1 min read

News

Wiesenthal Center Condemns Ban Against Israeli Film on Disabled Children


The Simon Wiesenthal Center condemns the anti-Semitic action of the sponsors of the Oslo Documentary Cinema, “Human Rights Human Wrongs” forrejecting a film about disabled children produced by Israeli, Roy Zafrani, merely because the organizers are supporters of the academic and cultural boycott of Israel (BDS), even though the film was not sponsored or supported by the Israeli government, but financed entirely by Mr. Zafrani.

“As a film maker and a member of the Academy®, this blatant kind of anti-Semitism should be condemned by both the government of Norway and byfilmmakers around the world, said Rabbi Marvin Hier, SWC Founder and Dean and two-time Academy® Award winner.

“The fact that the Festival founder, Ketil Magnussen explains his reasoning as, ‘We support the academic and cultural boycott of Israel’ -better known as BDS, the alphabetic equivalent of anti-Semitism - is even more outrageous and only confirms our suspicion that this action, pure and simple is nothing but an act of Jew-hatred. Tocompare the Middle East’s only democracy, the State of Israel with apartheid South Africa is like comparing Mother Teresa to Mata Hari," Rabbi Hier added.

In a related development American Jewish singer Matisyahu was disinvited from a Spanish music festival because he would not publicly endorsePalestinian statehood. He was later reinvited after protests from the Wiesenthal Center and others.

The BDS movement is a worldwide campaign to demonize and delegitimize Israel.

Read related New York Times story

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct 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).

Wiesenthal Centre Letter to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: "We are Outraged at the Litany of Offensive Accusations Targetting Israel"

n a letter to Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, presented at the session on the UN Human Rights Council Report...

Read More

53rd Session of the UN Human Rights Council: Wiesenthal Centre Comments on Item 7

On 10 July, during its 53rd session, the UN Human Rights Council, in Geneva, performed one of its favourite and infamous exercises -discussing Item...

Read More

SWC: Nikki Haley was America’s Truth Teller and Moral Compass at the UN

We will miss this passionate and fearless foe of tyrants and friend of Israel

Read More