News Releases 2021
Wiesenthal Centre Expresses Solidarity with Jewish Community of Béziers, Threatened with Mass Murder
“I will wait until the synagogues will be full of vermin, so that I can do a bigger carnage than at the Bataclan.”
Paris, 10 June 2021
The Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, joins the BNVCA (the French National Bureau of Vigilance Against Antisemitism) in solidarity with the small Jewish community of Béziers, France, whose President received an anonymous and ominous death threat.
Paris, 2 June 2021
To: Mr. Eric Pliez
Mayor of the 20th District
Paris, France
Mr. Mayor,
Both Jewish and non-Jewish members of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre-France have expressed distress at the large banners hung in Rue d’Avron in the 20th District, in particular the one calling for “Palestine Will Vanquish.”
Mr. Mayor, we fear that such banners will incite to hate and violence against the Jewish community in your municipal district.
We urge you to remove these banners, as such political statements are unbecoming to your municipal party causes of Socialism or Ecology.
Sincerely,
Dr. Shimon Samuels
Director for International Relations
Simon Wiesenthal Centre
* * *
“For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.” (Simon Wiesenthal, 1908-2005)
Blog by Dr. Shimon Samuels published in The Times of Israel
29 May 2021
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/80th-farhud-anniversary-a-precursor-to-2021-violent-international-antisemitism/
The Wiesenthal Centre is proud to join 26 organizations, led by HARIF, the UK-based Association of Jews from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) on 30 May, to commemorate, the 1 June 1941, Farhud Baghdad pogrom against its 2,700-year-old Jewish community.
80 years ago, Nazi Germany inspired then Iraqi Prime Minister, Rashid Ali Al-Gaylani, to unleash the Farhud (“violent dispossession” in Arabic), reportedly leaving over 180 Jews murdered, some 600 unknown bodies in a mass grave, 700 wounded, rapes and destruction of Jewish properties.
“We call on you to use the unfortunate “Apartheid” misnomer as the occasion to join Australia, Canada and the United States in boycotting the ‘Durban 4’ travesty.”
Paris, 24 May 2021
Mr President,
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre is shocked at the undiplomatic and insulting language of Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, in using “Apartheid” in reference to the State of Israel.
Not since President de Gaulle’s June 1967 “Six Day War” reference to “the Jews as an elite people, sure of itself and domineering,” has a French political leader made such a damaging statement towards the Jewish community.
Paris, 23 May 2021
In a letter to Erol Ok, President ad Interim of the Institut Français, the Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, expressed outrage at the language of Cairopolitan, in partnership with the Institut Français of Egypt (IFE). See Cairopolitan Instagram page and Website:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CO3vEtcHOlT/
https://www.cairopolitan.com/
Read more: Wiesenthal Centre to Institut Français: “Cancel...