CENTRE SIMON WIESENTHAL - SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE - CENTRO SIMON WIESENTHAL

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Wiesenthal Centre to Spain's Culture Minister: "Close Cordoba Holocaust Denial-Linked Foundation"

In a letter to Spanish Culture Minister, Carmen Calvo, the Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Liaison, Dr. Shimon Samuels, protested the presence of a Foundation and museum associated with Holocaust denial, not two hundred yards from last week's conference in Cordoba on "Antisemitism and Other Forms of Intolerance".

Samuels explained that Calvo, as regional chief official for culture in Andalucia, "had, in 1997, renewed the lease for this Foundation, created by French antisemite Roger Garaudy, to remain in the landmark Moorish Tower by the Roman Bridge of Cordoba's old city."

He noted, "Garaudy is a hero to neo-Nazis across Europe for his writings that dispute the facts of the Holocaust, his diminution of the number of its Jewish victims and his claims that Jews exploit the Holocaust for money and political benefit."

Samuels added, "As a convert to Islam, Garaudy is idolized in the Middle East by Jihadist rejectionists of the peace process for his book, The Founding Myths of Israeli Politics." The letter stated, "In 1998, he was sentenced in Paris for this book's Holocaust revisionism to a six-month suspended prison sentence and the equivalent of a 20,000-euro fine, with an additional three months and the equivalent of a 6,000 euro fine for incitement to racial hatred."

The Centre urged Calvo, "As Spain's Current Minister of Culture, it behooves you to cancel your original permit, close this Foundation and publicly denounce Garaudy's positions as enunciating an antisemitism that has no place on Spanish territory."

Samuels concluded, "To allow this Foundation and its museum to remain in place would make a mockery of the OSCE Cordoba conference and pass a signal to the European Union that Spain's OSCE commitment to combat Jew-hatred was an empty gesture."

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