Wiesenthal Center: UN Head Says Denying Israel Right To Exist Is Anti-Semitism
Antonio Guterres Image by Getty Images
By Josh Nathan-Kazis May 31, 2017
In a meeting with leaders of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the secretary general of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, affirmed the historical role of Jews in Jerusalem.
“Denial of Israel’s right to exist is anti-Semitism,” Guterres said, according to a statement from the Wiesenthal Center. “History must be respected. Jerusalem is a holy city for three religions.”
Guterres made similar comments in March during a meeting with the World Jewish Congress.
Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister, has been secretary general since January. The Wiesenthal Center, led by Rabbi Marvin Hier, is a hawkish pro-Israel group that has enjoyed warm relations with the Trump administration.
“We are profoundly impressed by the scope of Secretary General Guterres’ knowledge and interest on issues that impact World Jewry directly,” Hier said in a statement.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
