Print

“A vector for the continuing agenda of the Durban UN World Conference Against Racism hatefest.”

Paris, 24 January 2021

The 2021 World Social Forum (WSF), that is meeting from 23 to 31 January, has announced that it is mostly “dedicated to Palestinian issues.”

The WSF opened with Leila Khaled, known for her participation in the infamous hijacking of TWA flight 840 in 1969 – on which the PFLP hoped to find and kidnap Yitzhak Rabin – and of El Al flight 219 in 1970. After her arrest and conviction in the UK, she was released in exchange for hostages taken by other PFLP terrorists.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, together with then Representative for Latin America, attended the WSF since its inception in 2001, in Porto Alegre and its satellites: the European Social Forum in London and Athens, as also the Asian Social Forum in Mumbai, India.

“Originally conceived as an anti-globalization lobby against the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in reality, it has served as the vector for the antisemitic and anti-Zionist agenda of the United Nations World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) held in Durban, South Africa”... “These were initially NGO gatherings on human rights, the indigenous, women, hunger, poverty, disability, etc. Rapidly, however, the programme, through ‘intersessionism’, deteriorated into ‘Palestinian human rights’, ‘Palestinians as indigenous’, ‘Palestinian women’, etc. to the chagrin of the true ‘victims of globalization’,” stated Samuels.

24 Jan. 2021
The WSF in Porto Alegre (photos courtesy of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre), anti-Zionism =
antisemitism: from BDS campaigns to genocidal intent.

Some examples:

- “It was not pleasant to sit in a stadium of some 70,000 mostly young people, screaming ‘Viva la Intifada Global!’, waving banners proclaiming the obscure message: ‘Nazis, Yankees, Jews – No More Chosen Peoples’”... “It was there that the extreme left mated with Jihadi Islam”... “Indeed the religious factor was brought in, dubbed as ‘the Kairos Document’.”

- A British Imam declared: “It would not matter if Israel were to be moved to the other side of the Mediterranean, our war with the Jews would continue.”

- Another cleric suggested that such terms as “Chosen People" and “Promised Land” were colonialism and racism. Replacing the Biblical language, the response was “We are all Chosen Peoples” and “the Land is Promised to all.”

The Centre recalled that “At the Mumbai meeting, for the first time in the thousand years of Jewish presence in India, the Bombay synagogue was deemed in danger and granted military protection. This set the scene for later terrorist attacks targeting the Chabad Jewish Centre, together with three hotels.”

“The WSF is the scene where forthcoming plans were set, such as the flotilla and flytilla bent for Gaza. Today, it is the burgeoning BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) campaign programme. Last time in Porto Alegre, the so-called ‘Global March’ was led by a long double-decker bus. From its stage, activists who were screaming BDS slogans, apparently recognized us. One screamed: ‘There are Zionist agents here who will not get home!’”

“Luckily, in the twilight, the smell of bonfire barbecues, roasting meat, were drawing most nasal attention. We did not stop to taste... “There is an advantage that this year’s WSF is by Zoom. We will monitor and suggest to Brazilian authorities appropriate measures if the WSF is, once again, used as a voice of hate,” concluded Samuels.

* * *

Please contact us if you are a witness or victim of antisemitism or other forms of discrimination on social media.

“Hate is a boomerang, which comes back for everyone and spares no one, neither the weak nor the powerful.”
Simon Wiesenthal, 1908-2005 (quote from his book “Justice Not Vengeance”)