AS JORDAN REELS FROM MASS MURDERING SUICIDE BOMBING, WIESENTHAL CENTER DENOUNCES ART EXHIBIT IN BERKELEY

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is denouncing an art exhibit, Justice Matters: Artists Consider Palestine, at the Berkeley Art Center in Berkeley, California. A painting in the exhibit depicts a figure masked with a keffiyeh scarf and with a lit bomb on his body. The words, "I will not accept a little" are written repeatedly in Arabic.

"Against the backdrop of yesterday’s hotel attacks in Amman, and as scores of innocent Iraqis die from suicide bombings every week, isn’t it time for decent people, whatever their political or ideological bent, to take a stand against this scourge of the 21st Century," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center.

"At a time when civilized people--political and religious leaders-- Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus, are united against the suicide terror, it is beyond belief that such a painting would be displayed," Cooper concluded.

The Wiesenthal Center has been leading the effort to have the international community declare suicide bombing as a ‘crime against humanity.’ The goal of the campaign is to create a legal tool for victims to go after sponsors and those who inspire this deadly culture of mass murder worldwide. The Center has brought this campaign to leaders around the world, including EU head Javier Solana, His Holiness Pope John Paul II, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdallah Gul, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and diplomats from 20 other countries.

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 agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, or visit www.wiesenthal.com.