“Should this perverse exercise proceed, the condition of Jews across Europe will be clear – abandonment by their own governments... It could be seen as a step towards a new ‘Kristallnacht’ – a surrender and endorsement of the most extreme elements of left, right and Jihadist.”

Istanbul, 14 July 2016

In letters to French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May, Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, called on all three “to press Brussels immediately to halt a European Union draft resolution about to be submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting here in Istanbul.”

The resolution serves as an alternative to a Palestinian draft in denying the tie between the Jewish People and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem – Judaism's holiest site.

France had publicly regretted its support for a similar resolution passed last April at the UNESCO Executive Board in Paris, while Germany and the United Kingdom had voted against.

Samuels warned, “should this perverse exercise proceed, the condition of Jews across Europe will be clear – abandonment by their own governments.”

The letters stressed that “such a resolution could be seen as a step towards a new 'Kristallnacht' (the 1938 Nazi pogrom denoted 'the Night of Broken Glass') – a surrender and endorsement of the most extreme elements of left, right and Jihadist.”

The Centre urged the three leaders “to order their delegates at the World Heritage Committee to vigorously combat this unthinkable scenario for, thereafter, will come ‘the deluge’ – a catastrophe for all of Europe.”