The leader of a far-right French political party founded by a Holocaust denier and a former Nazi officer is headed to Israel.
So are politicians from far-right parties in Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands — all tapped to speak at this month’s International Conference on Combating Antisemitism. It is the most prominent manifestation, so far, of an Israeli government announcement two weeks ago that the country will end its longstanding boycott of far-right parties in Sweden, France and Spain.
While Israel is maintaining its boycott of far-right parties in Austria and Germany, the policy change signals that Israel has become less concerned by the criticism that many of the parties have drawn from Jewish groups, who have blamed them for stoking antisemitism and noted their ties to Europe’s Nazi past.
The conference is being organized by Amichai Chikli, the minister of Diaspora affairs, who has a particular affinity for the global far right. Chikli recently told a gathering of American Jewish leaders that he sees the European parties as allies in a shared fight against surging Muslim influence in Europe, which he says elevates anti-Israel sentiment and place Jews at risk.
“Antisemitism is a growing problem in Europe due to Muslim immigration,” he said, according to the Jerusalem Post. “The European right wing parties have a point, because they realize the problem and are presenting a solution… They understand the challenge of radical Islam and they are willing to take the necessary steps.”
Jordan Bardella, who heads France’s National Rally and recently met with Chikli in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to speak at the conference.
Founded as the National Front in 1972 by the extremist politician Jean Marie le Pen, National Rally began as a coalition of extremist groups that steadily accumulated support with its anti-immigrant agenda. Another co-founder had served in the Nazi Waffen-SS. Le Pen, who died in January at 96, espoused racist and antisemitic rhetoric throughout his life and was convicted of Holocaust denial.
His daughter has thrice been the party’s presidential candidate, and has worked to distance the party from its antisemitic roots, including by expelling her father and changing its name. In 2022, she lost the presidential election but won upwards of 40% of the vote.
Bardella, 29, is reeling from his own underwhelming finish in national parliamentary elections last year, and has also taken steps to repudiate antisemitism. Last month, he canceled his appearance at CPAC, the U.S. conference of conservatives, to protest a straight-armed salute delivered there by the far-right figure Steve Bannon. (Bannon said he was not trying to emulate a Nazi salute.)
“My presence in Jerusalem for this major conference against anti-Semitism demonstrates our absolute commitment to this fight,” Bardella told a French newswpaper. “RN is no longer the National Front.”
At the Jerusalem conference, Bardella will deliver a speech about antisemitism since Oct. 7, according to the newspaper.
Marion Maréchal, Jean-Marie Le Pen’s granddaughter who now leads a different far-right party that paints itself as closer to his legacy, will also attend the conference in Israel.
Among the other European politicians scheduled to speak is Spain’s Hermann Tertsch, whose Vox party has drawn criticism for welcoming neo-Nazis. (Tertsch’s father was an Austrian Nazi leader in Spain.) Chikli spoke at Vox’s convention last year.
Also on the docket are figures who have criticized the far right, including the Anti-Defamation League’s Jonathan Greenblatt and Armin Laschet of Germany’s center-right leading party.
Israel’s decision to form ties with the European far right pointedly does not extend to the movement’s parties in Austria and Germany. By that token, no one from Alternative for Germany, the far-right party that celebrated its second-place finish in this month’s German election with a chant echoing a banned Nazi slogan, is on the agenda.
Germany’s antisemitism commissioner, Felix Klein, announced on Friday that he would rescind his attendance after learning about the far-right figures on the agenda. Klein recently ignited controversy within Germany for expressing openness to U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to resettle Palestinians while Gaza is being rebuilt.
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