News Releases 2025
by Shimon Samuels and Alex Uberti
Paris, 16 July 2025 (closing of the 47th WHC)
World Heritage Site
In 2017, the Palestinian Authority was given “Hebron/Al-Khalil old town” by UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee (WHC).
The WHC recognizes, in particular, “the architecture of the Mamluk period between 1250 and 1517. The centre of interest of the town was the site of Al-Ibrahimi Mosque /the Tomb of the Patriarchs, whose buildings are in a compound built in the 1st century C.E. to protect the tombs of the patriarch Abraham/Ibrahim and his family.”
Read more: Hebron, from Biblical Origins to the Denial of...
Paris, 9 July 2025
As for the past 22 years, Dr Shimon Samuels, Emeritus Director for International Relations of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, and Alex Uberti, independent researcher and Project Manager for CSW-Europe, are participating in the activities of the World Heritage Committee (WHC). This year’s 47th session is held in UNESCO’s Paris headquarters.
Since its accession to UNESCO in 2011, the “State of Palestine” has been campaigning in WHC sessions – in Mumbai, Riyadh, Manama, Cracow, Doha, Bonn, Phnom Penh, or St. Petersburg... – with the aim of appropriating Jewish and Christian heritage and historical sites, in order to validate its own narrative. So far, it has obtained the following:
Read more: The 47th World Heritage Committee – the ongoing...
by Shimon Samuels and Alex Uberti
Paris, 9 May 2025
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has been blasted over the past weeks, with calls to expel the Israeli candidate at the upcoming Eurovision song contest in Basel, Switzerland.
Last year, it was held in Malmö, Sweden, a city where there have been cases of Jew-hatred, including attacks on the local Rabbi. At the 2024 Eurovision event, among others, Spanish parliamentarians from Podemos, Sumar, leftist and regional nationalist parties called for the boycott of Israeli singer Eden Golan. The latter ended second in the public vote, thanks to the power of her song “Hurricane” and the worldwide solidarity against the disgusting discrimination from spectators present, from several other contestants, and the profusion of death threats online.
by Shimon Samuels and Alex Uberti
Paris, 28 April 2025
CSW-Europe has come across yet another antisemitic article dated 17 March and published in Egyptian Al-Ahram newspaper, this one entitled “Zionist Penetration”, written by Laila Takla.
Prof. Takla, who is a Copt, member of the Egyptian People’s Assembly and of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, presents herself as “promoter of Muslim-Christian relations”. In her soothing words, “whether you are Christian or Muslim, allow no place in your heart, mind and conduct for fanaticism, hate and exclusion.”
The State Department Must Act Against Antisemitic Blood Libels
by Shimon Samuels and Alex Uberti
Paris, 2 April 2025
Mr. Secretary of State,
The Facebook page of the “Zaid Bin Harithah Secondary School for Boys” in Madaba, Jordan, posted a video of 10th grade student, Jamal Shehadeh, who is one of the school’s nominees to participate in this year's edition of the “Arab Reading Challenge”. This is one of the “Global Initiatives” launched by the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed ibn Rashid Al Maktoum, to encourage children to read.
In the clip, the student praises “the most beautiful book” he has ever read, entitled “The Jewish Quarter (Blood for the Unleavened Bread of Zion)”, by Najib al-Kilani. This horrifies us.
Read more: An Open Letter to US Secretary of State, Marco...