SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE
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Wiesenthal Centre to Belarus President: Condemn and Take Measures Against Minsk Orthodox Initiative Dissemination of Antisemitic Publications

Paris, 

In a letter to Belarus President, Mr Alexander Lukashenko, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, noted that, as part of a tour of Former Soviet Union World War Two extermination sites and memorials, he last week visited the Minsk Museum of the Great Patriotic War, "which vividly describes the mass murder of Jews and Belarussians by the Nazis and their collaborators."

He expressed "horror at discovering not far from the Museum, a distribution centre for the most offensive antisemitic books", adding that "the address is of even greater concern: 'Pravoslavnaya Kniga', subtitled 'The Orthodox Initiative', at Ul. Berestyanskaya 17 in Minsk, presented as 'a broad collection of literature, icons, crosses, rings, candles and Church objects.'"

Samuels purchased the following titles from the shelves marked "Conspiracies" (see photo):

- Oleg Platonov, "Myths and Truth about Pogroms", Rauza Press, Moscow, 2003, claiming that Judaism is eternally hostile to Russian civilization and Christianity; Jewish capital controls banking and stock markets; early 20th century pogroms were a Zionist provocation; how the Jews murdered Russia's leadership and unleashed terror in Soviet times.

- Oleg Platonov, "The Mystery of the Zion Protocols: A Conspiracy Against Russia", Algorithm Press, Moscow, 2006, the secret development of Jewish power in Russia, Spain and reborn Israel; the Talmud, the Russian Church and the Protocols; the Berne Trial and World Jewish falsification; the Protocols in the history of Israel; the Holocaust myth; the Hitler - Ben Gurion parallel and ethnic cleansing by the Jews; 1975 the United Nations recognizes Zionism as racism.

- Anatoly Utkin, "The Only Super Power State", Algorithm Press, Moscow, 2003, imperial power and hegemony, Islam's revenge.

- Nikolai Zhevakov, "The Jewish Revolution", Algorithm Press, Moscow, 2006, the Jews who made Communism and betrayed it in Russia and Ukraine.

- Anonymous, "There Are No Bad People", Orthodox Initiative, Minsk, 2004 (under the blessing of Archbishop Sergei), ostensibly an interfaith text that presents Judaism as a religion of money.

The letter continued, "Mr President, you are quoted in The Minsk Times of 9 August 2007, during your visit last week to the Belarus Press House, as
stating: 'We were advised by foreigners to privatize the state media which have always helped me to govern the country and preserve social stability - they are necessary to avoid rumours on burning issues from becoming widespread.'"

Samuels noted that "the Orthodox Initiative advised me that they were about to open a website. This will amplify their global dissemination, from Belarus, of incitement to hatred. Interestingly, Mr President, you also addressed the Internet issue in your speech, declaring that 'we should not allow this great technical achievement to become an informational dump.'"

The Centre contended that "as a vendor of hate, the Orthodox Initiative is in contravention of your government's stated policy", insisting also that "as a State Party to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Belarus is thereby in violation of its commitments to combat antisemitism under the 2004 Berlin Declaration, the 2005 Cordoba conference and this June's Bucharest follow-up meeting."
(Copies of the letter were shared with the OSCE's Chairman-in-Office, Miguel Angel Moratinos, and Ambassador Christian Strohal, Director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of the OSCE in
Vienna.)

The Centre urged Lukashenko "to officially condemn antisemitism and these publications in particular, while also ensuring that the Orthodox Initiative be disciplined and withdraw all such materials definitively."

"Their presence and distribution throughout and by way of your country desecrates the memory of both the Jewish and Belarussian victims of World War Two," concluded Samuels.

See Photo attached.

For further information, please contact Shimon Samuels at +33.609.77.01.58