New Strategy in the Fight Against Antisemitism
In response to the sharp increase in antisemitic incidents since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, in Israel, the government coalition of ÖVP, SPÖ, and NEOS presented their "National Strategy Against Antisemitism 2.0" on Monday. Among other things, participants in integration courses will in the future have to sign a "Declaration Against Antisemitism." Additionally, the creation of an Austrian Holocaust Museum is to be examined.
Strategy Against Antisemitism with 49 Measures
The new strategy against antisemitism is intended to apply for the period 2025-2030 and builds on the first strategy presented in 2021. It includes a total of 49 measures. A focus is also on combating antisemitism online. For example, AI-supported systems for detecting hate speech on the internet are to be promoted.
The first strategy against antisemitism in 2021 was a "milestone," said the responsible State Secretary Alexander Pröll (ÖVP) on Monday at the presentation. With the new catalog of measures, they are responding to a "new dimension of antisemitism."
School Sector Not Excluded
Several measures concern the school sector. Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr (NEOS) already announced a new "Guide for Dealing with Antisemitic Incidents in Schools" for tomorrow, Tuesday. Visits to memorial sites are also to be increasingly promoted.
"We will do everything to ensure that Austria is a country where Jewish life is safe," declared Vice Chancellor Andreas Babler (SPÖ). The forms of antisemitism differ in their ideological design. "But their origin is always the same: hate."
The President of the Israelite Religious Society (IRG), Oskar Deutsch, referred to the current commemoration of the November pogroms of 1938. Even then, it began "with words, with insults, with lies, with rumors about Jews, with exclusion and boycotts." He also referred to recently presented figures, according to which 726 antisemitic incidents were reported in Austria in the first half of the year. The terrorist attack of October 7, 2023, ignited the "engine of an (antisemitic; note) propaganda machine," said Deutsch. He also again criticized the Dinghofer Symposium planned for Tuesday in Parliament and called on its President Walter Rosenkranz (FPÖ) to cancel the event.
(APA/Red)
This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.