News Releases 2016
"The Embassies of United States and France are joined by UNESCO at their dedicated pavilions amidst the vilest antisemitic and conspiracy theory titles at the Doha International Book Fair."
Paris, 7 December 2016
In a letter to Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser Al Ali, Culture and Sports Minister of Qatar, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Directot for International Relations,Dr. Shimon Samuels, expressed outrage at the continued display of titles inciting to hatred of Jews at the Doha International Book Fair (DECC).
Samuels noted that "this year, the Fair concludes on 11 December thus leaving time for removal of these antisemitic and conspiracy theory books:
Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi (Booth C70)
1- Money and Business Barons, by Abd al-Moein al-Shawaf (Jews control world finance and economy...)
Panamá City, 5 December 2016
The Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO) is comprised of Parliamentary delegations from every country in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre is the only Jewish organization accredited to the PARLATINO and has passed resolutions against Antisemitism, Suicide Terrorism and is currently lobbying for its support against Racism in Football.
The 2016 Assembly was attended by Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, and its Latin America Representative, Dr. Ariel Gelblung.
The closing session on “No to Hate” was impugned by a Venezuelan Congressman’s lengthy attack on the United States and Israel. This was countered by an Uruguayan legislator, who dismissed the value of “a session against hate addressed in the language of hate.”
The Centre’s officials were also received by Panamanian Interior Minister, Mitton Enriquez, and Director of the Government Academy, Clara Lura, to plan “a Sensitivity Day” with Wiesenthal Centre expertise on Digital Hate and Cyber Terrorism.
Op-Ed by Shimon Samuels published in the Jerusalem Post
1 December 2016
http://m.jpost.com/#article=6022QzhCRTUzN0U1MENENDgwRTIyMDgwOEUzODY3OEE0QTI=
Remember the 1960s anti-war folk song, “Last night I had the strangest dream I never dreamed before, I dreamed the world had all agreed to put an end to war”? It was just sullied by 1984 Orwellian “double think.”
Last June, France convened a halfday meeting of 25 invited European and Arab states, plus the United States, to seek a resolution to the Middle East conflict, billed as “the French Peace Initiative” – while markedly announcing that Israel was to be excluded.
Redolent of the Munich Agreement of 1938 reached behind the back of the doomed Czechoslovakia, “Paris 2016 peace” seemed more likely, in “double think”, to presage war at the cost of Israel.
France is bent on holding a brief, full-blown conference to rubber- stamp a draft resolution for the United Nations Security Council that would recognize Palestinian sovereignty and demand Israeli withdrawal, within one year, to the 1949 armistice lines that were effaced by the 1967 Egyptian-Jordanian- Syrian invasion.
“The Ecuadorian Representative either carries a prejudice against Jewish self-determination and sovereignty – the definition of Zionism – or suffers from an inadequate education in history”
Panamá City, 1 December 2016
Attending the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO) General Assembly as the only accredited international Jewish organization, the Simon Wiesenthal Center´s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels and Latin American Representative, Dr. Ariel Gelblung protested to Ecuador President, Rafael Correa, in outrage at the Nazi/Jewish amalgam delivered by his representative to the UN General Assembly.
Samuels suggested that Mr. Sevilla “either carries a prejudice against Jewish self-determination and sovereignty - which is the definition of Zionism - or suffers from an inadequate education in history:
The Wiesenthal Centre calls for clarification: “Are the ECFR recommendations the policy of the EU?”
Paris, 28 November 2016
In a letter to European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, addressed the highest official of the European Union, “to clarify the relationship of the EU bodies with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).”
Samuels noted that: “This apparently well-endowed ‘think-tank’ – with offices in Berlin, Brussels, London, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Sofia and Warsaw – presents what seems a new and cynical element in the arsenal against the State of Israel: ‘differentiation’.”
He continued: “In laymen’s terms, ‘differentiation’ is jargon for a distinction in treatment between Jews residing within the 1948-1967 cease-fire lines, and Jews resident beyond those lines.”