Wiesenthal Centre to European Council President: “Paris and Copenhagen are Precedents for a Pan-European Epidemic.”

February 16, 2015

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE-EUROPE

Tel: +33(0)1 47 23 76 37

Fax: +33(0)1 47 20 84 01

Email: csweurope@gmail.com

 

“Assaults on Jews have collateral and strategic consequences – they damage the delicate fabric of democracy itself.”

 

“Convoke a European Union-wide conference to combat anti-Semitism on every front.”

 

Paris

 

In a letter to European Council President, Donald Tusk, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, claimed that, “Saturday’s attacks in Copenhagen set a mimetic pattern following last month’s atrocities in Paris, with a triple target formula:

- Freedom of expression activists

- Police

- Jewish institutions.”

 

The letter noted, “Denmark was the place of ‘original sin’ for Islamists since the Jyllands Posten 2005 series of Mohammed cartoons. The Copenhagen meeting on ‘Art, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression’ featured Swedish caricaturist, Lars Vilks, who,in 2007, depicted Mohammed as a dog.

 

“Police officers represent the first-line guardians of the very values of respect, tolerance and democracy most reviled by the Jihadists.

 

“Jews, as bulwarks of Western values and quintessentially European for centuries before the concept of a European Union, serve as a strategic target. Whether anti-West/anti-Europe/anti-Semite (right, left or Islamic radical), the terrorist well understands that assaults on Jews have extensive collateral consequences – they damage the delicate fabric of democracy itself.”

 

Samuels argued that, “the danger lies in an apparent media reversal of priorities or cognitive disconnect. Without Paris Charlie and the Copenhagen art meeting, the kosher supermarket and synagogue would fall into the forgotten litany of anti-Semitic incidents in Europe. Linked to the assaults on freedom of expression, they cannot be viewed as ancillary – for the perpetrator, they are naturally twinned together.”

 

The Centre warned Tusk that, “Paris and Copenhagen are bound to be precedents for a pan-European epidemic. Condemnation is insufficient.”

 

“We call on you to convoke a European Union-wide conference of States,

NGOs, law enforcement, Internet experts, inter-faith leaders and educators to combat anti-Semitism on every front,” concluded Samuels.

 

For further information, please contact Shimon Samuels at +33 609 7701 58,  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 members. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the OAS and the Latin American Parliament.