CENTRE SIMON WIESENTHAL - SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE - CENTRO SIMON WIESENTHAL
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Excerpts From The Presentation by Dr. Shimon Samuels, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Permanent Delegate to the plenary of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw

Mr. Chairman,

I arrived in Warsaw this morning, after having accompanied the cortege of Simon Wiesenthal from Vienna to burial in Israel. Last night I attended a commemoration in Paris, where the eulogy was made by the Elysées representative of President Chirac.

...Despite post-Holocaust Jewish sovereign renaissance, Jews are still demonized and live in danger, especially so during the last five years of Wiesenthal's life.

The Holocaust is not only denied, it is banalized. We commend Poland for protesting an obscene Dutch website that promotes "Housewitz", the agent for house music hate concerts. Presenting DJ Nazis, "skinny Jews", the "Tanzen Macht Frei" clip gives a backdrop of "Housewitz"/Auschwitz atrocities. We call on the Netherlands and Belgium to close these offensive abuses of their cyberspace.

We commend Greece for responding to the Wiesenthal Centre's protests by banning the "First pan-European Youth camp" neo-Nazi hate-festival, which was scheduled to take place in the Peloponnesus this month.

In the spirit of the indivisibility of hate, we have urged Denmark to close Radio Holger of Copenhagen for its incitement against Muslims. This radio was suspended for only three months. We request Denmark to ensure its broadcasts are never renewed.

Simon Wiesenthal only recently mentioned his concern at the impact of years of Jewish-Christian dialogue by the calls of certain churches for divestment from Israel. I quote from our letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury:

"When a Church (any church) calls for a boycott of Jews (anywhere on G-d's earth), the Jewish collective memory refocuses. The lights dim and a film reel begins to unwind:

A fast backward to the charge of collective deicide, Judas, original sin, the curse of exile and eternal wandering, blood libel, Inquisition, conspiracy theories, Protocols of Zion, expulsions, boycotts.

In brief, when you say 'divestment of Israel', we hear 'kaufen nicht bei Juden' and are filled by an immense sadness at the damage to decades of intellectual dialogue."

Mr. Chairman, we propose that this matter be examined within the purview of the OSCE, as a catalyst for the renewal of an older - and what we believed had long vanished - version of antisemitism.

Finally, in line with moves at the United Nations General Assembly and the European Parliament, may we propose that the OSCE similarly consider a recommendation to its 55 State Parties to adopt an annual Holocaust Commemoration Day on 27 January (the date of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945). To make it so, Mr. Chairman, would be the ultimate memorial to the lifework of Mr. Wiesenthal.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

For further information, please contact Dr. Samuels in Warsaw on +33 6 09 77 01 58.