Desde Canadá, un texto de suma importancia: el Protocolo de Ottawa

GENERACIONES DE LA SHOÁ/TRADUCCIÓN JOSÉ BLUMENFELD

El mes pasado, el gobierno de Canadá dio un paso histórico al firmar el Protocolo de Ottawa (texto original en inglés al final) para Combatir el Antisemitismo. Al hacerlo, reconoció al antisemitismo como un mal pernicioso y una amenaza global contra el pueblo judío, el Estado de Israel y los países libres y democráticos en todas partes. Como lo hizo notar el Primer Ministro Stephen Harper: “Aquellos que odian y destruyen al pueblo judío, finalmente, odian y destruyen también al resto de nosotros”.

El protocolo es una declaración de que el odio, de esta naturaleza, no será tolerado en este país. Establece un plan de acción para apoyar las iniciativas que combatan el antisemitismo y proporciona un marco para que otras naciones lo sigan.

También presenta una vibrante definición de antisemitismo que, por primera vez en la historia, vincula el antisemitismo con la negación del derecho del pueblo judío a tener su patria ancestral – el Estado de Israel.

Ésto, de hecho, es lo que diferencia, de sus raíces históricas, al antisemitismo posterior a la Segunda Guerra Mundial. El antisemitismo actual tiene que ver con la negación: la negación de la legitimidad del sionismo como un movimiento judío para recuperar la tierra de Israel; la negación de la historia judía conectada a la tierra santa y, en particular, la centralidad de Jerusalem para el pueblo judío; la negación del Holocausto (mientras que, al mismo tiempo, se acusa a los judíos de nazismo); y la negación a los judíos a vivir libres de antisemitismo, odio e intolerancia.

Al dar a conocer los Protocolos, el Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores, John Baird, ha expresado el inequívoco apoyo de su gobierno al Estado de Israel. Al referirse a la agitación de esta semana en las Naciones Unidas y la amenaza palestina de declarar unilateralmente un estado, Baird dijo: “Canadá no estará detrás de Israel en las Naciones Unidas, estaremos justo a su lado. Nunca es una mala cosa hacer lo correcto”.

De acuerdo a Baird, más y más países se niegan a participar en la conferencia de la ONU llamada “Durban III” – por lo demás conocida como un festival de odio antisemita, que comenzó como un foro de derechos humanos en Sudáfrica en 2001; el foro, finalmente, degeneró en un partido de hondazos antisemitas, en el que represivos países árabes y africanos culpaban a Israel de todos los problemas de sus propios países y del mundo. Los gobiernos de Francia, Nueva Zelanda y Polonia (hoy) se unieron a Canadá y otras 10 naciones occidentales, esta semana, declararon que no participarán.

Sin lugar a dudas, la postura del Gobierno de Canadá sobre Israel, se basa en el principio de apoyar a los amigos – especialmente cuando son democracias y defensores de los derechos humanos. La mayoría de los líderes judíos estarían de acuerdo en que Israel es, realmente, el mayor aliado de Canadá en la lucha contra el odio y la intolerancia.

Pero la lucha contra el odio y el antisemitismo también debe ser ganada en Canadá. El Protocolo de Ottawa es, principalmente, el resultado de un informe publicado este verano por una Coalición Parlamentaria Canadiense para Combatir el Antisemitismo, que estuvo compuesta por líderes políticos canadienses que, voluntariamente, ocuparon su tiempo para investigar la creciente y alarmante marea de antisemitismo en Canadá.

En una carta que acompaña al informe, los Presidentes del Panel de Investigación y del Comité Directivo, Mario Silva y Scott Reid, escribieron: “La conclusión del Panel de Investigación, por desgracia, es que el flagelo del antisemitismo es una amenaza creciente en Canadá, especialmente en los campus de nuestras universidades”. El informe cita numerosos ejemplos de antisemitismo en varios campus, incluyendo el infame incidente de 2009, cuando estudiantes judíos de la Universidad de York fueron perseguidos y se atrincheraron en el salón Hillel, mientras una turba, afuera, se mofaban de ellos con insultos antisemitas. La lista de ejemplos es larga y preocupante.

Las universidades deberían tomar nota del informe y de la rúbrica de los Protocolos de Ottawa. Deberían poner fin, de inmediato, a los aborrecibles y falaces eventos como la Semana del Apartheid Israelí; deberían declarar, de manera inequívoca, que no debe abusarse de la libertad de expresión, proporcionando una cubierta para el antisemitismo; deberían asegurar que los estudiantes judíos se sientan bienvenidos en los campus y que su ambiente de estudio esté libre de acontecimientos anti-Israel y, por último, las universidades deben hacerse responsables por permitir que sus propiedades privadas sean sedes de conductas de odio entre estudiantes.

El Protocolo de Ottawa para Combatir el Antisemitismo es un modelo a tener en cuenta por todos los canadienses. Pero es, sobre todo, un documento de importancia para las universidades que han permitido convertirse en vehículos de odio y en cómplices de su promoción. Como mi amigo, el profesor Irwin Cotler, dijo anoche en la ceremonia de rúbrica en Ottawa, el antisemitismo no es sólo la forma más larga de odio conocida de la historia de la humanidad – es la única forma de odio que es verdaderamente global.

Toda persona con conciencia, debería tomar nota de los Protocolos de Ottawa y nunca olvidar las lecciones del Holocausto, cuando el mundo se mantuvo en silencio.

Texto completo del Protocolo de Ottawa en inglés

The Ottawa Protocol on Combating Antisemitism

Preamble

We, Representatives of our respective Parliaments from across the world, convening in Ottawa for the second Conference and Summit of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism, note and reaffirm the London Declaration on Combating Antisemitism as a template document for the fight against antisemitism.

We are concerned that, since the London Conference in February 2009, there continues to be a dramatic increase in recorded antisemitic hate crimes and attacks targeting Jewish persons and property, and Jewish religious, educational and communal institutions.

We remain alarmed by ongoing state-sanctioned genocidal antisemitism and related extremist ideologies. If antisemitism is the most enduring of hatreds, and genocide is the most horrific of crimes, then the convergence of the genocidal intent embodied in antisemitic ideology is the most toxic of combinations.

We are appalled by the resurgence of the classic anti-Jewish libels, including:

– The Blood Libel (that Jews use the blood of children for ritual sacrifice)

– The Jews as “Poisoners of the Wells” – responsible for all evils in the world

– The myth of the “new Protocols of the Elders of Zion” – the tsarist forgery that proclaimed an international Jewish conspiracy bent on world domination – and accuses the Jews of controlling government, the economy, media and public institutions.

– The double entendre of denying the Holocaust – accusing the Jews of fabricating the Holocaust as a hoax – and the nazification of the Jew and the Jewish people.

We are alarmed by the explosion of antisemitism and hate on the Internet, a medium crucial for the promotion and protection of freedom of expression, freedom of information, and the participation of civil society.

We are concerned over the failure of most OSCE participating states to fully implement provisions of the 2004 Berlin Declaration, including the commitment to:

“Collect and maintain reliable information and statistics about antisemitic crimes, and other hate crimes, committed within their territory, report such information periodically to the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), and make this information available to the public.”

We are concerned by the reported incidents of antisemitism on campuses, such as acts of violence, verbal abuse, rank intolerance, and assaults on those committed to free inquiry, while undermining fundamental academic values.

We renew our call for national Governments, Parliaments, international institutions, political and civic leaders, NGOs, and civil society to affirm democratic and human values, build societies based on respect and citizenship and combat any manifestations of antisemitism and all forms of discrimination.

We reaffirm the EUMC – now Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) – working definition of antisemitism, which sets forth that:

“Contemporary examples of antisemitism in public life, the media, schools, the workplace, and in the religious sphere could, taking into account the overall context, include, but are not limited to:

*Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective – such as, especially but not exclusively – the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy, or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.

*Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.

*Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of National Socialist Germany and its supporters and accomplices during World War II (the Holocaust).

*Accusing the Jews as a people, or Israel as a state, of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.

*Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.

*Examples of the ways in which antisemitism manifests itself with regard to the State of Israel taking into account the overall context could include:

*Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour.

*Applying double standards by requiring of it behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g. claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.

*Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.

*Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel.

However, criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.

Let it be clear: Criticism of Israel is not antisemitic, and saying so is wrong. But singling Israel out for selective condemnation and opprobrium – let alone denying its right to exist or seeking its destruction – is discriminatory and hateful, and not saying so is dishonest.

Members of Parliament meeting in Ottawa commit to:

*Calling on our Governments to uphold international commitments on combating antisemitism – such as the OSCE Berlin Principles – and to engage with the United Nations for that purpose. In the words of former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, “It is […] rightly said that the United Nations emerged from the ashes of the Holocaust. And a Human Rights agenda that fails to address antisemitism denies its own history”;

*Calling on Parliaments and Governments to adopt the EUMC Working Definition of Antisemitism and anchor its enforcement in existing law;

*Encouraging countries throughout the world to establish mechanisms for reporting and monitoring on domestic and international antisemitism, along the lines of the “Combating Antisemitism Act of 2010” recently introduced in the United States Congress;

*Encouraging the leaders of all religious faiths – represented also at this Conference – to use all means possible to combat antisemitism and all forms of hatred and discrimination;

*Calling on the Parliamentary Forum of the Community of Democracies to make the combating of hatred and antisemitism a priority in their work;

*Calling on Governments and Parliamentarians to reaffirm and implement the Genocide Convention, recognizing that where there is incitement to genocide, State parties have an obligation to act;

*Working with universities to encourage them to combat antisemitism with the same seriousness with which they confront other forms of hate. Specifically, universities should be invited to define antisemitism clearly, provide specific examples, and enforce conduct codes firmly, while ensuring compliance with freedom of speech and the principle of academic freedom. Universities should use the EUMC Working Definition of Antisemitism as a basis for education, training and orientation. Indeed, there should be zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind against anyone in the university community on the basis of race, gender, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation or political position;

We encourage the European Union to promote civic education and open society in its European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and to link funding to democratic development and respect for Human Rights in ENP partner countries;
Establishing an International Task Force of Internet specialists comprised of parliamentarians and experts to create common indicators to identify and monitor antisemitism and other manifestations of hate online and to develop policy recommendations for Governments and international frameworks to address these problems;

Building on the African representation at this Conference, to develop increased working relationships with parliamentarians in Africa for the combating of racism and antisemitism;

We urge the incoming OSCE Chair, Lithuania, to make implementation of these commitments a priority during 2011 and call for the reappointment of the Special Representatives to assist in this work.