News Releases 2023
Paris, 21 January 2023
The Barcelona Municipal Council claims to have postponed the vote to break the “twinning” between the capital of Catalonia and Tel Aviv, to an agreed date in February.
The anti-Israel faction professes, contemptuously, “so as not to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day.”
The challenge is now to sway City Council members to vote against the BDS-inspired petition and in favour of maintaining the twinning.
“Thus, we have written to Manuel Valls – former French Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior – born in Barcelona and prominent City Councillor from 2019 to 2021, to convince former colleagues,” noted Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels.
“Valls had denounced ‘a new form of antisemitism’ at a meeting with the Centre in Paris”... “We will continue to monitor this situation,” concluded Samuels.
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For further information, contact Shimon Samuels at csweurope@gmail.com
Paris, 19 January 2023
In an open letter supporting Isaac Benzaquen Pinto, a Spanish Jewish Community leader, Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, demanded Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau to withdraw from a hateful campaign calling to break the twinning between the Catalonian capital and Tel Aviv.
Barcelona has a Friendship and Cooperation Agreement with Tel Aviv since 1998. Both cities are characterized as open and diverse societies, active in promoting art, culture, high-tech start-ups and tourism. Both are known worldwide as defenders of LGBT and minority rights.
Reportedly, a petition campaign under the spurious slogan “Barcelona with no Apartheid - NO”, has been signed by the number – of haters of Israel and the Jews – needed to call for a City Council vote.
Read more: Barcelona Marks Holocaust Day by Breaking Ties...
Paris, 9 January 2023
On 9 January 2015, the “Hyper Cacher” supermarket in the outskirts of Paris was attacked by an Islamist gunman, who killed four, while screaming the cause of “Palestine”.
The victims were Yohan Cohen, a 20-year-old student and supermarket employee, Philippe Braham, a 45-year-old IT executive, François-Michel Saada, a 64-year-old retiree and Yoav Hattab, a 22-year-old student who tried fighting back.
The assault had followed two days of terror in and around Paris, including the massacre of the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly editorial staff – that had published caricatures of the Prophet Mohamed, deemed “blasphemous” by the terrorists – and the cold-blooded killing of police agents.
The connection between these events and the terror spree brought the Jewish victims into the limelight, mourned by heads of State and French Mayors participating in the “million people march” in Paris. For that occasion, we had produced an immense balloon with the message: “I am Charlie, the Police, the Jews... I am the Republic.”
Samuels with the Wiesenthal Centre balloon and as it appeared in the news, with a line
of French Mayors leading the rally.
Read more: Wiesenthal Centre Marks the Commemoration of the...
Paris, 8 January 2023
In a letter to Mikkel Bogh, Director of the National Gallery of Denmark, Dr Shimon Samuels, Director for International Relations of the Wiesenthal Centre, expressed shock by a text under the painting “The Holy Women at the Sepulchre.”
In 1965, Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council which, under his successor Pope Paul VI, produced Nostra Aetate, i.e. the Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Christian and non-Christian Religions, which made a dramatic turn in seeing Judaism as the “Father Religion.”
Paris, 8 January 2023
Four days ago, the Wiesenthal Centre had alerted the French Interior Minister of a conference, to be held in Avignon today 8 January, hosting three known radical Islam preachers.
See: https://www.wiesenthal.com/about/news/wiesenthal-centre-to-french-33.html
Finally, as had happened in November last year, also this event has been cancelled.
Read more: BREAKING NEWS: With Pressure From The Wiesenthal...