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Wiesenthal Center Calls on All Eleven French Political Parties in Regional Elections to Adopt IHRA Definition of Anti-Semitism

Admin June 22, 2021

Mr./Ms. Party Secretary General,

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 tosupport French policy in combating this particular form of discrimination," adding, "As we approach the second and final regional elections, we call upon your Party to take a clearstand,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 insultsand violence. Antisemitism is not only increasing - from, perpetrators ranging from couch-ideologues to inflamed Jihadists - but it is also covered by social media anonymity and the perception ofimpunity, 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 Jewishcitizens."

The Centre argued that, "the IHRA Definition has been adopted by the European Union, by its member-States... but also bymunicipalities (ranging from Paris to Strasbourg to Nice) football clubs and businesses that are examples of the sense of belonging in society."

"We call on your Party to openly adopt the IHRA Definition and add it as an instrument to your policy, both internal as well as opento the public. To paraphrase Simon Wiesenthal, "What begins with the Jews, does not end with the Jews!" and "For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing." ... "An effective policy does not onlyconcentrate on denouncing division and enforcing security, but also needs positive action and good will to bring citizens together in solidarity with the principles of the Republic," concludedSamuels.

Wishing you a fair election, respectfully

Shimon Samuels

List of parties approached:

FI :

- Jean-Luc Mélenchon


EELV (Les Verts) :

- Julien Bayou

PS :

- Olivier Faure

PCF :

- Fabien Roussel

LREM :

- Stanislas Guerini

MoDem :

Jean-Noël Barrot

Agir :

- Franck Riester

UDI :

- Jean-Christophe Lagarde


LR :

- Aurélien Pradié


DLF :

- Nicolas Dupont-Aignan


RN :

- Marine Le Pen


For further information contact Dr. Shimon 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 rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at internationalagencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).