We are writing to you as the organisers of the First Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress in Vienna, where in June 2025 more than a thousand Anti Zionist Jews attended from many organisations across the Globe, for three days of debates and discussions. In our declaration of 15 June 2025, the First Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress made its position clear:

"We condemn without qualification all war crimes committed by Israel since October 7, 2023, including ethnic cleansing, militarised apartheid, urbicide, scholasticide, medicide, mass starvation as an instrument of forced expulsion of more than two million Gazans, as well as an extant genocide of hundreds of thousands—one of the worst war crimes of our time. These acts have already been recognised as such by the ICC and ICJ, though the State of Israel has rejected out of hand the demands of both courts." (English, Hebrew, French)

We are writing to you to strongly oppose the shameful racism of Bill No. 575, which lies in its insistence on conflating Judaism—a religion older than Christianity - and Zionism—a century-old supremacist colonial project whose implementation in Palestine has involved numerous atrocities, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, including genocide that continues to this day.

This conflation, and the insistence on equating legitimate criticism of Zionism with animosity towards Jews, is not done to protect Jews. It is done to protect Zionists, while vilifying and endangering the wellbeing of Jewish people—most of whom live outside of Palestine.

Our declaration continues:
"We categorically reject the claim that Israel acts in the name of Jews, or that its criminal activity is supported by all Jews. We call on Jews worldwide to rise against the Zionist state—to deny it legitimacy and demand an immediate end to its criminal and depraved actions. This includes supporting the BDS campaign and severing cultural, political, and institutional ties with Israel until it complies with the conditions outlined above. Israel and Zionism act illegally and immorally while insisting that they do so in the name of Jews—thereby placing all Jews everywhere in harm’s way. This insistence that Jews inherently support Zionism and the abhorrent Zionist state—that is real antisemitism."

Zionism is a racist ideology and a brutal and genocidal practice. We as anti-Zionist Jews have the moral, human and political duty to condemn, oppose and call out crimes against humanity done by Jews and in the name of Jews and Judaism. Many of us are the descendants of Jews who survived the Nazi Holocaust and are born opponents of the kind of Nazi brutality which is used by Israel against the Palestinians. We are not just opposed to Israel, but to all Western countries who aid and abet it in its crimes and feel that the French Republic carries a historic responsibility since the French Revolution towards civic and political freedom and human rights, that the proposed bill is not just in opposition to, but is essentially nullifying.

There are countless anti-Zionists around the world, now that the genocidal nature of Israel has been so clearly proven, and many of them are Jews. This is why we initiated the Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress: to bring together representatives of these many people from around the world, in order to unite and stand strongly together in the struggle against racist Zionism, like we stood against racist South African Apartheid.

Unlike with the rise in racism—whether against Muslims, Jews, people of colour, or others—which must be fought against, the rise in anti-Zionist sentiment is a much needed and welcome phenomenon that should be embraced and encouraged. Most people around the globe understand that the struggle for Palestine is indeed the struggle for humanity. As was the case in the struggle against Nazism-Fascism, the struggle against Zionism is about affirming and cherishing our shared humanity.

The so-called “IHRA definition” is a deeply flawed piece of argumentation. It is defined in a cyclical manner, by using “examples”, which only serves to conflate Judaism and Zionism—equating legitimate anti-Zionism with the racism of antisemitism. The “IHRA definition” is a tool of defending Israeli brutalities and supremacy and should be shunned. It is weaponised to silence all defenders of Human rights and freedom, such as ourselves and many others. Its use, as the use of the proposed bill no. 575, will lead to a growth in real antisemitism in France, due to the injustice involved, hence defeating its supposed target of fighting antisemitism. In fact, the “IHRA definition” is so flawed that one of its
principal authors, Kenneth Stern, warned against it and its misuse when these additional “examples” were introduced.

For all these reasons and more, this proposed law is an absurdity that must be rejected by parliament. Not only for the sake of Palestinians, not only for the sake of Jews or Muslims, but for the sake of the very values that we, as a society, hold dear, and which were bequeathed us by the French Revolution: liberty, equality, and fraternity. In the name of the French Revolution, in the name of our shared humanity, this bill must be rejected.





Best Regards,

Ronnie Barkan
Dalia Sarig
Haim Bresheeth-Žabner
On behalf of the Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress organizing committee




Declaration of the First Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress:
https://jazic.org/congress-declaration-2025/