The de-legitimization of the State of Israel - the fundamental denial of the fact that Israel has the right to exist - has, in recent years, become one of the greatest threats that the Jewish people are facing today. Over the last decade forces opposed to the existence of the Jewish State have grown increasingly stronger and more cohesive not only in Muslim countries, but also in the Western countries, that Jews have become accustomed to perceive as friends and allies.
The Western liberal intellectual elites, who once saw the formation of the Jewish State as a historic triumph for justice and democracy, have been turning away from Israel. To support Israel or even to be sympathetic to its cause has become almost prohibited among the mass media, on university campuses, in the artistic community, and within many Christian congregations. Israel has been falsely accused of being an aggressive apartheid state that constantly engages in violations of human rights in its occupied territories and is often described as the last vestige of colonialism in the modern era.
During the middle Ages similar nonsensical notions and accusations were brought against the Jewish people who, at that time, were scattered in Diasporas throughout the world. Today the entire civilized world has recognized the falsehood of such vicious accusation. On the other hand, however, the Jewish State as a singular entity has now replaced the role that was once played by the Jewish people as a collective. A country that was born out of the ashes of Holocaust, supported by a millennium-old cultural and religious tradition, and forged in accordance with the norms of international law, has become the target of sinister lies.
The de-legitimization of the Jewish State causes indignation among the members of all Jewish organizations and demands that we take decisive and immediate steps to counteract this trend. We are capable of fulfilling this task. Our own recent history provides us with an ideal example of a situation in which the Jewish unity and the Jewish cooperation achieved incredible results.
On February 23-25, 1971, a series of meeting were held in Brussels that went down in history as “The First Brussels Conference in the defense of Soviet Jewry” (subsequently, there was a second conference in 1976 and a third in 1983). This was the largest Conference of its kind since the first Zionist Congress in 1887. Over fifteen hundred delegates representing virtually all Jewish communities and organizations in the Western world gathered in Brussels. A variety of political and social leaders, members of the Israeli government, writers, journalists, and Supreme Court justices, as well as former Soviet refuseniks who managed to immigrate to the West took part in the conference. The result of the three-day conference was a series of important compromises and decisions that transformed the conference from a one-time event into a highly functional coordinating process of our efforts and further actions. As a result of this process the movement to liberate Soviet Jews not only succeeded in its ultimate mission to give Jews freedom, but also became a school of learning and a source of immense pride for two generations of Jews in Diaspora and in Israel.
Just as before coordination and unity are now needed by the Jewish people. As long as we are divided, as long as there is no central campaign, no unifying movement to show the world that the de-legitimization of Israel is a mortal mistake, the threat to the existence of Israel will continue to increase.
We call upon the leaders of Jewish communities in the Diaspora, upon the Jewish leaders in political and social spheres, in the artistic and cultural circles, the leading entrepreneurs and the Jewish youth movement leaders to organize a 4th Brussels Conference.
The main mission of the 4th Brussels conference is to create a political, financial, and organizational mechanism that would counteract the growing threat of the demonization of Israel, the double standard applied to the Jewish State, and the de-legitimization of Israel which denies the very right of Jews to have a homeland which they could call their own. We must not only fight the false claims that question the right of Israel to exist, but, also, to demonstrate to the elites of every nation that modern anti-Israelism is just as corrosive to their own society and just as detrimental to the pursuit of liberty and democracy as traditional anti-Semitism.

Initiative group:
A. Machkevich – President of the Eurasian Jewish Congress (Kazakhstan)
A. Smukler – President of NCSJ (USA)
M. Chlenov – President of VAAD (Russia)
Ul. Kosharovsky – Veteran of the movement to liberate Soviet Jews
J. Zissels – President of VAAD (Ukraine)
V. Prestin – Veteran of the movement to liberate Soviet Jews
R. Spektor – Veteran of the movement to liberate Soviet Jews

Recommendations on personal structure of 4-th Brussels conference Organizing committee, to nominee of 4-th Brussels conference Organizing committee Chairman and the preliminary Agenda we ask to send to address of Initiative group under presidency of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress President Alexander Machkevitch.
4-th Brussels conference Initiative group addresses: eajc@mail.ru; spektor@eajc.org