Recently, Jewish anti-Zionist activists, includingorganizers of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), wereattacked in a video⁽ⁱ⁾ made by Gilad Atzmon. In this video, Atzmonaccuses us of "relentlessly putting pressure" on conference panelists, to"suppress freedom of speech" and "hijack the Palestinian solidarity movement."

Contrary to Atzmon's misrepresentations, not only has IJANnot put any pressure on any of the people allegedly "silenced" and "pressured"not to attend the conference in Freiburg, but we had no communication at all withany of them. IJAN had a discussion that included Hajo Meyer, an IJAN member. Discussingour concerns, or for that matter voicing a public opinion, censors no-one, andwe will not ourselves be censored by this absurd accusation.

Meyer and IJAN share a commitment to challenging the Zionistmisuse of the holocaust. For two years running, Meyer toured the US and Europeas part of the IJAN "Never Again for Anyone" campaign, organized with ourpartners.  This campaign exposes andchallenges the misuse of the Nazi genocide of Jews by Zionist institutions bybringing together victims of genocides, including Jewish holocaust survivors,with Muslims struggling against Islamophobia. We discussed together the possible implications for our work if heshared a platform with an antisemitic ideologue and promoter of holocaustdenial. The Never Again campaign challenges Zionism. Holocaust denial, asJoseph Massad has pointed out, is "the strongest manifestation ofanti-Semitism" in the West andhas "no position whatsoever inside the PLO nor any legitimacy among thePalestinian intelligentsia."ⁱⁱ⁾

AsJews committed to confronting racism, we regret that the Simon WiesenthalCenter is on the wrong side of justice yet again: It has demanded that Germanywithdraw from the international meeting scheduledSeptember 22, 2011, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of theDurban Declaration and Programme of Action on Racism (Durban Review).  The Simon WiesenthalCenter is using its clout and undeserved reputation to whitewash Palestiniandispossession and provide cover for racism and apartheid.

We urge the government of Germany topursue its obligation to stop the racism of today and redress the injustices ofyesterday by re-committing to its participation in the Durban Review.