55 Nations Denounce Attacks on Jews
BERLIN — Western nations pledged Thursday to fight “new forms†of anti-Semitism, rejecting any attempt to use the strife in the Middle East as a justification for hate crimes against Jews.
Meeting in the city where the Nazis directed their campaign to annihilate Europe’s Jews, governments of 55 countries unanimously adopted a declaration condemning “all attacks motivated by anti-Semitism or by any other forms of religious or racial hatred or intolerance, including attacks against synagogues and other religious places, sites and shrines.â€
Delegates and Jewish organizations welcomed the “Berlin Declaration†resulting from the two-day meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as a strong, timely denunciation of the recent surge of attacks on Jews in Europe and North America.
The declaration commits governments to collect and submit reliable information about anti-Semitic and other hate crimes. The OSCE -- formed during the Cold War -- includes the United States, Canada and countries across Europe.
Anti-Semitism, the declaration reads, “has assumed new forms and expressions, which along with other forms of intolerance pose a threat to democracy†and civilization.
The conference declared “unambiguously that international developments or political issues, including those in Israel or elsewhere in the Middle East, never justify anti-Semitism.â€
U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell addressed the conference Wednesday.
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