Only weeks after the European Parliament voted to form a special committee on terrorism, Leila Khaled, active member of the EU-designated terror group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was on 26 September 2017 cheered on by MEP Javier Cuoso after her brutal crimes.
Brussels - 28 September 2017 - The AJC Transatlantic Institute called today on European Parliament President Antonio Tajani to investigate how Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist Leila Khaled was allowed to speak in the Parliament and urged all democratic lawmakers to...
April 24th marked the annual commemoration of the Armenian genocide, the systematic annihilation of approximately 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. U.S. President Joe Biden’s recognition of the genocide was a groundbreaking event, one that American Jewish Committee (AJC) had long been advocating for. AJC CEO David Harris explains why in his latest op-ed in The Times of Israel.
Backed by the city of Hamburg through an official state cooperation agreement since 2012, the Islamic Center Hamburg (IZH) is Iran’s direct affiliate in Germany. According to German intelligence, the IZH is Tehran's most important hub in Europe. "The Islamic Center Hamburg is not only tasked with spreading Iran's antisemitic, anti-democratic, misogynistic, and homophobic state ideology, but serves as a hub for Hamburg’s Hezbollah supporters," writes AJC Berlin Director Remko Leemhuis in this Welt opinion article calling on the city state to ban the IZH and its activities.
The American press has been accused of grossly misrepresenting the French political reality, including the concept of laïcité and President Macron’s campaign against radical Islam. Watch this spirited debate on race, identity, and the fight against radical Islam with James McAuley, Paris correspondent for The Washington Post, and Thomas Chatterton Williams, Paris-based contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine, moderated by AJC’s Simone Rodan-Benzaquen.
Islamist radicalism and violent extremism are on the rise in Western societies, as the deadly attacks recently in Vienna and the beheading of a French teacher chillingly reminded us. Writing in Europe’s best-selling newspaper BILD, AJC Europe Director Simone Rodan-Benzaquen and AJC Berlin Director Remko Leemhuis urge governments to cut ties with Islamist groups propagating anti-Western ideologies, like those linked to Iran’s regime or the Muslim Brotherhood: “We must set our sights on the organizations of political Islam, which are not violent themselves but create the climate for such murders.”
AJC hosted Matthew Levitt, Director of the Washington Institute's Counter Terrorism and Intelligence Program, for a one-hour webinar on his recently launched Hezbollah Worldwide Activity Map, the largest database of open-source information about Hezbollah's worldwide illicit activities. Hosted on the Washington Institute’s website, the interactive map highlights the operations of Iran’s proxy in France and in Europe, including Hezbollah’s role in money laundering, drug trafficking, support of other terrorist organizations, and organized crime.
The horrific beheading of the French teacher Samuel Paty at the hands of one of his students, a recently radicalized Islamist of Chechen descent, sent shock waves across France and the entire world. In conversation with AJC Europe Director Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, journalist and former Charlie Hebdo columnist Caroline Fourest discusses France’s fight against extremism, the country’s challenges integrating parts of the Muslim population, and its efforts through public school education to preserve laïcité and Western values, including freedom of speech.
With Lebanon’s future at stake, France holds the key to making a difference. Writing in the French weekly Le Point, AJC’s Simone Rodan-Benzaquen and Anne-Sophie Sebban-Bécache write from Paris that President Macron’s efforts will fail unless the government finally gets real on Hezbollah: “By considering Hezbollah as a legitimate interlocutor in the process — engaging its representatives in Lebanon — France is perpetuating the problems. Unless Macron addresses the issue of Hezbollah, nothing will change.”
More and more European countries are declaring all of Hezbollah a terrorist organization. AJC discussed this trend with AmbassadorNathan Sales, U.S. State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Sajid JavidMP, who as Home Secretary initiated the UK ban on Hezbollah, and Hans-Georg Engelke, German State Secretary at the Interior Ministry. On the AJC program, Ambassador Sales revealed that Hezbollah moved large amounts of ammonium nitrate through Europe, the same explosive compound it used in the 2012 suicide bombing in Bulgaria.
Brussels, 14 May 2020 – The AJC Transatlantic Institute applauded the European Parliament for condemning the Palestinian Authority’s failure to act against incitement in text books, insisting that educators receiving EU-funds abide by UNESCO standards against hate, and calling on the EU’s...