The Simon Wiesenthal Center is protesting a cartoon published in the Dutch newspaper De Volksrant that utilizes Nazi imagery to depict Israel as a threat to world peace.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the organization, had traveled to the region last week where he met with Deputy Prime Minister Asscher, intelligence officials, and Dutch Parliamentarians to discuss the increasingly predominant threat of anti-Semitism in the Netherlands.
“I referred to the respected Ebert Foundation poll that showed over 38% of Dutch respondents said that Israel is exterminating Palestinians the way the Germans exterminated the Jews! Shocking? Perhaps not, considering decisions like your paper's to publish a cartoon depicting Israel as the lying hooked-nosed religious Hassidic Jew commiserating with a North Korean counterpart over their nuclear capabilities,” said Rabbi Cooper, referring to the abhorrent cartoon.
“Never mind that it is Mullahs in Tehran who are working hand-in-hand with Pyongyang to threaten regional and world peace. Never mind that no Arab leader feels threatened by Israel's nuclear capabilities, only Iran's nuclear ambitions. So it seems that tried and true Nazi Jew-hatred imagery still works for at least 38% of your fellow Dutchmen.”
“Perhaps though as editor-in-chief you might want to apologize for the timing of this particular outrage as it came 24 hours after an Iranian citizen burst into a synagogue in Paris where he stabbed a Rabbi and his 18 year-old son screaming, ‘Allah Akhbar’,” he added.
On Tuesday, an Iranian screaming “Allahu Akbar” attacked a 50-year-old rabbi and his 18-year old son with a knife as they were entering a synagogue in Paris for the morning prayer.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre asked police to investigate the crime as a pre-meditated, anti-Semitic hate crime.