Paris, 29 July 2021
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre was officially notified last week that a letter dated 19 November 2020 from the Centre’s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, to the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, was to become Public Record. A first on the subject of antisemitic terrorism.
That letter was borne out by ACOM (Action and Communication on the Middle East), a Spanish NGO that has successfully fought against BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) targeting Israel.
ACOM has denounced – among other extreme-left political groups preparing for the coming winter elections – the BNG (Galician Nationalist Bloc).
On 25 July, that lobby had organised a gathering in honour of the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), an organisation listed by the European Commission, the United States, Canada and other countries, as a terrorist network responsible for mass murder since the 1980’s.
The meeting, held in Santiago de Compostela, was attended by separatist movements across Spain, from Basques and Catalans to Galicia and diplomat ‘comrades’ from Venezuela. The common denominator was hate for Israel and violent solutions for Palestinians.
ACOM has announced it will be taking legal measures:
“- that a political organisation provided shelter and justification for a public act identifying with an organisation declared terrorist by Europe
- that such facts could be constituted a criminal offence, specifically in glorifying terrorism and the crime of incitement to hatred, or any other results from an investigation to be initiated by the Public Prosecutor’s office.”
“The Wiesenthal Centre added that the glorification of the PFLP endangers the Spanish Jewish community, Christian friends of Israel and Spain itself,” stressed Samuels, in support of ACOM.
He added that “France and Ireland must also be brought to order, in view of claims of their financial assistance reaching terrorist movements, to be investigated by the European Commission,” concluded Samuels.
* * *
“My cause was justice, not vengeance. My work is for a better tomorrow and a more secure future for our children and grandchildren.” (Simon Wiesenthal, 1908-2005)