News Releases 2015
“Morocco is targeted by the same Islamists as those who threaten the Jews.”
“Casablanca leads other Arab book fairs in volume of antisemitic titles with a tip of the iceberg figure of over 100 on display.”
Paris, 1 April 2015
In a letter to the Moroccan Culture Minister, Mohammed Amine Sbihi, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, presented his sixth annual monitor of anti-Jewish incitement on the stands of the SIEL (Salon International de l'Edition et du Livre – International Fair of Publishing and Books), held in Casablanca, billed as the most important book fair in the Arab world.
“It fails the 'Preference versus Prejudice Test': a preference for an alternative government of Israel is legitimate. A desire for its replacement by a 'State of Palestine' reflects a prejudice denying the right of sovereignty to the Jewish people.”
Paris, 30 March 2015
Writing to Southampton University incumbent Vice-Chancellor Professor Don Nutbeam and incoming Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Christopher Snowden, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, drew attention to a conference announced on their University website, scheduled for 17-19 April.
Entitled “International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism,” the notice claims this to be unique because it concerns the legitimacy in international law of the Jewish State of Israel. Rather than focusing on Israeli actions in the 1967 Occupied Territories, the conference will focus on exploring themes of Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism; all of which are posed by Israel's very nature.
“Used in Arabic in private Islamist-oriented schools in the West, these texts are now available in English and other European languages.”
Philadelphia, 19 March 2015
In a keynote speech to the 45th Scholars Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches held at Temple University, Philadelphia, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, alerted educators to English language antisemitic school texts.
These were exposed by the Centre from the display shelves of last month's international book fairs in Qatar, Casablanca and Oman.
Samuels, a Board member of the inter-faith international and inter-generational conference, warned that “such texts, used in Arabic in private Islamist-oriented schools in the West, are now available in English and other European languages.”
“In Frankfurt, our Centre awarded its '2014 Worst Offender Award' to the Qatari Stand.. In Doha, 700,000 visitors, 25% of them schoolchildren were exposed to a vicious racism.”
“From this perspective, Mr. Minister, Doha is a very long way from Paris.”
Paris, 5 March 2015
In a letter to Qatari Culture Minister, Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, noted the press reports of his candidacy for election in 2017 as Director-General of UNESCO. Samuels called his attention to “a matter under the auspices of his Ministry that surely violates the principles of UNESCO: the antisemitic displays at the just closed Doha International Book Fair.”
Read more: Wiesenthal Centre to Qatar Culture Minister: “As...
Blog by Dr. Shimon Samuels published in The Times of Israel
2 March 2015
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/icelands-new-antisemitic-threshold-a-psychiatric-illness/
Iceland is more than its tourist posters of geysers, volcanoes, the singer Bjork and the Northern Lights. It has now stretched antisemitism to new outer limits, rendering it almost a psychiatric disorder.
An Icelandic “artist”, Snorri Asmundsson, has posted a YouTube clip to the background of Israel’s natural anthem, HaTikva (The Hope), featuring a woman in a burqa pulled out of the frame by a man wearing a star of David armband, transvestites lampooning Israel’s Eurovision contest singer, Dana International, and two Down’s Syndrome young men dressed as orthodox Jewish Hassidim [HATIKVA by SNORRI ASMUNDSSON]