News Releases 2012
'Worst Offender 2012' Goes to Iran - Military Display Stand Glorifies Martyrdom and Jihad.
Frankfurt, 17 October 2012
For the tenth year, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre was the only organization to monitor incitement to hate and violence on the display stands of the Frankfurt Book Fair. With 7,384 exhibits from 100 countries and some 300,000 visitors, this is the largest annual international gathering of the publishing industry.
"Centre calls for permanent police presence at Malmo Jewish institutions, as at other endangered communities across Europe."
Paris, 28 September 2012
An explosion occurred last night, after midnight, at the Malmo Jewish Community Centre. The exact circumstances are currently under
investigation.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre expresses its solidarity with the 700 member Jewish community and its Rabbi, who has been incessantly targetted.
Paris, 20 September 2012
In a letter to the French Interior Minister, Manuel Valls, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, applauded the Minister's personal commitment and that of his Ministry "to the defence of the French Jewish community in particular, and all other victims of hate-crime in general.
To Austrian Interior Minister : "... police refusal to intervene is too reminiscent of the 1938 Kristallnacht Reichspogrom in Austria. Law enforcement that betrays the victim is accomplice to the perpetrator."
Paris, 3 September 2012
In a letter to Austrian Federal Interior Minister, Johanna Mikl- Leitner, the Simon Wiesenthal's Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, noted that "for many years, the presence of the late Simon Wiesenthal in Vienna acted as a restraint against overt expressions of antisemitism", adding that "this year, however, witnessed Jewish cemetery desecration and a Nazi-style cartoon by an Austrian political leader on Facebook."
Paris, 26 July 2012
In a letter to French Culture Minister, Aurélie Filippetti, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, and President of Centre Simon Wiesenthal - France, Richard Odier, expressed "the grave concern of its membership at the abuse of the prestigious Avignon Festival 2012 as a platform for the delegitimization of the State of Israel and as a collateral instrument of incitement against the Jews of France who maintain an affinity with the Jewish State."
The Centre noted that "on 16 July, the multimedia 'Jerusalem - Cast Lead', methodically and deliberately screened a series of United Nations resolutions - from 1952 until the present - that charged Israel with responsibility for every possible evil in the Middle East and beyond, turning it into an outlaw-rogue entity."