News Releases 2023
By Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels
Geneva, 13 July 2023
On 10 July, during its 53rd session, the UN Human Rights Council, in Geneva, performed one of its favourite and infamous exercises - discussing Item 7 “human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT),” i.e. the singling out, demonization, defamation, delegitimation and application of double standards towards Israel.
The Special Rapporteur is Francesca Albanese, a lawyer, who professes “dedication, rigour and impartiality.”
Her report on Item 7 is a litany of inaccuracies and inconsistencies, that are tantamount to incitement to hatred. Ms. Albanese might be dedicated, but lacks rigour and is by no means impartial.
Some examples:
Paris, 7 July 2023
Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, noted with amazement “the clemency French Judges show when it comes to Islamists.”
We were invited to the offices of a Magistrates Trade Union. While waiting, we remarked that on the notice board were photos with followers of BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel) in a Kosher Supermarket smashing food off shelves.
The murderer of Sarah Halimi, tortured by her Islamist neighbour who was screaming “Allahu Akbar” as he threw her from her 3rd floor balcony. The Judge ruled him unfit for trial as he was suffering from the effects caused by cannabis.
Paris, 3 July 2023
In a letter to France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, noted that “since the Charlie Hebdo and Kosher supermarket terrorist attacks in 2015, the quotient of Jew-hatred in demonstrations across France has been sizeable... from the Yellow Jackets rallies to the anti-mask/anti-vaccine protests, where anarchists, extreme right and Islamists have infiltrated the movements, making antisemitic slogans go viral and vandalizing anything Jewish.”
Today, the protests around the tragic death of a teenager, see some sincere indignation, drowned by the unacceptable violence by opportunists and delinquents. Notwithstanding the curfew, there have been hundreds wounded and over 2000 arrests so far...
Read more: Wiesenthal Centre to President Macron: “Current...
Geneva, 29 June 2023
Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, called on H.E. Mr. Alain Berset, President of the Swiss Confederation, to ban an event celebrating hate and terror against the State of Israel and the Jewish diaspora.
An exhibition on “Palestinian Resistance” is due to open this Friday, 30 June, until 8 July, at the Cercle du Mail of the Workers’ Party, in rue du Vieux-Billard, Geneva. The posters on display are by Marc Rudin, a.k.a. Jihad Mansour, a Swiss-born artist who died in April this year. He was deeply involved, since the 1970s, with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United Kingdom and the US.
Paris, 25 June 2023
Mr. Prime Minister,
Our Centre commends your meeting of last week, on “Safety and Security for Jewish Life in Sweden”.
However, this week, Sweden did not join the group of 27 countries – led by the United States – calling for accountability of the Commission of Inquiry (COI), that represents a tool of Jew-hatred within the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
We are bringing to your attention the case of Hani Dweik, Communication Officer at the Swedish Dialogue Institute for the Middle East and North Africa.