Wiesenthal Centre Agenda with French Government Officials at CRIF Dinner
PARIS - The Annual CRIF (RepresentativeCouncil of French Jewish Institutions) dinner is usually attended by the President of France. On 24 February,...
Paris – In a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron, the Wiesenthal Centre Director for InternationalRelations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, presented a panoply of Jew-hatred across France in only the last week.
Samuels with President Macron
Samuels claimed that the most dangerous are the threats against the Israeli Tour de France team, “Start-Up Nation.”
A call was relayed on social media for a “sniper to target the Tour, to slaughter the wild beasts and sewerrats” ...”This is language that can incite lone wolves to act as in the 2013 Boston marathon bombing, or worse, for a scenario similar to the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.”
The letter continued, “This hate-mongering across social networks includes calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)against the Israeli team and the event, led by anarchist-communist sites, such as <infolibertaire.net>”
Samuels urged the President “to reinforce security for the Israeli team from its opening until the end of the Tour, to ensure thatno one has illusions to repeat the Munich massacre.”
The Centre also listed the composite of Jew-hatred acts in the last week alone:
- Hatred of Israel: a Strasbourg court has opened an enquiry into an attack on a young man wearing a T-shirt that mentionedIsrael. The young Jewish victim, who was working for the Strasbourg Municipality was shoved around and told by his aggressors “you are a Jew, you have no right to be here!” They then tagged“Forbidden to Jews!” on the ground.
- Historical revisionism and denial: the desecration of the Memorial Museum of Oradour-sur-Glane, that commemorates the 1944Waffen SS atrocity in the village, where 642 men, women and children were burnt alive.
- Violence without justice: the discovery in Algeria of Franco-Algerian Houssama Hatri, condemned in France to 16 yearsimprisonment for his 2014 antisemitic assault and rape in Créteil. Hatri and his two accomplices had forced entry into a young Jewish couple’s apartment, threatening to stab and gas them “forour brothers in Palestine.” This recalls the escape back to Canada - after being extradited to France - of Hassan Diab, the suspect terrorist in the 1980 Paris Copernic synagoguebombing.
- Terrorism: the French abstention in the UN Security Council vote on extending the weapons embargo on Iran was disppointing, inthat Teheran remains the international patron of terrorism, Holocaust denial and genocidal intent - openly expressed - against Israel and the Jews.
“Mr. President, you have taken firm positions against antisemitism and its camouflage anti-Zionism, terrorism, Holocaust denialand BDS...” The exponential growth of Jew hate-mongering in France, under the cover of the virus pandemic, requires firm steps from the Elysée Palace forrapid identification, arraignment and incarceration of the perpetrators,” concluded Samuels.
Read related European Jewish Press story:
Simon Wiesenthal Center: Threats were made againstIsraeli Tour de France team
For further information, contact Dr. Samuels at csweurope@gmail.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rightsorganizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe andthe Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).