Renewing EU-Israel partnership in different areas after a period of tense political relationship and fighting the anti-Israel Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) movement were high on the agenda of the annual policy conference of the European Coalition for Israel (ECI) in the European Parliament in Brussels.

During the conferencen, the ECI presented the European Commission and the European Parliament presidents with an open letter urging the European institutions to take the moral leadership in the international fight against the BDS movement.

“BDS seeks to legitimize anti-Israel rhetoric from radical elements who advocate publicly for Israel's elimination, as well as promote incitement and discrimination against Jewish people and therefore an anti-BDS resolution is urgently needed,” said conference co-hosts MEP Hannu Takkula and ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell stated, in their letter to European Parliament president Martin Schulz.

ECI Founding Director Tomas Sandell reminded the EU officials present at the Conference that ‘’Israeli innovations promote peace while BDS breeds anti-Semitism’’.

Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Commission Coordinator against Anti-Semitism, illustrated the same point when she said that anti-Semitism as “the oldest form of hatred” still poses a significant threat to Jewish people in Europe. “This hatred can have many expression. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement which seeks to delegitimise the state of Israel is one such expression,” she stressed.

“Surveys show that where there are BDS events on university campuses, anti-Semitism against Jewish students increases. This is something that we cannot accept as a European Union,” von Schnurbein declared.

Her sentiments were echoed by other speakers who emphasised the need for the EU to fight BDS by seeking closer and deeper cooperation with the state of Israel.

‘’Innovation and start-ups need the right environment to flourish. Europe and Israel need to build a closer partnership in order to achieve this,” said Lberal MEP Hannu Takula from Finland said as she concluded that anti-BDS regulations are needed because BDS calls upon upon intellectuals and academics worldwide to “comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions”.

Other speakers also insisted on the need for Europe to encourage economic cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians as a way to promote peace anod coexistence and to prevent conflicts and radicalisation.

“Israeli innovations create jobs for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” said Jan Sturesson, a Senior Policy Advisor at the World Economic Forum, who mentioned that Israel’’ as one of the most innovative countries in the world can help EU member states to achieve similar levels of innovation.’’

Hungarian Socialist MEP Peter Niedermueller urged the EU to learn from Israel ‘’as we seek to defend our way of life from terrorism and radical Islam.’’

“Israel has lived under this terrorist threat for many years and they can help us,” he said referring to the current level of security threat that Europe is facing following the recent deadly terror attacks in Brussels and Paris.

Dutch MEP Bas Belder from the European Conservative and Reformists group and a member of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, asked how EU rapprochement towards Iran is compatible with our European values. “I cannot remain silent when I see the survival of the Jewish state being at stake,’’ he said,

‘’Our foreign affairs policy must address this issue, otherwise we will be guilty of assisting in the destruction of Israel as sovereign state,’’ he said .

“This is unacceptable. There should be no ‘business as usual’ with Iran as long as they do not recognise the state of Israel and call for its destruction,” added Tomas Sandell.

The European External Action Service (EEAS), which is the EU’s foreign affairs arm, was represented at the ECI conference by Political Counsel Lucas Cibor who spoke of EU’s “sincere desire to see peace in Israel” as he referred to last January’s EU Council conclusions on the Middle East Peace Process.

The Israeli government was represented by Michal Tal-Weiner, who heads the European Parliament department at the Israeli Mission to the EU.

by Yossi Lempkowicz