News Releases 2011
Paris, 31 January 2011
In appeals to German Chancellor, Angela Merkel and Austrian Chancellor, Werner Faymann, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, urged their condemnation of Turkish antisemitic film, "Valley of the Wolves - Palestine", as "an imminent threat to Muslim-Jewish relations" in their respective countries.
He, similarly, called on the two leaders to invoke German- Turkish and Austrian-Turkish associations to discourage their communities from frequenting hate-propaganda, analogous to such Nazi-period film bigotry as "Jew Suss".
Paris, 10 January 2011
In a letter to UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr.Shimon Samuels, noted that "the Iranian student Basij militia, of Bu-Ali Sina/Avicenna University in Hamadan province, have removed the mausoleum sign to the entrance of the Esther and Mordechai tomb in Shush, during a demonstration replete with antisemitic racist calumny".
Paris, 5 January 2011
In a letter to French Interior Minister, Brice Hortefeux, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr.Shimon Samuels, expressed horror to learn that "hot on the heels of the atrocities in Egypt, there have been threats of violence against the Coptic Parish of France".
Samuels recalled that "the late Simon Wiesenthal consistently stated that 'what begins with the Jews never ends with them'.Jihadi antisemitism is now adding an anti-Christian guise, apparently no longer limited to the Middle East".
The Centre expressed "solidarity with the families of the innocent victims in Egypt, cut down at prayer in their Church...it also stands together with the Coptic community in France and across Europe" and called on the Minister "to take all necessary measures to contain menaces against Christians as against all other faith communities".