European Parliament resolution of 1 June 2017 on combating anti-Semitism (2017/2692(RSP))
Date: 2017-06-01
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: Jew, Judaism, antisemitism, crime, freedom of religious beliefs, religious discrimination, social media, terrorism








C_2018307EN.01018301.xml










30.8.2018   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 307/183






P8_TA(2017)0243
Combating anti-semitism
European Parliament resolution of 1 June 2017 on combating anti-Semitism (2017/2692(RSP))
(2018/C 307/29)

The European Parliament,






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having regard to the Treaty on European Union (TEU), and in particular the preamble, second indent, fourth to seventh indents, and Article 2, the second subparagraph of Article 3(3) and Article 6 thereof,










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having regard to Article 17 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,










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having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union of 7 December 2000,










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having regard to Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA of 28 November 2008 on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law (1),










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having regard to Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime, and replacing Council Framework Decision 2001/220/JHA (2),










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having regard to the adoption in 2015 of the European Agenda on Security,










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having regard to Council of Europe Resolution 2106 (2016) of 20 April 2016 on ‘Renewed commitment in the fight against antisemitism in Europe’,










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having regard to the conclusions of the Commission’s First Annual Colloquium on Fundamental Rights, held in Brussels on 1 and 2 October 2015 under the title ‘Tolerance and respect: preventing and combating anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim hatred in Europe’,










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having regard to the appointment in December 2015 of a Commission Coordinator on Combating Anti-Semitism,










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having regard to the establishment in June 2016 of the EU High Level Group on combating racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance,










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having regard to the Code of Conduct on countering illegal hate speech online agreed on 31 May 2016 between the Commission and leading IT companies as well as with other platforms and social media companies,










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having regard to its resolution of 13 December 2016 on the situation of fundamental rights in the European Union in 2015 (3),










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having regard to the targeted violent and terrorist attacks against members of the Jewish community which have occurred in recent years in several Member States,










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having regard to the prime responsibility of governments for the security and safety of all their citizens, and therefore their primary responsibility for monitoring and preventing violence, including anti-Semitic violence, and prosecuting the perpetrators,










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having regard to Rule 123(2) of its Rules of Procedure,










A.


whereas the number of anti-Semitic incidents in EU Member States has risen significantly in recent years, as reported by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), among other bodies;










B.


whereas it has been reported that targeted security measures, once put in place, have helped to prevent and decrease the number of violent anti-Semitic attacks;










C.


whereas combating anti-Semitism is a responsibility for society as a whole;












1.


Stresses that hate speech and all kinds of violence against European Jewish citizens are incompatible with the values of the European Union;












2.


Calls on the Member States and the Union institutions and agencies to adopt and apply the working definition of anti-Semitism employed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) (4) in order to support the judicial and law enforcement authorities in their efforts to identify and prosecute anti-Semitic attacks more efficiently and effectively, and encourages Member States to follow the example of the UK and Austria in this regard;












3.


Calls on the Member States to take all necessary steps to actively contribute to ensuring the security of their Jewish citizens and Jewish religious, educational and cultural premises, in close consultation and dialogue with Jewish communities, civil society organisations, and anti-discrimination NGOs;












4.


Welcomes the appointment of the Commission Coordinator on Combating Anti-Semitism, and urges the Commission to provide all the necessary tools and support to make this function as effective as possible;












5.


Calls on the Member States to appoint national coordinators on combating anti-Semitism;












6.


Encourages members of national and regional parliaments and political leaders to systematically and publicly condemn anti-Semitic statements and to engage in counter- speech and alternative narratives, and to set up cross-party parliamentary groups against anti-Semitism so as to strengthen the fight across the political spectrum;












7.


Stresses the important role of civil society organisations and education in preventing and combating all forms of hatred and intolerance, and calls for increasing financial support;












8.


Calls on the Member States to encourage the media to promote respect for all faiths and appreciation of diversity, as well as training for journalists concerning all forms of anti-Semitism, in order to address possible bias;












9.


Calls on those Member States where there has as yet been no invocation of motives based on race, national or ethnic origin or religion or belief as constituting an aggravating factor in a criminal offence to remedy this as quickly as possible, and to act to have the Council Framework Decision on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law fully and properly implemented and enforced, so as to ensure that anti-Semitic acts are prosecuted by the Member States’ authorities in the online as well as in the offline environment;












10.


Insists on the need to provide enforcement authorities with targeted training on combating hate crime and discrimination, and on the need to set up dedicated anti-hate crime units in police forces where such units do not yet already exist, and calls on EU agencies and international organisations to assist Member States in providing such training;












11.


Encourages cross-border cooperation at all levels in the prosecution of hate crimes, and above all in the prosecution of serious criminal acts such as terrorist activities;












12.


Calls for the EU and its Member States to step up efforts to ensure that a comprehensive and efficient system is put in place for the systematic collection of reliable, relevant and comparable data on hate crimes, disaggregated by motivation and including acts of terrorism;












13.


Calls on the Member States, regarding the Code of Conduct agreed between the Commission and leading IT companies, to urge online intermediaries and social media platforms to take expeditious action to prevent and combat anti-Semitic hate speech online;












14.


Highlights that schools offer a unique opportunity to transmit the values of tolerance and respect, since they reach out to all children from an early age;












15.


Encourages the Member States to promote the teaching about the Holocaust (the Shoah) in schools and to ensure that teachers are adequately trained for this task and equipped to address diversity in the classroom; also encourages the Member States to consider reviewing school textbooks to ensure that Jewish history and contemporary Jewish life are presented in a comprehensive and balanced way and that all forms of anti-Semitism are avoided;












16.


Asks the Commission and the Member States to increase financial support for targeted activities and educational projects, to build up and strengthen partnerships with Jewish communities and institutions, and to encourage exchanges between children and young people of different faiths via joint activities, launching and supporting awareness-raising campaigns in that regard;












17.


Calls on the Commission to closely liaise with international actors such as UNESCO, the OSCE and the Council of Europe, as well as other international partners, in order to combat anti-Semitism at international level;












18.


Calls on the Commission to request advisory status within the IHRA;












19.


Encourages each Member State to officially commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day on 27 January;












20.


Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the EU Member States and candidate countries, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the United Nations.






(1)  OJ L 328, 6.12.2008, p. 55.

(2)  OJ L 315, 14.11.2012, p. 57.

(3)  Texts adopted, P8_TA(2016)0485.

(4)  http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/just/item-detail.cfm?item_id=50144