Dr. Mikola István biztonságpolitikai és nemzetközi együttműködésért felelős államtitkár részt vett és beszédet mondott a World Zionist Organization szeptember 16-i budapesti konferenciáján.

Az államtitkár által elmondott beszéd teljes tartalma az alábbiakban olvasható:

Honorable Vice-Chairman Hagoel,

Honorable Executive Rabbi Köves and Chairman Heisler,

Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen,

As a representative of the Government of Hungary I welcome you all to Budapest, to this very important conference on a very crucial issue: countering anti-Semitism in Europe. I do hope that, although you are talking about sad and difficult problems at this conference, you are still going to have a chance to enjoy the beauty of one of the most wonderful cities of Central and Eastern Europe, our capital, a city with a remarkable Jewish tradition.

And a city – as you all know – which is birthplace of the great founder of the modern Zionist movement: Theodor Herzl, or as we are used to say: Herzl Tivadar (1860- 1904).

I am standing here and I have accepted your kind invitation because I would like to express that the Government of Hungary is a partner of Jewish communities in Hungary and in Europe in countering and in combatting anti-Semitism.

We all know, and you, the participants of this conference are more aware of this than anyone else, that anti-Semitism is present in Europe and it is, sadly enough, also present in Hungary. In this context the key question is, where a government, including the government of Hungary stands, which side we choose.
We are aware of our great responsibility, because the stance of a government on this issue influences the public opinion and it has got far-reaching, historical consequences.

The Hungarian Government has made a very clear choice on this issue: we have declared “zero tolerance” regarding anti-Semitism and we have made some symbolic and practical steps to express this both in the Hungarian public and on the international scene. I would like to mention here just a few of these steps:

Hungary, in cooperation with the representatives of the State of Israel and of Sweden, has commemorated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Raoul Wallenberg, the great hero who rescued many of our Jewish fellow citizens during the dark times of the Shoah. By declaring 2012 an official Wallenberg Memorial Year, we have made it clear, on which side of history we stand.

We have chosen the side of the rescuers of lives and, by this, we deny all continuity with those who incited, legalized and executed the anti-Semitic actions this country, tragically experienced in the Holocaust.

Choosing Wallenberg as an icon is a clear stance against anti-Semitism. We did not forget about the importance of the example of Wallenberg after the end of the Wallenberg memorial year either: our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade cooperates with a network of non-governmental organizations, research centers and schools in organizing a national contest for high-school students about Raoul Wallenberg and the rescuers of lives in the time of the Holocaust. My colleagues at the ministry assisted at the regional rounds of the contest and we have hosted the final event annually at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Last year I had the privilege to open the closing event of the national Wallenberg contest in the assembly hall of our Ministry.

I am convinced that the young generations must learn about the tragic parts of our past, including the Holocaust, and it is crucial that they also learn about the examples of those who could “remain human in inhumane times” – as the motto of the Wallenberg Memorial Year put it.

Educating the young generation is a key in countering and combatting anti-Semitism, as we share the basic conviction of the moral imperative of “never again!”.

In this spirit, our prime minister, Viktor Orbán addressed the conference of the World Jewish Congress in 2013, here, in Budapest. In his speech he assured the representatives of the global Jewish community that “Hungary has a moral duty to have zero tolerance to anti-Semitism”. He emphasized that the Hungarian Government’s Christian Democratic policy had felt that it was its moral obligation to introduce a memorial day for the victims of the Holocaust in Hungarian schools and to create a Holocaust Memorial Centre as well.

It also considered it a duty to organize a memorial year in honor of Raoul Wallenberg, to ban paramilitary organizations and symbols of tyranny and to set up the Holocaust Memorial Committee 2014.
2014, the 70th anniversary of the deportation of many thousands of our Hungarian Jewish fellow citizens to the concentration camps and the darkest year of the persecution of the Jewish community in Hungary was declared the official Memorial Year of the Holocaust in Hungary.

Many events, both locally, and on the national and on the international level expressed that Hungary denies any continuity with the anti-Semite actions that took place in our country in the first part of the 20th century. Our then deputy prime minister, the present European Commissioner Tibor Navracsics, speaking at the conference on “Jewish Life and Anti-Semitism in Europe”, organized by the Tom Lantos Institute in the building of our Parliament, made it clear that at the time of the Holocaust “the Hungarian state turned on its own citizens and aided in their extermination. The Hungarian state was also responsible for the Holocaust”. He also said that “70 years ago it was Hungarians who killed Hungarians”.

Therefore this is crucially important that we remember the Holocaust in order to counter anti-Semitism in our present time.

This was the reason why Hungary accepted to chair the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2015 and 2016: we have just finished an abundant series of national and international programs in this context, in which the Hungarian embassies all over the world took a lion’s share.

Honorable Vice Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,

With these few examples I just intended to demonstrate that we do not only speak about countering anti-Semitism in Hungary but we, as a government, are “doing our homework” on this issue. The wisdom is true in this context, too: “think globally, act locally”. I am convinced that in these difficult times in Europe, when the security and safety of our communities, including the Jewish communities, are encountering new threats because of the migration crisis and because of the rise of international terrorism, it is the responsibility of the national governments, in cooperation with the religious communities and non-governmental organizations, to counter and to combat the plague of anti-Semitism and all forms of racism. The Hungarian government has made a clear choice in the issue and made a bold and clear stance in declaring zero tolerance on anti-Semitism. I do hope that this important conference of the World Zionist Organization shall also contribute to this common cause of ours.

I wish you a very fruitful conference and I wish you also that, while staying in Budapest, you have a chance to taste the reality of the Jewish cultural renaissance we are pleased to experience in Hungary these days.

I thank you for your kind attention.

(Külgazdasági és Külügyminisztérium)