The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish Human Rights NGO denounced the announcements this week by Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay that they will recognize Palestine as an independent state within the pre-1967 borders.

“Beyond the fact that such pronouncements further hamper U.S.-led efforts to reach a peaceful two state solution via direct negotiations, the endorsement of a return of Israel to its indefensible 1967 ‘Auschwitz borders’ is inexcusable and immoral,” charged Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, the Center’s dean and founder and associate dean respectively, referring to Israeli statesman Abba Eban’s 1969 statement that the pre-‘67 borders would bring back “memories of Auschwitz” to many Israelis. “No Israeli leader would ever agree to return to a border only seven miles wide in the center of the Holy Land, nor would they agree to re-divide Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people,” they added.

“If the world’s political leaders want to contribute to the peace process, they should be calling for the dismantling of the terrorist Hamas mini-state in Gaza and the removal of 40,000 Iran-supplied Hezbollah rockets threatening Israel’s northern border,” the Rabbis 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).