is
unprecedented since the end of World War II.
I would also like to thank our very distinguished witnesses
for being here today. Thank you for sharing your assessment of
what the current status of anti-Semitism is in Europe and what
specific trends you are seeing and what should be done to
combat it and how we in Congress can assist.
The rise of anti-Semitism and related hate crimes in recent
months is beyond debate. While many were awakened to this
reality in January when four Jewish customers were killed in a
kosher market in Paris, days after the attack on the satirical
magazine, Charlie Hebdo, that left 12 people dead, anti-
Semitism has been on the rise since the early 2000s. The United
Kingdom last year, for example, recorded the highest number of
anti-Semitic incidents with the London police reporting an
increase of 120 percent in anti-Semitic crimes in 2014. Most
alarming perhaps are recent statistics from the Anti-Defamation
League that show that an average of 24 percent of those
surveyed in Western European countries harbor some degree of
anti-Semitic sentiment with that number jumping much higher in
countries like Greece and France.
Furthermore, 66 percent of Jewish respondents indicated
that anti-Semitism was a major problem in their respective
countries. In response to the tragic attack in Denmark where
two individuals were murdered at a synagogue in February, the
Israeli Prime Minister stated, ``We are preparing and calling
for the absorption of mass immigration from Europe. To the Jews
of Europe and to the Jews of the world I say that Israel is
waiting for you with open arms.''
The Chief Rabbi of Copenhagen, however, responded, ``We
will not let terror dictate our lives. We will not. We will
continue living as Jews here in Denmark and everywhere else in
the world.''
The environment that is increasingly conductive to anti-
Semite must be dealt with head on and immediately stopped. The
United States has the largest Jewish population in the world
and Jews have contributed greatly to all aspects of our
society. Therefore, we have a personal stake in protecting
communities as integral to the fabric of the United States. We
need to work together with our European allies to combat anti-
Semitism with the same vigor that we have with respect to
protecting communities and to combating terrorism and ensuring
peace and security around the world.
I look forward to working with my congressional colleagues,
our European counterparts and the Jewish community all over the
world to develop effective strategies to combat the rise of
anti-Semitism in Europe and to work to ensure that this hatred
is stopped in its tracks.
I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Cicilline. Mr. Clawson.
Mr. Clawson. Thank you for coming today and sharing your
personal stories.
Mr. Asmussen, I remember the sadness in my father's eyes
when the murders took place in Denmark. Clawson is Danish. My
forefathers come from about an hour south of Copenhagen in
Borse in Zealand. My dad has taken me there. My father speaks
Danish. And so it hit home to us personally and I will always
remember his face when it happened. And he has told me he was
glad his father wasn't here. So your words hit home and if
there is anything that I can ever do, and I am sure my
colleagues can ever do, to influence this in a positive way I
am innately motivated to do so and see the innate unjustness of
what is going on with the Jewish community in Europe.
I think of your question or your comment that the solution
must come from within the Muslim community. That feels hopeful
to me, but it also feels like we have to prepare for the fact
that that might not happen. And if so, my question for the
three of you then becomes what do we do next? What do we do
now? Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much. Mr. Emmer?
Mr. Emmer. Well, I echo my colleagues' comments. I want to
thank the chair for holding this important hearing and I just
want to thank everyone, not only the witnesses, but everyone
else who understands the importance of this issue and has taken
time to be here today.
It is amazing how this place works. Things are planned all
at the same time and typically the same committees, but that
shouldn't be taken as we don't think this is important. This is
of paramount importance. So my apologies for coming in late. My
thanks to the chair for having this important hearing and for
all of you being here. And let us say the discussion and the
testimony and the issue needs to be at the forefront and we
need to keep raising it so people understand they can't just
ignore it. You need to call things what they are and you need
to address them when they occur.
So again, thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the
witnesses.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Emmer, thank you so very much as well. Let
me begin the questioning if I could. At our hearing in February
2013, Zuhdi Jasser who is the President of the American Islamic
Forum for Democracy and a very outspoken man in the combating
of anti-Semitism made a very, very important insight, provided
the committee a very important insight when he said, ``The link
between Islamism and anti-Semitism is rather simple. It is
self-evident that supremacists from within a particular faith
community will create and exploit hatred toward another faith
community in order to collectively rally their own followers
against a common enemy.'' And then he went on to explain how
this crowds out a more moderate Muslim view. And he said,
``These theo-fascists use the demonization of minorities as a
populist tool to rally populations to their fanaticism.'' He
went on in great depth and I will put part of this back into
the record because I think it is so insightful that this is how
they push out people--the Sadats of this world--who reach
across and they divide and try to offer a common ground with
Jews and with the State of Israel. And I am wondering what your
thoughts might be on that because it seems as if the extremists
win when there is not a counter force equal or greater to that
effort.
Secondly, Mr. Asmussen, you mentioned Ira Forman. I would
note for the record that in 2004, I sponsored the amendment
that created that his office and position; very insightful at
the time. Senator Voinovich had a bill that I sponsored on the
House side. His bill passed, came over to the House. And I
worked very closely with members on the other side of the
aisle. We had a bipartisan effort to create an office that
doesn't just do one report, but makes it permanent time and
time again to do reports to monitor anti-Semitism and to create
this position to work within the State Department as well. And
I would appreciate your thoughts on how well you think that
office might be doing. But at the time, 2004, Colin Powell, who
was then Secretary of State, wrote a letter against the office,
against the amendment. He thought the Human Rights bureau could
handle the law. It was reminiscent of what Bill Clinton did
when I offered the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and it
became law. He did sign it eventually, but the State Department
sent over a letter saying, the Assistant Secretary for
Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, that they will just absorb
all of this into the Human Rights Report and just do a little
more reporting on it, but don't create a lane where this will
be looked at for what it is.
Similarly, when we were working with the coalition and I
formed it, of the willing, in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly,
I was shocked at how many members of Parliament said why don't
we just expand it to everything. Now I do believe we need to
combat anti-Christian beliefs and all the others. I have had
hearings on it. What is happening, I know, Mr. Ambassador, you
have spoken out very forcibly on that, but there is a specific
sense of disproportionality to how Jews are singled out. Look
at our own FBI statistics on hate crimes relative to belief, of
faith. Christians far outnumber all other in the country, yet
less than 10 percent of the FBI hate crimes are committed
against Christians. Ditto for Muslims in this country. Not so
for Jews who are the victims of over 60 percent of all the hate
crimes, even though they are only 2 percent of the population.
It is so disproportionate. It cries out for a single focus.
And even as we were doing the conferences, there is always this
move by the Dutch and by others to just make it xenophobia,
about other issues, always to exclude and in my opinion, reduce
in its focus the issue of combating anti-Semitism. So your
thoughts how Mr. Forman and how well you think that office is
working.
I have other questions, but I want to make sure my
colleagues get time to ask as well. So please, if you could
begin.
Mr. Asmussen. I believe, Congressman, Mr. Clawson asked me
a question. I understand fully your skepticism toward getting
the collective Muslim community in order to confront hate and
prejudice. I understand it because what we see in Denmark and I
talked to many Jewish leaders and it is the same all over. The
Muslim community tends to be very fractured. You will never
tend to find a body as we do within the Jewish community.
And I believe if we find racism and hate in Jewish
community, we will confront it. The problem is it doesn't
happen that often, but I see some changes. I mean sometimes you
have to also look at the positive notes. And there are a few
positive notes, mostly organizations, coming up with ideas like
peace rings about synagogues. There are not many Muslims
participating in these initiatives and I would not like to
exaggerate. But there is a change.
So when you ask what is done now, there is a lot of things
in Denmark being done by the government. After Paris, there was
a huge catalogue of anti-terror legislation being rolled out.
It seems like the murderer, he was known to the system. I mean
he was--many people had reported him to the police intelligence
again and again. He was released from jail 3 weeks before he
killed. He went to authorities to get help getting a flat. No
one did anything.
So there are a lot of things the community can do. You can
do many things to spot radical behavior earlier. But also you
can also do a lot and we are working on that in Denmark right
now in order to spot and help people. But on the long term,
nothing will change unless the mentality changes. If it is
legitimate for religious leaders to teach hatred toward Jews,
nothing will change. And we have cases in Denmark that imams
have been doing exactly that and it takes a lot of time for the
system to come down on them. So they keep on doing these
things.
We are having organizations speaking intensely on hatred
toward Jews, but it is very hard to outlaw them, according to
Danish legislation. We are looking into it, but in my opinion
in the long-term, the solution has to come from within.
Ambassador Lauder. Mr. Chairman and members of the
subcommittee, we are talking about Europe. Anti-Semitism is
alive and well in this country. Starting off, it is taught.
Children are born without hate. They are taught hate. It is
most prevalent in universities, campuses. We have an
organization called Caravan for Democracy which the Jewish
National Fund does. We go on campuses all over. The amount of
anti-Israel which morphs into anti-Jewish is happening all
over. It is happening because there is an organized group
putting money into these things to put pressure on Israel, but
it goes into anti-Jewish also.
The media is guilty, very guilty. I watched CNN during the
Gaza War. Ninety-five percent of it showed people in Gaza being
killed. There was almost no coverage of the 4,000 rockets going
to Israel. We watch it and it has an effect. And anti-Semitism
is also learned at the dinner table. When a mother and father
are sitting there and they watch television and they watch what
happens and they see reporting that is so biased and they say
to each other, look at those Jews what they are doing to
people, look how they are killing people. Their children hear
it and they repeat it. And what happened is that there was no
understanding in media about what can be done.
We watch, we monitor what is happening on the Internet. It
is disgusting what we see. And the amount of things that go on,
and yet, there is no regulation against it. Anti-Semitism is
going to morph into anti-Christian and anti-Muslim at times. We
are at the beginning of something that is very, very dangerous,
not only for Jews in Europe, but Jews throughout the world as
well as Christians and for that matter, Muslims. We ask
ourselves why aren't there more Muslim moderates? Because they
are scared to death. If I was a Muslim and I was a moderate, I
would be worried for my life because there is a feeling, it is
not just we will vote and see who is right. There is a whole
radical thing and it is taking over the country. It is taking
over what is happening. And in many ways, what is happening in
Europe is the canary in the mine. And the fact is that what is
happening there will be happening here very shortly unless we
react. And I commend the subcommittee for taking this up, but
look at it not for Europe, not for Denmark, not for France,
look at it for the world and look at it what is happening on
our college campuses. There is something there.
We also see that in mosques the amount of hatred against
Jews, but also against America there. We have monitored mosques
and we see what is going on. A mosque is a place that should be
for love and understanding. Too often, they are places of
radicalism. We hear this. We know this. We have seen it. But
the fact is there are no laws against it. There are no laws
against what you can say and that is the danger. There is no
law that what you can say on the Internet or media and we see
it. We are just a small segment here.
You have 40 countries here. Each one country can sit here
and testify what is happening here. We speak among ourselves
and frankly, we feel powerless. I think if I asked every person
what is the one place we look towards? We look toward the
United States. We look toward the United States for the help
and understanding because it is the one country that stands up
for religious rights in a very strong way. We need the
Congress. We need your help. We need people, not only this
subcommittee, but a whole looking at what laws--you mentioned
about Ira Forman, what went on. Here is one person that you
tried to get in, you had people fighting it.
There is a feeling also that people don't want to see this.
They want to stay away from it. We had a situation in
California recently where a girl wanted to join an organization
and because she was Jewish, was part of a Jewish organization,
she was denied it. There should have been a huge outcry and
there wasn't.
And again, Roger Cukierman is fighting a battle. He is
fighting a battle. The French Government is there, but there is
very little he can do. If you have 6 million Muslims, even if 1
percent of them, and using math without a computer, it is still
60,000 people who could be radical. What do you do about that?
There are no laws about it.
Canada has just started to look at different laws that can
be done. We must have type of things here in this country. It
must be a chance for everybody to turn around and say this is
the model. These are what should be done. And we are allowing
it to happen.
Mr. Cukierman. Yes, I want to say that anti-Semitism is not
the problem of the Jews. It is the problem of the society. And
it is not a European problem. It is a world problem. And we are
in a war with jihadists. Jihadists are the fanatical Muslims
and you were the first victims of that phenomenon on 9/11. I
think 9/11 was the first step of that war. We are in a war and
somebody asked among you what can you do? First of all, you
have to realize that you are in a state of war. And secondly,
you have to react at that state of war. One of the things which
you can do is to see to it that the Internet stops being a
school to educate jihadists.
Mr. Smith. Thank you. Mr. Deutch.
Mr. Deutch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thanks for giving
me an opportunity just to sit in. I have another hearing. I
appreciate it very much. Thanks for holding the hearing to you
and Ranking Member Bass and thanks for your leadership on this
and so many other human rights issues.
I appreciate the witnesses being here today, for offering
their testimony. It is very helpful for Members of Congress to
hear how the growth of anti-Semitism in recent years is viewed
from a European perspective.
I will just make a couple of quick observations. We know
that an overwhelming majority of the world's Jewish population
lives in the United States and Israel, but in Europe where
centuriess-old Jewish life was decimated by the Holocaust, the
Jewish community that remains faces a growing animosity that is
creating a very real security threat which your testimony here
is so helpful to highlight. It is not to excuse, as Ambassador
Lauder pointed out, it is not to excuse our own homegrown anti-
Semitism. It certainly exists. The fact is it made up more than
50 percent of the religious bias-based hate crimes in 2013, but
it is informative. It is helpful to hear how countries around
the world are responding to intimidation tactics, to pressure,
to deadly attacks on the Jewish populations.
The world as Ambassador Lauder said and as we have heard
repeatedly and rightfully and importantly throughout your visit
the past couple of days, the world has to take action because
of what the rise of anti-Semitism means not just to the Jewish
communities in Europe, but because of what the rise of anti-
Semitism means to all countries that allow it to persist, what
it actually portends for others.
And so I think we have to take action. I am proud to have
joined with my colleagues, many of who are on the dais here
today, the chairman in particular, to form the bipartisan task
force for combating anti-Semitism, the purpose being we want to
try to help our peers in Congress to understand the real and
growing threat posed by anti-Semitism globally to allow Members
of Congress to interact with the administration and to interact
with NGOs and partners abroad to devise innovative ways to try
to address these issues, to curb the threat and to attack it at
its source.
And I will just finish, Mr. Chairman, by again highlighting
that anti-Semitism matters to everyone. It is not just the
Jews, but to every citizen in the world who values human
rights. It is a shared threat. It is a threat that we have to
work together to address what is our common problem.
And Ambassador Lauder, as you point out, efforts to mask
anti-Semitism in some sort of anti-Israel rhetoric should be
exposed for what they are. Ultimately, the threats posed by
anti-Semitism are a threat, as I said, to all of us more
broadly.
Your participation here, Mr. Chairman, your willingness to
hold this hearing and your commitment to this issue means an
enormous amount and I am grateful to be able to just stop by
and participate. Thank you so much. I yield the rest of my
time.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Deutch, thank you very much for being here
and for working in this issue so long and so hard yourself and
we do have now, we have just revitalized and reconstituted a
task force on combating anti-Semitism with four Republicans and
four Democrats as co-chairs. We hope to invite frankly the
entire House to join us. We have had this before, but I think
having four co-chairs on each side will further demonstrate the
significance of this commitment and that we really want to see
action.
I do have questions I will ask a little bit later, but I
would like to yield; we are joined by the gentleman from
Arizona, Trent Franks, who is the chairman of the Constitution
Subcommittee for the Judiciary Committee. He has been back and
forth because he, too, has a markup going on. But he is also
chairman of the Religious Freedom Caucus. So it is really a
privilege to welcome him to the subcommittee.
Mr. Franks. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thanks to
the subcommittee here for just allowing me the privilege to sit
in on this. I am grateful to everyone that is here. I know that
we have had anti-Semitism in the world for a long time, but it
does seem like in recent days it has surged and I am incredibly
discouraged about all of that.
My biggest fear is that somehow the countries of the world
would somehow believe that America's commitment to Israel has
diminished because that is of strategic significance to make it
clear to the world that America is firmly with Israel and that
Israel is with America. I am convinced that Israel is as
important to America as America is to Israel. I know of no
people on earth that contribute more to the cause of humanity
than the people of Israel.
Mr. Chairman, it brings to my mind a quote by Shekh Hassan
Nasrallah that really, I think, puts it into perspective. This
is a jihadist that would do everything he could to destroy
Israel if he could. And he said, ``You know, we have discovered
how to hit the Jews where they are most vulnerable. The Jews
love life. So that is what we shall take from them. We will win
because they love life and we love death.'' Now that is a very
frightening equation to face an enemy that loves death and is
willing to embrace death in order to destroy another people
based on just a bigoted point of view.
I would suggest to you, Mr. Chairman, that should be reason
for great concern on the part of all us. The Jewish people have
demonstrated a history that is unparalleled. when the Holocaust
was over, if any people in the world had reason to quit, I
suppose it was them, but instead of being crushed and instead
of completely giving up, they got their revenge by living. They
dried their eyes and looked up again and they began to build.
And they built a community and they built a nation and today
they are a force in the world for good and today, the Nazis are
gone and Israel remains.
And Mr. Chairman, I think we need all be very committed to
make sure that tomorrow, the jihadists will be gone and Israel
will remain. I am grateful to you, sir, for this very valuable
hearing. I think it is important that the world and the people
of Israel know that some of their rhetoric that has come from
our administration lately does not reflect the hearts of the
Congress.
And with that, sir, I thank you for the opportunity.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Franks. Mr. Cicilline.
Mr. Cicilline. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you again to
our witnesses for your extraordinary testimony. My first
question is I know there that are some who have observed that
there is sort of an emergence of this kind of new normal, and
Ambassador Lauder, you sort of made reference to this in the
context of anti-Semitism. And that is the blurring of
distinctions between being anti-Israel and anti-Jewish in which
anti-Jewish remarks and sentiments are becoming more socially
acceptable. And so I am wondering whether you think that is
happening in Europe? What is your assessment of that?
And following that, one of the things that we are learning
is that there is--some have written that there is a significant
under reporting of incidents of anti-Semitism and that, of
course, hampers our ability to kind of respond to it and help
encourage people to craft responses to it. Do you think that it
remains an issue, particularly in Europe and what can we do
about that? That is my first question and maybe Ambassador
Lauder, you could start.
Ambassador Lauder. There is no question that the anti-
Semitism starts as anti-Israel, no question. It is not in
Europe. It is worldwide. And we hear it. We also have--yes,
there is under reporting because very often when a child comes
home from school and has been beaten up because he was Jewish,
what is the mother going to do? Is she going to call the police
and report it or she just says, ``Look, tomorrow, don't wear a
yarmulke or take a different way.'' And the amount of
unreporting is amazing. But also, I heard a couple of minutes
ago about anti-Jewish and life and loving life. It is also
anti-Christian. We look in the Middle East where there used to
be Jews and the Jews left. Now there is almost no Christians
left in the Middle East because of what is happening.
And the thing that we can't keep missing is that what is
happening to the Jews is going to happen to everybody along the
way, unless it is stopped. And the concern I have and the
concern that I am delighted this subcommittee is here, is that
we must do something more than either appoint somebody or have
a hearing. We must start to look at what type of laws there
are, what can be done, can we be a model? Can we stand up in
the world?
There is no place like the United States to be able to
stand up and do it. And countries should know that if they have
things that are anti-Semitic, they have to pay a price, not
only from the small Jewish communities, be it Denmark and many
other countries don't have the strength to fight the
government. The only chance they have is looking to the United
States and looking to the United States as the model of where
it goes.
I am sorry to be so passionate about it, but to me, what is
happening in this world?
Mr. Cukierman. I have an example of anti-Zionism turning to
anti-Semitism. This summer, the period summer 2014 at the time
of the Gaza War, there was a demonstration in Paris of 35,000
people in favor of the Palestinians, mostly Muslims. They
didn't shout ``Death to Israel.'' They shouted, ``Death to the
Jews.'' And from that demonstration went out hordes of people
and they attacked eight synagogues and Jewish shops. What is
the link if it is not anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism?
Mr. Asmussen. I agree when you say there is somehow a
presence of under reporting. Danish Jews basically stopped
wearing yarmulkes many years ago. They don't dare. If they did,
there are areas of Copenhagen as Mr. Lauder said, you will not
be able to go without getting beaten up. So that is for sure
there is under reporting.
In Denmark, we see primarily left wingers demonizing
Israel. This tends to legitimize this hate toward Israel,
toward Jews that is widespread within the Muslim minority.
Mr. Cicilline. Could you speak to whether or not there has
been countries that have been effective in either the EU or the
EU itself in terms of responding to anti-Semitism that have
implemented effective strategies? Are any of the countries
doing it well? Is the Organization for Security and Co-
operation in Europe doing anything? Are there things that the
EU could be doing that they are not doing?
We have identified, I think, everyone understands this is a
serious problem, but is there any----
Ambassador Lauder. The closest I have heard is what Canada
is doing and I have not seen yet, but I spoke to the Ambassador
last night. He told me, the Canadian Ambassador, he told me
some of the things they are doing. But to this day, they have
not confronted it. It is fear. And you don't know how to
confront it. How do you stop teaching of anti-Semitism in
schools or in different mosques? How do you do it? And the
question of freedom of speech, is there freedom of speech to be
able to say in a mosque that the Jews are the bad people in the
world? What are the laws on that? It is a very, very delicate
thing. What are the laws on freedom of speech in the media when
they report things one sided? What is the law in it? And it is
a very, very dangerous thing. We do have laws now, very, very
strong laws about segregation, what you can say against Blacks,
but it is still a very, very difficult situation when it comes
to Jewish things.
And also, I kept saying, it is going to come to Christians
as well as Jews.
Mr. Cicilline. I hope, Mr. Chairman, that one of the things
that we can work on and I know the chairman is interested in
this, because I do think you are right, so much of this has to
do with education.
Ambassador Lauder. Absolutely.
Mr. Cicilline. And you look at kind of the early years, the
formative years of so many young people. What are they
learning? What are they being taught about people of different
religious traditions and different cultures? Because I think as
you said, Ambassador, this is taught. Nobody is born a bigot
and nobody is born with this sort of hatred, but what can we do
in terms of the assistance we provide and the programs that we
fund to be sure that those resources aren't going to the
teaching of young people to teach hate.
I think that we have a particular responsibility to do all
that we can to promote understanding through good education.
And I again thank you because I think as all the panelists
pointed out, this is not only a problem in Europe, this is a
problem all over the world and as that saying goes they begin
and speaking against Jews and nobody says anything and they go
down their groups. And this is about valuing the human life of
every person and respecting differences and honoring and
celebrating our diversity.
Can I ask with the indulgence one last question? Someone
suggested that the rise of anti-Semitism, particularly in
Europe, is closely connected to the sort of anti-immigration
fervor. And I am wondering whether any of the panel have a view
on that? And if so, what can be done about that?
Ambassador Lauder. I can't say it is anti-immigration. That
is a whole different thing. But it has to do very, very much
with the times we are having. For example, the whole rise of
Nazism came out of a very difficult financial time in Germany
and Austria and all Europe for that matter. It gave rise to it.
We watched after 2008, the amount of anti-Semitism rose
because once again as it happened for thousands of years, the
Jews became the scapegoats. They looked at one--there was one
case in Africa where there were three Jews and they were all
wealthy. The amount of anti-Semitism in Africa, in that country
was enormous because people look and say and it goes in
jealously and what happens. But the fact is you have a
confluence of bad economic times. You have a confluence of
radical Islam growing leaps and bounds and you have a question
of the media being able to feed this very, very much. And you
have a question of the Palestinian-Israel question going on.
But I will say also that what happened during the last 2 or
3 weeks between Israel and the United States has had a marked
effect on anti-Semitism because when people hear the fight
between Israel and the United States, whatever it might be, it
has an effect throughout the world of people saying even the
best friend of Israel is having problems with them. That gives
us the license to start talking also more and more negative.
Mr. Cicilline. Before I yield back, Mr. Chairman, I think
it is an important opportunity to say that while there might be
disagreements between individuals or policies, I think it
should be clear to everyone in the world that the relationship
between our two countries is unbreakable. It is built on a set
of shared values that will endure forever and I hope this
hearing is an opportunity for us--I don't disagree with your
conclusion.
Ambassador Lauder. We all know that, but the world outside
does not know that.
Mr. Cicilline. I understand. Thank you.
Mr. Meadows [presiding]. And I thank the gentleman from
Rhode Island for his passion and his willingness to work on
this. I would echo what he just indicated. Headlines are
headlines. Thirty-second sound bites, sixty-second sound bites,
they sell media, but anybody who is watching this, they need to
know that it is the foundation, the friendship, truly, the
support both Democrat and Republican is unyielding and
unwavering and as much as may be made out of that and running
that abroad, I think you will find very quickly that there is a
very unified effort to stand up for this particular cause. So I
thank the gentleman for bringing it up.
Ambassador Lauder, I am going to go to you, first, and ask
a very quick question. Maybe just a series and then recognize
the gentleman from Minnesota that has a different accent than I
do, Mr. Emmer.
Ambassador, one of the issues that you have been driving
home is that America must lead on this particular issue and
that when we don't, when we are silent, it has real
implications in Europe and abroad, is that correct?
Ambassador Lauder. That is correct.
Mr. Meadows. So if we are to be more than a hearing and
more than just words, what is the most powerful way that we can
show our support for the Jewish people? Because you know, it is
interesting, Mr. Cukierman is talking about Zion versus being
Jewish. I have never known anybody that hates a piece of land.
And you know, when you really look at the Nation of Israel, it
is really what it embodies that they hate versus really a
geographical location. So what can we do?
Ambassador Lauder. We can start talking about it, taking
action ourselves, standing up, and saying for example, I gave
the example of France and what happened. There was not one
person that didn't notice that there was no American presence
in that front line. And I must tell you that symbolism had a
major effect on people.
It is important that we stand up, that we start talking
about it and say there is no room for it. If there is a neo-
Nazi party in a country, we must stand up and say that is
unacceptable for that country.
If we see that there is anti-Semitic direction of a group,
we must say that is unacceptable. That is not there. And I
really believe the time is now.
Mr. Meadows. All right, Mr. Cukierman, how do we balance
the line between free speech and truly standing up for hatred?
It is a little known fact, I was born in France, actually, but
I have been where there has been a number of demonstration,
pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Paris and so how do we allow
for this free speech, but yet not the results that may come
from it?
Mr. Cukierman. You have the example of pedophilia. The
providers of Internet were able to fight against pedophilia
very efficiently. Why don't they do the same for racism and
anti-Semitism? Why don't they do the same against jihad? If
they were able to do it for pedophilia, they should be able to
do it because it is extremely important because today, this is
the main school of education to the jihad.
Mr. Meadows. All right, so let me ask you maybe a little
tougher question that you can weigh in on. The United States
gives millions of dollars in foreign aid to a number of
countries, most countries in some shape, form, or fashion. If
incitement, and that is what I am hearing you talk about,
really, it is more about incitement against the Jewish people.
If incitement continues to be epidemic, should there be some
tie to that foreign aid where we can get the attention? I will
let you weigh in.
Mr. Cukierman. I would not interfere into American policy,
but what I noticed, for instance, is that the imams in France
are usually paid by foreign countries. Among these foreign
countries there are some countries who are financing Salafism.
Mr. Meadows. Right.
Mr. Cukierman. Other countries are financing Muslim
Brotherhood. Maybe America could put pressure on those
countries which are friendly to the U.S. and see to it that
they restrain their activity on fanaticism.
Mr. Meadows. Mr. Asmussen?
Mr. Asmussen. When it comes to protecting Jewish
minorities, I believe that the U.S. Government can also put
political pressure on countries that are not taking these
threats seriously. There are countries that take these threats
very seriously and protects the Jewish minorities. There are
countries that don't. And the political pressure from the
outside from the United States, I believe, is very crucial.
There is some pressure by the World Jewish Congress, you
mentioned Rabbi Andrew Baker, OSCE, and Ira Forman, but the
U.S. Government can step up this political pressure.
Mr. Meadows. All right, thank you very much. I am going to
close with this one story and then yield to the gentleman from
Minnesota, Mr. Emmer.
I want to encourage each one of you. Ambassador Lauder, you
talked about how the narrative during the Gaza conflict was
one-sided. It was infuriating to me to see headline after
headline after headline to be--and yet, I had on my phone an
app that is called Red Alert. Many of you may have that on your
phone and I got it. I was talking to the Ambassador one day,
long before the conflict and it had gone on 42 times, I
believe. This was at 11 o'clock in the morning. It was not
being mentioned anywhere, no headlines, no nothing. And I asked
the Ambassador, I said, ``What is that?'' And he said, ``Well,
it is an app that I have on my phone that is called Red
Alert.'' I said, ``Boy, I would love to have that, it would at
least let me know when the missiles are coming in.'' He said,
``Well, you can have it. The only problem is, it is in
Hebrew.''
Well, Hebrew is not a normal language in North Carolina and
so we actually went to that. And had it translated and so it is
on a number of Members' phones, a number of people I--I know
there has been well over 1 million downloads. And so I would
encourage you as something to be a reminder. Because even as
recent as January, there were missiles going into Israel and it
is important that we do that. And so I thank you because we
have got to change the narrative, Ambassador.
I am going to recognize the gentleman from Minnesota, Mr.
Emmer.
Mr. Emmer. Thank you, Mr. Chair. A couple of questions. I
will try not to cover old ground. The first one and I think
what I will do is start with Mr. Cukierman.
Can you outline for me, briefly, what measures the Jewish
communities in France are taking for their physical safety
right now? We have heard testimony and I am aware that there
are some resources that have been deployed, but what are the
communities themselves doing to protect themselves?
Mr. Cukierman. We are first of all an organization which
the volunteers are protecting the Jewish places, the synagogues
and Jewish schools mainly. But this has been strongly
reinforced recently by the government because our protectors
are not armed. They are just checking that the people who went
to Jewish places are not suspicious. But this is the main thing
and we also tried to have organizations which it is not easy to
enter. We have videos. It is defense. It is not efficient.
I must say that we are very satisfied of the attitude of
the French Government in the recent events. I am not generally
putting compliments to the French Government. I have frequently
criticized from my past reactions. But in these difficult
periods, they have been exemplary. The Prime Minister has said
very strong words like anti-Zionist is anti-Semitism and the
President said that it is not the Jews who should leave, but it
is the anti-Semites.
And the day which followed the January event, we had
immediately the Army who joined the police to protect Jewish
places. So we don't have to complain about protection. The
legislation is a prominent in terms of fighting against anti-
Semitism. For instance, Holocaust denial is a crime in France
which is not the case in other countries. So the laws are
satisfactory. The main problem would be education because today
in public schools Jews are not going any more because the
atmosphere has become so much anti-Semitic that people prefer
to pay and go to private schools, either Jewish schools or
Christian schools, rather than public schools.
Mr. Emmer. Yes, but then the problem is not being addressed
apparently in the public schools or is it?
Mr. Cukierman. Nothing has been done in terms of education
in public schools in the last 30 years and there we are
terribly backwards.
Mr. Emmer. Mr. Asmussen, same question. What are the Jewish
communities doing in Denmark since the incidents to protect
themselves?
Mr. Asmussen. Basically after the attacks in Toulouse and
Brussels, Brussels was last summer, we contacted the Danish
Ministry of Justice in order for them to improve security
around Jewish institutions. Nothing happened. There is
security. There are roundings in police cars and we have as in
France, our voluntary security guards within the community. But
we asked for armed police in front of the synagogue during
services, in front of the Jewish school when the kids are
there. We didn't get it. We didn't get it because it was not on
the menu in Denmark. Denmark is a small, peaceful country. You
don't have policemen on the street wearing guns. Now we do.
As in France, it takes people getting killed before they
get the message. But what we see now, I believe in France and
in Denmark might not be the long-term solution and basically it
is too much right now. I have a school of 200 pupils with eight
policemen with machine guns. It is too much. But I need a long-
term solution on that issue with the government. I don't have
it at this point.
So now I say what can I do? I tell you what the government
can do. But we are trying to put pressure on the government.
And in the long run, of course, we can participate in
education, learning about Judaism, of course. We can intensify
our activities within the interfaith, with Christians, Muslim,
interfaith activities as we do. But somehow it seems that all
those interfaith activities seems to be together with the
people with the politically correct minds, not the people doing
all the anti-Semitic activities.
Mr. Emmer. We have a bit of that in this country as well.
Mr. Lauder, and thank you for that. In Minnesota, the
chairman referenced the accent. We have a phrase, I don't know
that I want to open this can of worms, but I think I am going
to. We are talking about what the Congress might help with,
what this country might help with, what we could do. What about
the organization known as the United Nations?
Ambassador Lauder. It is a joke.
Mr. Emmer. I am going to open that can of worms. If you
could just give an idea. Is the United Nations a lost cause
when it comes to this? Is there something that can be done
through that organization?
Ambassador Lauder. Of the 25 recent cases of attacks on
what should be done in religion, 23 were against Israel. The
United Nations is perhaps one of the most anti-Israel, anti-
Jewish organizations there.
Mr. Emmer. Can I ask a question that is very direct? The
response or lack thereof by the United Nations, does that also
fuel in your opinion of an increase in anti-Semitism?
Ambassador Lauder. Everything fuels it. The real question
is if you have a case where one country, if Canada attacked
Minnesota with 4,000 rockets and you responded and all of a
sudden they took Minnesota to the International Criminal Court
for what you did to protect yourself, how would you feel? And
the International Criminal Court, I believe, has something to
do with the United Nations. That is a symbol of what is
happening.
And we spoke before about UNRWA and the fact that
Palestinians are still receiving refugee status where the
800,000 people who left the Middle East and came to Israel and
things like that, don't get refugee status. It is a dual
standard that goes on and on. It is something that I know that
the committee knows very, very well. The real aspect is this is
something that has been anti-Semitism since almost right after
Abraham. It is something that we have seen all the time.
What has happened recently is that anti-Semitism has
started to kill people, has started to become radicalization
and it is one group of people who are doing it and the world is
turning its back on it and not really necessarily going after
it.
Mr. Emmer. And I will be done, Mr. Chair, but I think you
made the point and it was an artful answer. When everyone----
Ambassador Lauder. It was a diplomatic answer.
Mr. Emmer. Very diplomatic answer and I do appreciate it
and respect it. But if our institutions that are there, I mean
we are talking about the media on one hand and there is an
issue with education in sensitivity and awareness. But when the
very institutions that are created to promote peace and to try
and help resolve conflict, actually don't do that. In fact, by
their actions, some could interpret it as fueling the conflict.
It is not very helpful and I don't know if that is the case,
but that is what I was asking.
Ambassador Lauder. That is the case.
Mr. Emmer. Thank you.
Mr. Meadows. I thank the gentlemen. I thank each of you for
your testimony here today. Chairman Smith actually is
monitoring this, his staff is monitoring it. He has been having
a few health issues. We will support and actually give some
questions for each one of you that you can respond in writing
for the record. I would also ask each of you if you have two
recommendations on what you would like to see the United States
to do, if you would just submit that to the committee, we will
make sure that that gets passed around and we will take action
on that.
And so I want to close out by saying there are many times
when this battle may seem like we are losing the battle and
indeed many battles have been lost. But ultimately, the victory
in the war will be ours if we continue to fight arm in arm and
stand arm in arm together. I for one, and I know a number of my
colleagues are willing to do that so thank you for your
testimony. Thank you for being here. God bless. This is
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:23 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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Material Submitted for the RecordNotice deg.
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Material submitted for the record by the Honorable Christopher H.
Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and
chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights,
and International Organizations
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Material submitted for the record by the Honorable Christopher H.
Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and
chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights,
and International Organizations
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Material submitted for the record by the Honorable Christopher H.
Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and
chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights,
and International Organizations
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
[all