Paris, 6 September 2011

In a letter to Nivea - Beiersdorf Chairman,Thomas Quaas, at his Hamburg headquarters, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, conveyed the outrage of several of its members at "Nivea havingapparently removed the State of Israel from the list of its lientcountries in the Middle East replacing it with "Palestine territories".

Samuels expressed amazement "that a German company would, allegedly, implement a genocidal policy recommendation of Iranian President Ahmadinejad to '"wipe the Jewish state off the map'".

The Centre demanded "an immediate investigation into the attached images of '"Boycott Israel" slogans scrawled across Nivea posters, the prompt punishment and dismissal of the perpetrators, the reinstatement of Israel and an apology for this offence to the Jewish people".

"Mr. Chairman just as hate speech presages hate crime, so virtual Holocaust aspires to its recurrence. This is one cosmetic that Nivea should not be selling", concluded Samuels.