Paris, 3 January 2024
Mr Jürgen Stock
Secretary General of INTERPOL
Lyon, France
Mr Secretary General,
On behalf of the 400,000 members of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre worldwide, we call on Interpol to put the leadership and operatives of Hamas on the “Red Notice” list of wanted terrorists.
Nearly three months ago, on Saturday 7 October, Hamas perpetrated the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust: bombing, raping, torturing, maiming, killing and kidnapping thousands.
Most of the instigators, leaders, financiers, and operators of this mass murder are known internationally.
Not being identified as wanted criminals gives them the delusion to be immune from justice. This creates a ripple effect, instigating lone-wolf terror and antisemitism worldwide.
The criminal behaviour of Hamas extends even to abusing its own civilians as human shields, and misappropriating hospitals, schools, refugee camps and UN facilities as tactical bases.
We are aware that, to date, on the Interpol “Red Notice” list there is but one “Palestinian” national, wanted for “attempted arson”.
Mr Secretary General, Interpol must put Hamas terrorists and leadership on the “Red Notice” wanted list, beginning with Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar, Khaled Mashaal, Ghazi Hamad, Mahmoud al-Zahar and Mohamed Deif (see above).
Our mentor, Simon Wiesenthal, had for decades addressed Interpol in seeking to bring Nazi war criminals to justice. Initially, the excuse for not doing so was Interpol’s Constitution, Article 3: “It is strictly forbidden for the Organization to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.”
It took 40 years after World War Two, in the 1980s, for Interpol to begin supporting the prosecution of Nazi war criminals.
Will we have to wait another 40 years to prosecute today’s Nazis?
Interpol’s intervention would not carry any political, military, religious or racial character by addressing the 7 October terrorist assault, which was diabolically criminal. While abusing politics or religion or identity as an excuse, and not complying with any warfare conventions, Hamas’ intention was to perpetrate the crime of crimes, genocide!
The members of this criminal terrorist enterprise must be arrested, prosecuted and judged for inciting, glorifying and inflicting massive and premeditated murder, rape, arson, torture, kidnapping, desecration of corpses and so on, against babies, children, teenagers, women, men, elderly, the handicapped, Israeli citizens and foreign nationals...
We urge Interpol to promptly add the names mentioned above to be judged by a criminal court for this specific and other similar offences.
Interpol has already followed-up with our request for “Red Notices” on the five Iranian terrorists – who have since become officials of the Islamic Republic – responsible for the 1994 Buenos Aires AMIA Jewish Centre bombing that left 85 dead and over 300 wounded.
As in their case, also the Hamas leadership figures travel freely to some of the 196 member-countries of Interpol. They should be arrested on arrival, extradited to the competent jurisdiction and prosecuted for several of the criminal offences listed under Interpol’s purview, namely: “terrorism”, “war crimes”, “organized crime”, “crimes against children”, “firearms trafficking”, “corruption” and “financial crimes”...
By putting these criminals on a “Wanted” list, Interpol could make history.
Most respectfully,
Dr Shimon Samuels
Director for International Relations
Simon Wiesenthal Centre
FREE THE HOSTAGES NOW!
* * *
For further information, contact csweurope@gmail.com