Wiesenthal Centre Salutes French Closure of Antisemitic Mosques
“Antisemitism is only one issue in a campaign upholding the values of France.”
France should urge observers be deployed on Fridays at the Mosques, where Imams, some wielding knives, repeat lies of a non-existent threat to al Aqsa andincite young Palestinians to brutally attack Jews.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish Human Rights NGO is urging French President Hollande (pictured) to abort France’s initiative at the UN SecurityCouncil that
reportedly would place international observers on Jerusalem’s TempleMount.
An October 18th letter from Rabbis Marvin Hier, Dean and Founder and Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the leading Jewish human rights group to the Frenchpresident said in part:
"We have just returned from three weeks in Jerusalem to celebrate the holiest days in the Jewish Year. We can personally attest that there was no attempt byIsrael to change the status quo at al Aqsa; that in fact, that lie was instigated by Palestinian extremists, then validated and repeated by PA President Abbas. The result has been a barbariccampaign of knifings, shootings and car-rammings by Palestinians against their Jewish neighbors. It is unacceptable that your government would reward Palestinian lies with a resolution callingfor “restraint” on all sides, maintaining the “status quo” and sending international observers to The Temple Mount."
Center officials continued, "Mr. President, what would France do, if it were to be confronted with such barbarity on the streets of Paris? You would not callin foreign observers to protect Frenchmen. Israel is simply doing what every democracy would do to protect her citizens from this new campaign of violence.
"Mr. President, the Simon Wiesenthal Center acknowledges your government’s efforts to protect French Jewry from the ever-present danger of terrorist andviolent attacks. For France to now give any credibility to Palestinian lies about false allegations of alleged changes by Israel of the long-standing status quo on The Temple Mount will onlyserve to further inflame anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiments among French Muslims.
"Mr. President, we respectfully suggest that if the UN Security Council wishes to send international observers to The Holy Land, France should urge that theseobservers be deployed on Fridays at the Mosques, where Imams, some wielding knives, repeat lies of a non-existent threats to al Aqsa and incite youngPalestinians to brutally attack Jews,” Rabbis Hier and Cooper concluded.
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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 isan NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).