OSCE hosts event to improve co-operation between law enforcement and Jewish community in North Macedonia
The OSCE Mission to Skopje, and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) hosted an event on April 12 2022 that brought together law enforcement and judicial officials with representatives of the Jewish community of North Macedonia.
Participants discussed how to improve co-operation in order to better face current and potential security challenges to the community, such as concerns stemming from hate crimes, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and anti-Semitic bias.
“Discrimination, hate crime and hate speech are serious problems in this region and represent a potential threat to improving inter-ethnic relations. Between 2013 and 2021, in this country, civil society organizations have registered more than 800 hate crime incidents, 25 of which were committed because of the religious belief or affiliation of the victims. Two of these incidents involve serious anti-Semitic threats,” said Jeff Goldstein, Deputy Head of the OSCE Mission to Skopje while addressing participants of the event.
Minister of Internal Affairs, Oliver Spasovski, told participants that: “The true values of a society come from the ability to accept and respect differences, to recognize and nurture individuals as well as the society as a whole, to protect them, embrace and foster human hopes, aspirations, perspectives, and ambitions. In essence, the power of one community lies in the ability not to dominate over the others.”
“State institutions are obliged to be vigilant, especially in shaping policies for human rights and freedoms, for fighting antisemitism and racism, and for global action against hate speech. But also, for a swift and effective response to all attempts to provoke any kind of hatred,” added Spasovski.
The president of the Jewish Community, Pepo Levi, stated that antisemitism affects not only Jews, but the society as a whole, and “given the current situation with the health crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the latest developments in Ukraine, we witness hate speech, intolerance and antisemitism increasingly spreading through social networks.”