Wiesenthal Centre Urges Spanish Government to Condemn and Prosecute Antisemitic Incitement

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE - EUROPE
66 rue Laugier - 75017 Paris
Tel. +33-147237637 - Fax: +33-147208401
e-mail: csweurope@gmail.com

Wiesenthal Centre Urges Spanish Government to Condemn and Prosecute Antisemitic Incitement

In a letter to Spanish Minister of Justice, Mariano Fernández Bermejo, Dr.
Shimon Samuels (Director for International Relations of the Simon Wiesenthal
Centre) pointed to the article "The Holocaust Expiry Date"
(http://www.elplural.com/opinion/detail.php?id=29018) in thedigital newsletter "El Plural", which states that "[Jews have no right] to reverse their role of victims into executioners, which is basically what has been happening for sixty years inPalestine, since the creation of the State of Israel…" The article continues in the same tone, and concludes: "Indeed, the Machiavellian brain of this entire extermination operation is nodifferent from that which designed Nazi Germany."

"Mr. Minister, the State of Israel is exercising its right to self-defence against the terrorist regime of Hamas, which persists in launching rockets against Israeli civilians from Gaza,seeks the destruction of Israel and whose Charter incites to the murder of Jews worldwide", stated Samuels.

"To compare Israeli policy with Nazism aims to delegitimize a sovereign and democratic State, to justify any action against it, including terrorist violence. Spain, as a member-State ofthe OSCE, has a direct responsibility to combat antisemitism, under the Berlin Declaration (2004) and the Cordoba Declaration (2005), which contends in its Article 4 that 'internationaldevelopments or political issues, including in Israel or elsewhere in the Middle East, never justify antisemitism'", he added.

The Centre urged the Minister to "take appropriate legal measures to prosecute El Plural and prevent any further such antisemitic incitement which contravenes your Spain's commitments tofight hatred and intolerance", Samuels concluded.

For further information, please contact Shimon Samuels at +33-609770158.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400.000 members. It is an NGO at internationalagencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the OAS and the Latin American Parliament.