Paris - In an open letter supporting Isaac Benzaquen Pinto, a Spanish Jewish Community leader, Wiesenthal Centre Director forInternational 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 TelAviv.
Barcelona has a Friendship and Cooperation Agreement with Tel Aviv since 1998. Both cities are characterized as open and diversesocieties, 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 a number needed ofhaters of Israel and the Jews to call for a City Council vote.
That petition is in line with the international BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) campaign specifically targeting Israel, andcontravenes the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) Definition of Antisemitism, adopted by the EU, its member-States - including Spain -, other countries worldwide, internationalinstitutions, football clubs and municipalities.
On several occasions, the Wiesenthal Centre has urged Spanish cities and sport clubs to adopt the IHRA Definition, as a tool toidentify antisemitism.
If Barcelona were to break its twinning with Tel Aviv, this would mark it as a city prone to hateful political manipulation...Indeed, after Tel Aviv and the Jews, who’s next?
The City Council will meet on 27 January - International Holocaust Commemoration Day - to vote in support of this foulaction.
Our mentor, Simon Wiesenthal, was liberated by the Allies from the Mauthausen concentration camp, together with a number of othersurviving inmates, among which his closest friends were Spanish Republicans and Roma. They stayed in contact throughout their post-War lives, supporting each other's causes againstdiscrimination.
“Simon would be aghast at the defacing of the Memory of the Holocaust and the pain inflicted on the Jewish community of Cataloniaand of Spain,” concluded Samuels.
For further information contact Dr. Shimon Samuels at csweurope@gmail.com, join the Center on Facebook, orfollow @simonwiesenthal fornews updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agenciesincluding the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).
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Barcelona conmemora el Día del Holocausto rompiendo lazos con TelAviv
Paris, 19 de EneroEl Ayuntamiento se reunirá el 27 de enero -Día Internacional de Conmemoración del Holocausto- para votar a favor de esta suciaacción.
Nuestro mentor, Simon Wiesenthal, fue liberado del campo de concentración de Mauthausen por los Aliados, junto a otros presossobrevivientes entre quienes se encontraban sus amigos más cercanos que eran republicanos españoles y romaníes. Se mantuvieron en contacto apoyándose mutuamente en las respectivas causascontra la discriminación a lo largo de sus vidas de posguerra.
“Simon estaría horrorizado por semejante vandalización a la Memoria del Holocausto y por el dolor infligido a la comunidad judía deCataluña y de toda España”, concluyó Samuels.