SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE - EUROPE

Tel. +33-147237637 - Fax: +33-147208401
E-mail: csweurope@gmail.com 

“We question the timing of this travesty: the Duma Holocaust denial bill, Israel’s Independence Day, Russia’s Victory Day – all in the context of Moscow’s greatest international crisis since the Soviet period. Indeed, it violates Russian membership obligations under the 2004 Berlin Declaration of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)”

In a letter to Margarita Simonyan and Alexei Nikolov – respectively RT’s Editor in Chief and Managing Director, – Shimon Samuels, Director for International Relations of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, expressed indignation that, “in the very week that the Russian Federation criminalized the denial of the Holocaust and the State of Israel celebrated its 66th Independence Day, your channel apparently decided to trash both Jewish Holocaust victims and Jewish sovereignty.”

Samuels sat through “eight minutes of raw Jew-hatred and unambiguous group defamation, horrified that a Russian government-financed television would screen this, Australian produced, “Juice Rap News” clip’s pathetic claim to political satire (see: http://www.youtube.com/user/thejuicemedia?app=desktop).”

The letter continued, “my first thought was, by chance I had captured the EU banned Iranian Press TV. Then perhaps, that RT must be parodying Soviet antisemitism in order to condemn it.

“But no! We were treated to the self-hatred of Holocaust revisionist, Norman Finkelstein, and then a series of classical anti-Semitic canards including Jews and money, their control of the United States etc. The rest of the clip is arguably an endorsement for Palestinian terrorism and of the BDS boycott campaign against Israel.”

The letter questioned, “Does screening this repugnance signal an RT policy shift? If so, you have made a mockery of Russia’s 9 May Victory commemoration, as you soil the memory of more than 20 million Soviet citizens - among them over 500,000 Jewish soldiers of the Red Army - who fell victim to the Nazi scourge?”, adding, “We cannot but question the timing of this travesty: the Duma Holocaust denial bill, Israel’s Independence Day, Russia’s Victory day – all in the context of Moscow’s greatest international crisis since the Soviet period.”

“Was a piece of Jewish mass distraction intended, or simply a programme error? If the latter, we insist on a public apology for this incitement to hatred and offense to the Jewish people and the removal from your company of those responsible. If intended, then the matter will be raised to a higher authority on the grounds that it violates Russian membership obligations under the 2004 Berlin Declaration on Antisemitism of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) ”, concluded Samuels.

For further information please contact Dr. Shimon Samuels on 00(33)609770158, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.

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).