News Releases 2023
Hamas and the Ambassador
Paris, 31 October 2023
Mr. Chancellor,
In June 2022, on behalf of the Wiesenthal Centre’s 400,000 members, we were aghast at the behaviour of Sven Kuhn von Burgsdorff, the European Commission’s Envoy to “Palestine”, in particular following his statement, “terrorist attacks against Israelis should not be surprising...”
See: https://wiesenthal-europe.com/en/news-releases-menu/43-news-releases-2022/934-wiesenthal-centre-open-letter-we-are-aghast-at-eu-representative-s-words-terrorist-attacks-against-israelis-should-not-be-surprising-von-burgsdorff-must-be-fired
In reality, he turned out to be the “EU’s representative to Hamas”, which is recognized as a terrorist organization across Europe and whose Charter calls for the murder of Jews worldwide.
Read more: Wiesenthal Centre Open Letter to Chancellor Olaf...
Frankfurt, 22 October 2023
Since the early 2000s, The Wiesenthal Centre has been annually monitoring the Frankfurt Book Fair (FBM – Frankfurter Buchmesse), which takes place every October. During the previous 12 months, our Centre monitors other similar Fairs, in Arab countries, but also in Europe, to find the titles and publishers fomenting hate and antisemitism, which are then signalled to the “Fair of Fairs” of Frankfurt. We suggest that the recidivists be denied access, in the spirit of the Fair’s rules.
Our approach this year has been shaped by the sudden attack by Palestinian terror group Hamas on Israeli soil, that caused at least 1,300 murdered and close to 200 kidnapped, including babies, children, teenagers, women, elderly, Holocaust survivors, foreigners from at least 20 other countries... all treated with inhumane brutality.
The ensuing conflict has taken up much of the debate, to the point that delivering a prize to Palestinian author Adania Shibli at the Fair had been postponed, as a measure to avoid the possible risk of a pro-Gaza rally.
Paris, 15 October 2023
Mr Chairman of the Board of Directors of France24,
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre and myself have followed France24 in English since its inception. Over the years, there have been mistakes, but the recent presentation of the murderous attack by Iran-backed Hamas has been deeply biased.
On Saturday 7th October, a Jewish holiday, Hamas launched at least 3,000 rockets into Israel, blindly targeting the civilian population. Meanwhile, thousands of heavily armed terrorists assaulted the border defence posts and unleashed unprecedented mayhem on an open-air music festival, on small towns, villages, kibbutzim and isolated farmhouses.
13 October 2023
At the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wiesenthal Centre’s Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, saw “Palestine” accomplish its annual heritage grab, this time getting Jericho. “This comes after years of misappropriating a list of Jewish and Christian sites... and paves the way for their next demand over the Qumran Caves and the Dead Sea Scrolls...”
Soon afterwards, the UN-Geneva “human rights” Council rehashed the narrative of the “Duban” WCAR, that had been held just before 9/11. At the time, Rabbi Cooper, the Centre’s Director for Global Social Action, and Dr Samuels had participated, horrified at the antisemitic turn of events... Only three months later, the latter discovered “an 8-point plan to delegitimize and destroy Israel by influencing diplomacy, the media and civil society”... At the UN, as representative of an international NGO with ECOSOC status, Samuels was given only 90 seconds to speak out...
Paris, 12 October 2023
In response to the terror attack of Saturday 7 October by Gaza-based Hamas, targeting the citizens of Israel, the Wiesenthal Centre participated in rallies of “Solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people” throughout Europe... namely in Paris, at the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe and facing the UN in Geneva.
Paris, 9 October: Wiesenthal Centre volunteers and sympathizers marching alongside tens of thousands.
Read more: Wiesenthal Centre at Rallies After Hamas Terror...