(JTA) – In an unusual move, a top European Union official celebrated the Czech parliament’s passing of a resolution that lists the campaign to boycott Israel among forms of antisemitism. The European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Věra Jourová, who is Czech, on Oct. 23 wrote on Twitter: “I welcome that @snemovna passed a resolution condemning all forms of #Antisemitism directed against individuals and religious institutions, including the denial of Holocaust.” Jourová did not mention Israel but the Jewish state is mentioned in five out of seven clauses of the non-binding resolution she welcomed, passed on Oct. 22 by the Poslanecká Sněmovna, the lower house of the Czech parliament. The German parliament and judiciaries and legislatures of several other countries have called the BDS movement against Israel antisemitic or otherwise discriminatory. The European Union has not, due to differences of opinion on the issue among its member states.

Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Commission’s coordinator on combating antisemitism, underlined on Twitter the language of the Czech resolution, which differs in its focus on Israel from many other resolutions about antisemitism. In the first three clauses, the Czech parliament “strongly condemns all manifestations of antisemitism directed against individuals, religious institutions, organizations as well as the State of Israel, including the denial of the Holocaust; rejects any questioning of the State of Israel’s right of existence and defense” and “condemns all activities and statements by groups calling for a boycott of the State of Israel, its goods, services or citizens.”

Main Photo: Věra Jourová