News Releases 2012
Wiesenthal Centre's Call for Authorities to Annul "Israel Apartheid Week" in France Results in Paris University President's Ban on "Boycott Conference"
Paris, 21 February 2012
The President of Centre Simon Wiesenthal Centre-France,Richard Odier and its Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, on 15 February had warned French Interior Minister, Claude Guéant, that a conference entitled "New Sociological, Historical and Juridical Approaches to the Call for International Boycott : Israel, an Apartheid State "scheduled for 27-28 February on the campus of Paris University 8 (St Denis) could "degenerate into a threat to public order and endanger the Jewish community".
Paris, 15 February 2012
In a letter to French Interior Minister, Claude Guéant, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's President for France, Richard Odier and its Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, called for measures "to cancel the 'Israel Apartheid' conference at the University of Paris VIII and anywhere else in France, as a provocation threatening public order and a danger to the Jewish community".
Samuels recalled "Guéant's welcome last November to the North American Trustees of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, where he had shared with us his commitment to combat antisemitism in all its forms".
Read more: Wiesenthal Centre to French Interior Minister:...
"The measure's deterrent success has obviously had no impact on the city authorities, who continue to turn a blind eye to the victims of any ethnic or faith community."
Paris, 13 February 2012
In a letter to the Swedish Justice Minister, Beatrice Ask, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, commended her "for keeping her commitment to the Centre by providing governmental funding towards Jewish community security in Sweden".
Read more: Wiesenthal Centre to Swedish Justice Minister:...
Paris, 18 January 2012
A December ski vacation in the Alps, organized by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), apparently degenerated into a Nazi-theme party at which a Jewish student was assaulted.
Though the college announced that it would take disciplinary action, an LSE spokesman now argues that "these are disturbing allegations relating to events which took place on a foreign trip organized by the Student Union".
That incident has now reportedly been repeated with another Jewish student assaulted for protesting a game in which cards had to be formed into a swastika, and participants had to salute the Führer.
Read more: Wiesenthal Centre to London School of Economics...