Suchergebnisse

Recent shifts in West Europe have resulted in increasingly pro-Israel far-right parties. While this phenomenon remains under-theorised, existing research suggests the far right's position is not uniform, and support for Israel is limited to contemporary radical right parties. By contrast, traditional extreme-right parties remain hostile towards Israel. To substantiate these claims, the article focuses on Germany and compares the Israel/Palestine discourse of the radical right Alternative für Deutschland and the extreme right Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands. The article shows how the parties adopt diametrically opposed positions, with the AfD vehemently supporting Israel while the NPD frames Israel as a pariah state. Yet, the article also highlights a similarity in the parties' discourse, with both framing a racialised 'other' as 'our' enemy. As such, the article's findings suggest the radical/extreme divide needs to be treated with caution. Despite adopting contrasting positions towards Israel, German far-right parties continue to have much in common.

In late 2010, the 'European Freedom Alliance', a group of four European politicians from populist radical right parties: Heinz-Christian Strache, Chairman of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ); Filip Dewinter, a senior leader in Belgium's Vlaams Belang (VB); René Stadtkewitz, founder of Germany's Die Freiheit; and Kent Ekeroth, the International Secretary for the Sweden Democrats (SD), travelled to Israel and the West Bank. Their trip culminated in the signing of the 'Jerusalem Declaration', a document conveying their staunch support for Israel and its right to defend itself against 'Islamic aggression'. The author analyses key interviews and the Declaration to demonstrate how the event is indicative of a reformed and realigned populist radical Right. Open anti-Semitism, he argues, has been replaced by calls to prevent Islam's supposed contamination of the nation's cultural heritage and new positions are being adopted on post-national cooperation and European identity. Also, wider transformations in Western European politics have resulted in the populist radical Right increasingly framing the electorate's insecurities as evidence of the cultural erosion of the nation state. Through comparing the experiences of Israelis with those of non-Muslims living in Europe, the Alliance argues for the need to toughen Europe's defence against a common enemy.