No space for antisemitism in Europe
ENAR Statement – Brussels, 17 December 2025
As the celebration of Hanukkah reminds us of the necessity of resistance against oppression, it also calls on us to be unequivocal in the fight against antisemitism. We are deeply mourning all the victims of the mass shooting in Australia, which killed 15 people, among them children and Holocaust survivors. Dozens more remain hospitalised, among them a Muslim bystander who courageously intervened to stop one of the gunmen.
And we cannot mourn in silence. We must denounce the exploitation of this horrible attack. In its aftermath, some politicians around the world have portrayed the attack as aconsequence of growing anti-Zionist sentiment and pro-Palestinian activism. This reflects a familiar divide-and-conquer strategy, meant to deepen social fractures. The authorities have since linked the two gunmen to ISIS.
The conflation of Judaism, Jewish identity, and Zionism makes us all less safe. Antisemitism is real, deadly, and historically rooted in far-right and white supremacist ideologies. Precisely for this reason, anti-racist movements must be able to address it at its roots, without allowing it to be used to silence other struggles for justice. At ENAR, we reject competitive victimhood and believe that we are stronger in a unified struggle against all forms of racism, including antisemitism.
We must continue to challenge this conflation, which is reinforced by the widespread adoption of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism. Too often, it is misused to restrict legitimate political expressions by equating all criticism of Israeli state policies or of Zionism with antisemitism, leading to the criminalisation of solidarity with Palestinians and undermining intersectional anti-racist work. This does not protect Jewish communities. On the contrary, it fractures movements, fuels selective outrage, and ultimately strengthens the far-right it claims to oppose.
Many Jewish voices, including anti-racist and decolonial Jewish organisations, have been unequivocal: this intentional misuse of antisemitism and conflation of Jews with Israel makes Jewish communities less safe.
Alternatives exist. The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, for example, offers a clearer and more balanced framework: one that robustly defines antisemitism while safeguarding freedom of expression and the legitimacy of political critique.
Stopping the use of the IHRA definition is a necessary step to defend both Jewish safety and anti-racist integrity.
