Wiesenthal Centre Joins Protest on Spanish Valencia’s BDS Group Hiring to Train Against Bigotry

May 16, 2020

“The thought that BDS will be training teachers to combat ‘bigotry’ while instilling the virus of hate, is an exercise in the absurd.”


PARIS - Starting 8 June, BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) directed against Israel, "BDS Pais Valencia" will begin a three-week online training for teachers on how to fight bigotry.
 
The Wiesenthal Centre commends and supports the ACOM legal campaign to combat antisemitism, with a special focus on rescinding BDS across Spain.
 
The Provincial Council of Valencia, Spain’s third largest city and one of the most active, has declared itself an “Israeli Apartheid-Free Space.” This violates judicial rulings in other cities. While some 50 Spanish town councils across Spain have passed BDS endorsement resolutions, in other courts it has been declared discriminatory and unconstitutional.
 
ACOM has succeeded in voiding some 25 municipal boycott motions, but the most virulent are those led by the far-left “Podemos” (“We Can”) party, reportedly close to Iran.
 
“The Wiesenthal Centre is seeking to raise the issue in the European Parliament, based on the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition of BDS as antisemitism,” stated the Centre’s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels.
 
“The thought that BDS will be training teachers to combat ‘bigotry’ while instilling the virus of hate, is an exercise in the absurd,” concluded Samuels.

For further information, contact Samuels at csweurope@gmail.com, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, 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).