Following Wiesenthal and Jewish Outrage, Lyon Mayor Cancels Conference with Terrorist

January 31, 2023

This is the Centre’s third success this month including Barcelona and Avignon

Paris - The Mayor of Lyon has canceled the conference - planned for 1 February - entitled “30 Years After Signing the Oslo Accords: Overview on Palestine”, featuring exclusively pro-Palestinian invitees for a one-sided Israel-bashing hate-fest.

Among the speakers was Salah Hamouri, presented as a “Franco-Palestinian lawyer... former political prison

In an open letter to the Mayor, the Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, stressed that Hamouri was, in fact, "a member of the terror group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Condemned for his role in the attempted murder of Israel’s Chief Rabbi, freed with 1,026 other prisoners in exchange for an Israeli hostage... and then rearrested for ongoing activity with the PFLP.. Hamouri was finally expelled to France last month..."

Ironically, among the Palestinian groups staunchly opposed to the Oslo Accords, was the PFLP. It had even broken away from the PLO, accusing the latter of abandoning the main goal of destroying Israel. The PFLP had links to Islamic fundamentalist groups linked to Iran, such as Hamas and Hezbollah. It had been particularly active during the Second Intifada, wreaking havoc in Israel with targeted assassinations, mass shootings and suicide bombings.
 
The Mayor expressed concern that the recent outburst of violence in the Middle East - i.e. the terror attacks in Neve Yaacov and in Jerusalem - could be "imported into his city."

Indeed, it would not have been the first time that the conflict was transferred to the streets of Europe. In particular, the PFLP has been among the groups on the European terror list since the late 1960’s. Palestinian terrorists had bloodied synagogues, airports, airlines, buses, cruise ships, embassies and restaurants for over three decades.

Then, came the 2nd Intifada: European-born extremists attacked Jews and Jewish institutions. In France alone, the Toulouse school massacre, the torture to death of Ilan Halimi, the targeted murders of Sarah Halimi and Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll in their homes, the Paris Kosher supermarket hostage killings... were all carried out "in solidarity with the Palestinian cause."

"This conference in Lyon - was to be held in the hall dedicated to Justin Godart, former Mayor of Lyon and a Righteous Among the Nations - would have been an exercise in incitement to Jew-hatred. Such banalization of evil would have opened the floodgates to violence. Those who last week wept for the Jews killed by the Nazis, must show respect also for the survivors,” concluded Samuels.

For further information contact Dr. Shimon Samuels at csweurope@gmail.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.

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, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).