SWC Denounces Today’s Deadly Terrorist Attacks in Ottawa and Jerusalem

October 22, 2014

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights NGO, denounced today’s deadly terrorist attacks in Ottawa and Jerusalem (pictured).

“The murderous assaults at the Canadian Parliament building and other sites in Ottawa were clearly acts of terrorism. While it is not yet clear whether Michael Zehaf-Bibeau was inspired by an overseas terrorist group, or acted as a lone wolf, it is clear that terrorists continue to threaten our democratic way of life and values,” said Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, founder and dean and associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center adding that “the United States must do everything in its power to continue to work closely with our closest ally, Canada, to defeat these groups who revere death and destruction before they have more opportunities to murder more innocents.”

“In addition, the Wiesenthal Center denounces the deadly terrorist attack in Jerusalem where innocent riders on Jerusalem’s light rail were attacked by an Arab terrorist, a three-month old baby was murdered, and ten other Jerusalemites were injured,” they added.

“As long as Palestinian leaders, under the leadership of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, continue to glorify and praise terrorists as martyrs, these unspeakable crimes will continue and kill any hopes for peace, ” said Hier and Cooper adding that “It is time that the Obama Administration demand that President Abbas do more in word and deed to put a stop to the growing terrorist violence targeting Jerusalem and Jewish communities adjacent to territories under the control of the Palestinian Authority.”

In recent pronouncements, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have made clear their frustrations with Israel over failure to move the peace process forward. It’s time for them to begin to hold Palestinian leaders accountable for the ramped up campaigns of violence from The Temple Mount, to rock-throwing, to today’s terrorist attack," they concluded.

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, 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).