Israel’s Rivlin Blasts Officials for Meeting Far-Right European Leaders

Gertt Image by Getty

By Josefin Dolsten January 4, 2017

(JTA) — President Reuven Rivlin of Israel said he will “never condone” Israeli representatives meeting with representatives of the European far right.

Rivlin sent a letter to the Vienna Jewish community in response to a message from its head, Oskar Deutsch, and World Jewish Congress Vice President Ariel Muzicant in which they criticized Israeli politicians willing to meet with members of the European far right. The letter by Deutsch and Muzicant named Austria’s Freedom Party, which was founded by a former Nazi SS officer.

In his response, dated Dec. 20, Rivlin said he is against Israeli officials meeting with “European parties of the far right that are tainted with a history of anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial … or the promotion of racial hatred or intolerance,” according to The Times of Israel.

The Freedom Party in a statement Wednesday said its leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, had met in an official capacity with Israeli government ministers and Knesset members representing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party during past visits to the Jewish state, The Times of Israel reported. The letter also quoted a Jewish member who said the Freedom Party is “definitely not anti-Semitic.”

Last month, Israel’s Foreign Ministry barred a far-right Swedish lawmaker from a meeting with Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely at the Jerusalem Leaders Summit, a conference of conservative leaders.

“The Swedish representative is a member of a party with neo-Nazi tendencies and therefore the Foreign Ministry decided not to include her in the meeting with Hotovely,” said a ministry spokeswoman.

After Israel excluded Kristina Winberg of the Sweden Democrats from the meeting, a Trump transition team member and a group of conservative U.S. and European lawmakers that were participating in the summit boycotted the briefing.

Josefin Dolsten is a New York-based writer who has reported for the Forward, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Times of Israel and other Jewish publications. She currently works as an account director at Fenton Communications, supporting organizations that work to advance racial justice, LGBTQ+ equality, reproductive rights and more. Dolsten earned her B.A. in government from Cornell University and her M.A. in comparative religion and Jewish studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO