WJC at UNHRC | WJC Calls for Concrete Action Against Antisemitic Attacks

WJC’s Representative in Geneva and Director of Diplomacy, Leon Saltiel, delivered a statement on Item 9: Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related forms of intolerance.

Read the full statement below:

Madam President,

The World Jewish Congress takes the floor today with profound alarm.

Manchester. Bondi Beach. Jackson. Giessen. Brooklyn. Toronto — three times in one week. Liège. West Bloomfield. Rotterdam. Amsterdam. London. Jewish communities attacked by arson, gunfire, and explosives. This cannot be met with silence.

We are witnessing an escalation that is coordinated, transnational, and in several documented cases, directly linked to Iran-backed networks.

Madam President, antisemitism is not a Jewish problem. It is not a Western problem. It is a universal human rights crisis — and it demands to be treated as one.

We have said it before, and history has confirmed it: it begins with Jews, but it rarely ends there. When Jews cannot worship, gather, or live in safety, it is not only a failure of the societies where these attacks take place. It is also a failure of the international system meant to prevent them.

States without Jewish communities are not immune. Antisemitic conspiracy theories spread across borders and social media, fuel extremism and terrorism, and threaten political stability far beyond the communities they target.

The World Jewish Congress calls on Member States to move beyond declarations and take concrete action to protect their Jewish communities, by halting all those who incite, finance, or enable hatred.

Thank you.