Spanish PM urged to cancel antisemitic course at Public U. of Navarre
The controversial course that prompted the letter is titled 'Apartheid in Palestine and the Criminalization of Solidarity.'
By TOBIAS SIEGALanti israel in spain 248.88(photo credit: AP [file])
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre addressed a letter to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday asking that he intervene and cancel an antisemitic course offered at the Spanish Public University of Navarre.The controversial course that prompted the letter is called "Apartheid in Palestine and the Criminalization of Solidarity" and is planned to be held as an online course offered to students at the Public University of Navarre and its satellite campuses between September 9 and October 7.“Mr. Prime Minister, incitement to hatred and violence is not a human right - even and especially on campus!,” the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations Dr. Shimon Samuels, wrote. Samuels opened the letter by commending the Spanish government for adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's (IHRA) definition of antisemitism on July 22, but added that “sadly, this endorsement is now to be betrayed by the Public University of Navarre."Samuels claims that the course was coordinated by the Spanish organization Sodepaz, which Samuels says is reportedly in contact with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) organization.The PFLP, as well as several Palestinian organizations, including Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, are listed as terrorist groups or entities on the EU's sanctions list.Moreover, Samuels says that the program for the course includes Omar Barghouti as a speaker. Barghouti is considered to be head of the international BDS campaign, which aims to have its followers, as well as others, boycott Israeli products.The letter also referred to the Action and Communication on the Middle East (ACOM) organization, which, according to its website "strengthens the relationship between Spain and Israel through joint work with the government, political parties and civil society." Samuels wrote that ACOM presented a court in the city of Pamplona with the jurisprudence that will allow declaring the boycott of Israel as illegal in Spain.“Mr. Prime Minister, our Centre joins ACOM in calling on you to take measures to cancel this course - on grounds of antisemitism, invoking the IHRA Definition - that can incite lone wolves to attack Jewish institutions, schools, synagogues and cemeteries in Spain,” the letter continued.“Mr. Prime Minister, incitement to hatred and violence is not a human right - even and especially on campus, where students are to be formed in open-mindedness and tolerance, not in discrimination and hate,” Samuels concluded.
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