SWC Urges Austrian Chancellor to Reprimand “Wiener Zeitung” for Publishing Op-Ed Stating There is No Comparison Between Palestinian Terrorism in Israel and Jihadist Terror in Europe

January 17, 2017

The Simon Wiesenthal Center today denounced the Wiener Zeitung, a paper owned by the Austrian Government for publishing an op-ed by journalist Liza Ulitzka that argues that attacks by Palestinian terrorists are not the same as Islamist terror attacks in Europe.

Ulitzka wrote that, because the Palestinian attacks are, “expressions of desperate resistance to the Israeli occupiers who have killed and harassed the Palestinian population in Gaza and West Jordan for decades.” According to Ulitza, “The ‘assassin’ [in last weeks attack that killed four Israeli soldiers] in Jerusalem, “was a Palestinian and attacked Israeli soldiers, not civilians like in Berlin and Nice.”

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Wiesenthal center, said, “You only need to read the 24/7 propaganda of the Jihadists who lump “Crusaders” and “sons of apes and monkeys” (Jews) on the same enemy list of global jihadi terrorists. Terrorism is terrorism, whether it targets soldiers on an educational field trip in Jerusalem, Rabbis at prayer, a priest at his altar in France, or on the streets of Europe, Africa, the US or Asia.”

“Finally, the author chose to remain silent about the fact that Hamas, the ruling party in Gaza, promotes genocide of all Jews in its Charter, an inconvenient but critically important truth about terrorism, the Holy Land and Jews everywhere”.

The fight against terrorism in Europe will never be won as long as there are those who are not only prepared to turn a blind eye to terrorism in the false hope it doesn’t bite them and as in this case of the Wiener Zeitung even justify it.”

Cooper continued, “It is well known that there are those who are ready to devalue Jewish lives. Austria has a particular troublesome history on this issue. The author had the right to write the article but the editors of this government newspaper had the right not to publish it. We urge Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern to denounce this false and dangerous dichotomy,” Cooper concluded.

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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).