Wiesenthal Centre Alert: "Is Slovenian State Media Spreading Antisemitism?"

Paris - In a letter to recently elected President of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar, the Wiesenthal Centre Directorfor International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, referred to antisemitism in Slovenian media.

“Madam President, the Wiesenthal Centre is aware of your country’s programmes to commemorate the murder of 90% of the SlovenianJewish community in the Holocaust,” stated Samuels, adding, “We are also aware that your country has adopted the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) Definition of Antisemitism, aswell as the Definition of anti-Roma discrimination.”

The letter continued, “Nevertheless, our attention has been drawn to expressions of antisemitism, xenophobia, calls to violence,conspiracy theories, fake news, glorification of dictatorships and terrorist organizations on the national public broadcasting company, Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTV Slovenija) - includingits website rtvslo.si and social media outlets. Reportedly, the moderator allowing this sort of hateful expression is a well-known journalist.”

Apparently, explicit Jew-hatred has also been relayed through his own Twitter account, where he claimed that “the vaccinationcampaign exposes the essence of Israel’s Apartheid regime,” explaining that “the policy of Jewish supremacy in Israel means that the government restricted vaccines to its Arab citizens.” This hasbeen proven blatantly untrue!

On another occasion, the same “journalist” qualifies the State of Israel as being “a European settlement - colonial project”...“establishing and maintaining a Jewish majority in Palestine, using methods of ethnic cleansing.” This is maliciously biased and horrifying!

While the EU and other countries see Hamas as a Palestinian terrorist organization, he has acclaimed it as“a liberation movement of freedom fighters.”

The Centre’s letter stated: “Madam President, we urge the competent Slovenian authorities to investigate these charges and redressany form of slanderous or hateful rhetoric on national public media. As a lawyer and a former journalist, you are well aware of the limits between information or free opinion and incitement tohatred or defamation.”

“Every year, we are at the Frankfurt Book Fair to identify conspiracy theories, hate and antisemitism on its shelves. We are lookingforward to visiting the 2023 edition of the Fair, where the ‘Honoured Guest’ is Slovenia,” concluded Samuels.

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 in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations,UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).