News Releases 2021
Article by Dr. Shimon Samuels published in The Jerusalem Post
11 July 2021
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/the-cairo-book-fair-remains-rife-with-antisemitism-opinion-673539
This May, in the spirit of the Abraham Accords, Abu Dhabi’s book fair was totally clean. This was not the case in Egypt.
The Shourouk bookstore features the bestselling hate books from the Cairo International Book Fair 2021
(photo Simon Wiesenthal Center).
The Simon Wiesenthal Center annually monitors the shelves of seven Arab Book Fairs for incitement to hatred and violence. We send our findings to the Frankfurt Book Fair, where measures are taken to ban the listed offenders.
“Defence lawyers shamelessly claimed their clients committed a robbery viewed as ‘Robin Hood taking jewels for the poor’!”
Paris, 4 July 2021
Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, recalled “working since the 1980s with Roger Pinto – founder of SIONA for the defence of French Jews – who, in 2017, was himself a victim of antisemitic violence.”
Read more: Wiesenthal Centre Commends Paris Suburban Court...
Paris, 22 June 2021
In a letter to the principal French political party leaders, Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, noted that “In December 2019, the National Assembly adopted the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) Definition of Antisemitism, as a tool to support French policy in combating this particular form of discrimination,” adding, “As we approach the second and final regional elections round, we call upon your Party to take a clear stand concerning one of the issues that is a blight on society at both the local and national level.”
The letter stressed that, “Although Jews in France are but 1% of the total population, they are targeted by 33% of racist insults and violence. Antisemitism is not only increasing – its perpetrators ranging from couch-ideologues to inflamed Jihadists – but it is also covered by social media anonymity and the perception of impunity,” continuing, “Indeed, the torture to death of Ilan Halimi, the massacre at the Otzar Hatorah school in Toulouse, the Hyper Cacher terror attack, the aggression of Roger Pinto’s family, the desecrated cemeteries of Strasbourg, the murders of Sarah Halimi and of Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll... are but the tip of the iceberg in the daily ordeal of French Jewish citizens.”
Paris, 22 June 2021
Dear Roger,
I recall your creation of “SIONA Jewish Defence” and our work together against antisemitic terrorism in the 1980s.
It is ironic that you, your wife and son became the victims of violent Jew-hatred in your own Seine-Saint-Denis home.
Read more: Wiesenthal Centre Shimon Samuels’ Open Letter of...
Paris, 15 June 2021
In a letter to UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta H. Fore, Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, expressed deep concern at the appointment of Egyptian actor Ahmed Helmy as UNICEF Regional Ambassador for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
See: https://www.unicef.org/egypt/press-releases/unicef-appoints-ahmed-helmy-regional-ambassador