Wiesenthal Center Denounces Nobel Laureate's Call for UN to 'Suspend Israel’

WIESENTHAL CENTER DENOUNCES NOBEL LAUREATE'S CALL FOR UN TO 'SUSPEND ISRAEL’
Center says, "It is tragic that a person who earned international accolades now chooses to whole heartedly embrace only the Palestinian narrative"

The Simon Wiesenthal Center today denounced Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire’s call for the international community tosuspend Israel from the United Nations. According to The Jerusalem Post, Maguire, who received the Prize in 1976 for creating peaceful solutions to Northern Ireland’s sectarianviolence, made this plea in protest to Israel’s temporary blockade of Gaza in wake of new rocket attacks on Israeli citizens living close to the border.

"It is tragic that a person who earned international accolades now chooses to whole heartedly embrace only the Palestiniannarrative in the Holy Land," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center. "Ms. Maguire photo ops with the head of Hamas, whose establishing covenantjustifies the destruction of Israel by invoking the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a stain on the reputation of a peace maker," he added.

"In the face of suicide terror, kidnappings and continuing rocket and missiles targeting Israeli civilian communities, Israel hasthe moral and legal right and obligation to protect all of her citizens, "said Cooper, adding, "But one wonders who will protect the rest of us from the dangers wrought by themoral blindness of leaders unable or unwilling to distinguish between the victims and perpetrators of terror."

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 memberfamilies in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.