Global Lawmakers Confront Antisemitism Head-on (Video & Photos)

By BJLIfe/Sharon Altshul
Posted on 01/31/26

Jerusalem, Israel - Jan. 31, 2026  - At the Knesset: global lawmakers confront antisemitism head-on On Monday morning, January 26, 2026, the Israeli Knesset buzzed with an unusual energy. The electronic entrance sign welcomed Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, as a red carpet was rolled out and a military band rehearsed for his ceremonial arrival in the afternoon. Prime Minister Rama was to give a keynote address at the 2026 International Conference on Combating Antisemitism the next day.
The conference was launched in the Knesset Negev meeting hall with a special international parliamentary session hosted by Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana.
The chamber was filled with lawmakers and delegates from more than 15 countries, Europe, Latin America, and North America. The conference was held in time to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The timing underscored a call to confront not only history’s horrors, but the mechanisms sustaining antisemitism today.
The lineup included Ruben Baumgarten (MD, PhD, Member of the Dutch Senate for the Liberal Conservative party and chair of the Israel Allies Foundation Europe Network), MEP Fabrice Leggeri (former Frontex director), Brazilian Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro (now in political exile), and Romanian MEP Dr. Maria-Georgiana Teodorescu (who visited October 7 attack sites and has championed Israel's right to self-defense in Europe). These voices, often from conservative or nationalist circles, spoke of radicalization, policy failures, and the need for unfiltered alliances against hate.
Two presentations stood out:.
Romanian MEP Cristian Terheș took the floor, holding an Arabic textbook.

Terheș, who has long campaigned against EU funding for the Palestinian "pay-for-slay" program and radicalizing educational content, recounted the March 11, 1978, Coastal Road massacre. A group led by Dalal Mughrabi landed near Tel Aviv, murdered a photographer on the beach, hijacked vehicles, sprayed traffic with gunfire, seized buses, and detonated explosives when cornered—killing 38 Israelis, including 13 children, and wounding 72.
He then displayed pages from the textbook and read a translated passage that glorifies Mughrabi as a model of heroism: "Our Palestinian history celebrates many martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the homeland, including Dalal Mughrabi, who drew a picture of heroism and confrontation, and made her memory stay alive in our hearts and minds."
His words silenced the room.
Terheș, a member of the European Parliament since 2019 and vice-president of the Committee on Budgetary Control, emphasized that such materials, romanticizing mass murder as "sacrifice for the homeland," indoctrinate generations, turning terrorism into an aspiration. 
It was a direct, evidence-based indictment of incitement's role in perpetuating antisemitism, aligning with the conference's "Generation Truth" theme: expose the roots, don't just condemn the symptoms.
The session closed on a resolute, uplifting note. Judge Alan Clemmons, South Carolina Circuit Court judge, founder of American Patriots for Israel, and a veteran advocate, has visited Israel many times and delivered the final remarks.
Before his judicial service, he authored the 2011 Stand with Israel Resolution (passed unanimously in South Carolina), affirming that "Israel is not an occupier" and pioneering anti-BDS legislation and IHRA definition adoption in U.S. states.
Clemmons dismantled the "occupation" label as "the primary antisemitic canard of the present generation." He stated that it's "a legal term misused to delegitimize Israel, cast it as a thief or colonizer, sustain victimhood narratives, and justify violence as 'resistance."
He urged proactive countermeasures: clear Israeli policies rejecting the trope, plus high-volume social media and messaging campaigns to reach and deradicalize youth worldwide. 
The Knesset session was held in English. Drawing on his deep ties to Israel, Clemmons concluded in Hebrew: "Am Yisrael Chai."