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.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO