The European Union and Israel held this week their 10th joint Seminar on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Antisemitism.

The two-day meeting, which took place in, Jerusalem and the north of Israel , brought together officials from the Israeli foreign ministry, the European External Action Service (EEAS), the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), Members of Knesset, and experts from the Israeli education ministry, research institutions, NGOs and technology companies .

The main issues on the agenda were fighting anti-Semitism through online platforms and education.

A statement issued after the meeting says that the EU and Israel agreed to continue their close cooperation in combating Anti-Semitism, in particular through new educational initiatives towards minority communities and population at large, and countering dangerous cyberhate.

In his opening statement, Akiva Tor, who heads the Israeli foreign ministry’s bureau for World Jewish Affairs and World Religions, said:

"In the face of rising intolerance in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere, government and public servants must find their way to develop new tools for confronting fresh challenges. We need to be proactive and creative in developing innovative tools for education towards tolerance, and we need to become more vigilant against the use of high technology for the spread of the basest hate."

Katharina von Schnurbein, who was named last year the European Union’s Coordinator on combating anti-Semitism, declared that ‘’this past year, Europe has faced many challenges. Rising anti-Semitism is one of them and it has repercussions on society at large.”

She emphasized the need to join forces and fight all forms of racism in a holistic way, via concrete policies, law enforcement on hate crimes and tackling online hatred. She also stressed the importance of education and coalition building as preventatives measures. “Our common values are under attack and we need to fight for them together,” she said.

As part of their outreach efforts in Muslim communities, the delegation listened to a presentation on the plight of North African Jewry during WWII and making the Holocaust relevant for immigrant populations in Europe, delivered by Prof. Haim Saadoun at the Ben-Zvi Institute in Jerusalem.

The European delegation also visited Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot which serves as both a museum and Holocaust research and documentation center. Akiva Tor and Katherina von Schnurbein told The Jerusalem Post that during the seminar participants discussed ways to make Holocaust education more relatable to Muslim students, such as focusing on the situation of North African countries, such as Libya and Tunisia, during the war and showing how they too were affected by the Nazi regime. “It makes it difficult to be a Holocaust denier if there was a Nazi occupation of your own country and if you were also victims,” von Schnurbein said. “We thought Israel could offer something useful by showing various facets of how the Shoah is taught to Arab and Muslim populations here,” Tor added, mentioning a lecture that was given to the participants on tolerance and Holocaust education in Arab schools. “It’s important to make education relevant and to separate it from other societal problems of alienation,” Tor said. “Israel faces some similar challenges to Europe – we want young Israeli Arabs to learn this history when it’s not a natural part of their narrative. Europe faces a similar situation – they want to teach them [non-European immigrants] this history that they may feel alienated from, so by looking at it from this way, it creates a point of entry.” “And you also need to acknowledge their current situation,” von Schnurbein added, pointing to discrimination against Muslims in the labor market, the housing market and education. “It’s the same principle. You have to make the link to their own backgrounds.”