“Madam Prime Minister, we are sure that when choosing a family vacation, you would avoid a country where Nazis run free...” “Iceland, in all its beauty, is being abused in the name of hate.”

Paris, 2 October 2020

Following our letters to the Swedish, Danish and Norwegian Prime Ministers, in regard to the spat of antisemitic posters outside synagogues and Jewish institutions, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, addressed outrage to the Prime Minister of Iceland, Katrín Jakobsdóttir.

“These Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR) neo-Nazi posters accuse the Jews of ‘cruelty against animals, abuse of women and pedophilia’,” stated Samuels.

The letter continued, “In the absence of an official community, some sixty resident Jews hold informal gatherings on religious holidays, which I have had the fortune to attend...” “Yet, in the absence of a Jewish school, posters denying the Holocaust appeared on the wall of a major Reykjavik high school...” “We are delighted that a public rally was held denouncing NMR.”

The Centre added that, “it is controversial and disturbing enough for the few Icelandic Jews that legislation is pending for circumcision to be punished by a six-year prison sentence,” continuing, “Madam Prime Minister, we are now shocked that Icelandic neo-Nazis are active in your country. With a total population of some 364 000, these hatemongers can hardly remain unknown to the authorities.”

The letter continued, “We call on Iceland to follow its Nordic partner Finland, in banning this neo-Nazi organization... and to take measures against the perpetrators of this antisemitic campaign.”

“Madam Prime Minister, we are sure that when choosing a family vacation, you would avoid a country where Nazis run free...” “Iceland, in all its beauty, is being abused in the name of hate,” concluded Samuels.

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"There is no Freedom without Justice." (Simon Wiesenthal, 1908-2005)