News Releases 2017
Edinburgh, 11 August 2017
In 2014, the Jerusalem Incubator Theatre, in a maelstrom of hate, was forced to leave the Edinburgh Festival without giving even one performance.
One man, Nigel Goodrich, created the “Shalom Festival at the Edinburgh Fringe” with one main objective: “to pursue justice in allowing ‘the Incubator’ to perform.”
Despite demonstrations by pro-Palestinian hecklers held back by the police outside the premises and the consequent cost of security measures, the Shalom Festival – under the banner “Building Cultural Bridges, Celebrating Coexistence – brought together, among others, interfaith leaders, Christians United for Israel, Stand With US-UK, Israeli film screenings, theatre performances and hosted the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s UNESCO co-sponsored exhibition “People, Book, Land: the 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People with the Holy Land.”
Shimon Samuels speaking with Pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Read more: Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s “People, Book, Land”...
"Antisemitic blood libels in respected newspapers create a new generation, not only of antisemites, but also radicalized domestic Jihadists that threaten the security of your countries. Above all, incitement to hate and violence destroys all hope for a peace settlement in the Middle East"
The Centre called on the UAE and Oman "to take the same measures with their media's antisemitism as they would in combating expressions of Arabophobia and Islamophobia."
Paris, 20 July 2017
In letters respectively to Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah of Oman, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, called for "measures to end the hate-mongering by their most important newspapers".
Samuels pointed to "a Palestinian columnist for the London based Middle East Monitor (MEMO) Dr. Fayez Rasheed, who reportedly has a long record of incitement to violence against 'Zionists' - a euphemism for 'Jews'".
Read more: Wiesenthal Centre Protests Blood Libel in Major...
London, 17 July 2017
Chairing a panel in the House of Commons, Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr.Shimon Samuels thanked the host Henry Jackson Society President Dr.Alain Mendoza, the sponsor David Dangoor and the Exilarch Foundation, advisors Niran Bassoon-Timan and Dia Kashi of the Awlad al-Taraf Forum and Cairo-based translator Amir Bar-Gisi.
Samuels noted that "the English edition of 'Antisemitism: The Generic Hatred' was a tribute to Simon Wiesenthal's universalism. Launched in the House of Lords in 2007, its contributors included a Rwandan, a Roma, a Disabled and a Gay spokesman, each applying the lessons in combatting antisemitism to their own victimology".
“We are outraged at the German amalgam drawn between 6 million murdered Jews of Europe and the ‘Palestinians’.”
Cracow, Poland, 8 July 2017
In a letter to German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, expressed outrage at German participation in “an amalgam drawn between the 6 million murdered Jews of Europe and the ‘Palestinians’.”
Samuels wrote “as the only Jewish Non-Governmental Organization accredited to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee (WHC), I write to you on behalf of our 400,000 members, but also for concerned Jews and Christians worldwide,” explaining that, “since November 2011, the Palestinian entry into UNESCO, with a voracious appetite for the Judeo-Christian heritage, has turned the WHC into a battlefield.”
Read more: Wiesenthal Centre Calls on Chancellor Merkel to...
Cracow, 7 July 2017
Mr. Chairman,
As the only Jewish NGO accredited to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee (WHC), the Simon Wiesenthal Centre speaks for its 400,000 membership and concerned Jews and Christians worldwide.
We have the greatest respect for the WHC’s work and called upon it for the protection of Auschwitz, when a discotheque was opened within its protected zone.
Unfortunately, to paraphrase the German strategist von Clausewitz’ aphorism that “diplomacy is war by other means”, since the Palestinian entry into UNESCO in November 2011, the WHC has become “heritage as war by other means!” – a veritable battlefield.
Read more: Text of Shimon Samuels, the Centre’s Permanent...