SWC Demands US Visa Service Contractor Put Israel On Official Map

March 18, 2016

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE-EUROPE
Tel.: +33(0)1 47 23 76 37
Fax: +33(0)1 47 20 84 01
Email:csweurope@gmail.com

“Among all the listed Middle-East states and flags, there is a bizarre choice of ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘Tel Aviv’ presented as two stateless municipalities or perhaps city-states.”

“If the buck does stop at your company, investigate among your 92,000 employees who committed this abomination, take immediate measures and apologize to Israel and its Jewish and Gentile friends by immediately rectifying this situation.”

Paris, 18 March 2016

In a letter to Mike Lawrie, Chairman, President and CEO of CSC, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, expressed surprise that, apparently, his company was “the contractor for the ‘United States Visa Service for foreign citizens’ website
see link here:

Indeed, apparently the State Department presents yours as ‘the only authorized website for the payment of visa fees’.”

Samuels pointed to the appearance on the site of a “global list of sovereign countries, marked by their national flag. Only one State is missing, as is its flag
(https://ais.usvisa-info.com/en-US/countries_list/niv).”

“Together with the listed Middle-East states and flags (United Arab Emirates and Iran) there is a bizarre choice proposed of ‘Jerusalem’ and ‘Tel Aviv’, presented as two stateless municipalities or perhaps city-states," continued the Centre.

The letter noted, “Click on them for a page headed ‘Tel Aviv and Jerusalem: Welcome U.S, Non-immigrant Visa Applicants. You are at the Official Non-immigrant (temporary) Visa Information and Appointment website for the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and the U.S. Consulate-General in Jerusalem’

see link here

Samuels advised Lawrie that, “The State Department seems to be sending complainants to you to address this aberration: wiping the Jewish State off the map and expunging its flag could arguably be called genocidal anti-Semitism.”

The Centre urged the Chairman, “If the buck does stop at your company, we urge you to investigate among your vaunted 92,000 employees worldwide, who was it that committed this abomination, to publicly condemn this act, to take immediate disciplinary measures and to apologize to Israel and its Jewish and Gentile friends by immediately rectifying this situation.”

“In the context of the contemporary Middle-East and the daily violence against Israeli citizens, their steadfast ally – the United States – cannot be seen as singling out its only true friend in the region, whether on the level of government or a private business contractor,” concluded Samuels.

For further information please contact Shimon Samuels 00 33 609 770 158, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct 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).