Сегодня отмечается Международный день памяти жертв Холокоста. В своем послании по случаю этого дня генеральный секретарь ООН Пан Ги Мун призвал народы хранить память о Холокосте и отстаивать человеческое достоинство для всех.
Генсек ООН напомнил, что 65 лет назад был освобожден самый крупный и печально известный лагерь смерти Аушвиц-Биркенау /Освенцим/, где, как и в других лагерях, подвергались систематическим истязаниям и гибли миллионы людей. В большинстве своем это были евреи, но не избежали этой участи и представители других национальностей, отметил Пан Ги Мун.
Правозащитные организации призвали правительство США с большим тщанием подсчитывать численность негритянского населения в ходе переписи 2010 года, сообщает CNN. Федеральные власти уже запустили рекламную кампанию стоимостью в 200 тысяч долларов, которая должна привлечь негров к активному участию в переписи, но правозащитники полагают, что этого недостаточно.
Как утверждает Бенджамин Джелос (Benjamin Jealous), президент Национальной ассоциации содействия прогрессу цветного населения (NAACP), в материалах переписи 2000 года численность американских негров была занижена примерно на три процента. Джелос утверждает, что федеральное Бюро переписи населения должно привлекать больше чернокожих сотрудников и подрядчиков, чтобы работу выполняли более сведущие в жизни негритянских районов люди.
The Jewish fest Chanukah which is celebrated in those days by Jews all over the world was overshadowed by an anti-Semitic act in the capital of Moldova on Sunday, as The General Director of the Jewish Congress of Moldova, the famous theater director Ilya Schatz, told RIA Novosti.
According to his words, the Chanukah (candleholder) with enlightened candles which was set on Friday with the permission of the city authorities in the European Central Park was overthrown and smashed by a crowd of up to hundred people which were yelling anti-Semitic slogans.
“This hooligan group of Christian Orthodox seemed like parishioners of an orthodox advent” said Schatz.
He explained that these people “demanded that the Jews were removed from Moldova”.
The majority of the Swiss Cantons voted in a referendum which was held in the country in favour of the prohibition of the construction of minarets in the country, reports Tribune de Geneve referring to the results of the exit polls. The Swiss television described the first data on the approval by the inhabitants of the country of the extreme right parties’ initiative as “big surprise”.
The results of surveys on the exit of the vote show that the German-speaking Canton Lucerne supported the referendum, while the French-speaking provinces Geneva and Vaud voted against it. According to the first data, 59% of the citizens expressed their support for the initiative, reports the portal Swissinfo.ch. According to the Swiss law, the referendum is adopted, if the majority of the cantons and the majority of the citizens vote for it.
The initiative to hold a referendum came from the extreme rightist Swiss People’s Party which occupies the majority of the seats in the parliament. Within a period of 18 month their representatives collected the 100.000 signatures which are necessary to put the issue to a referendum.
Supporters of the prohibition argue that the towers of mosque from which Muslims traditionally call their prayers are strangers to the Swiss culture and symbolize the “political-religious aspiration to power”. Swiss Muslims themselves note the rising Islamophobia.
According to BBC News, Switzerland is home to 400.000 Muslims, meanwhile, this number comes to only four minarets.
The Russian-speaking Jew community of Boston demanded the resignation of Nadav Tamir, Israeli consul of the city. Reason for this was the open letter in which the general consul of Israel criticized the policy of the Prime Minister of the Israeli government Benjamin Netanyahu. Consul Tamir wrote that the foreign policy of Netanyahu leads to confrontation with the United States. According to Tamir, the administration of Barack Obama has to struggle not only with North Korea and Iran, but also with his longtime ally Isreal.
The letter signed by Nadav Tamir, which was sent to the diplomatic missions of Israel, states that the governments of Israel and the US actually entered confrontation and this considerably reduces the support for the Jewish state among Americans.
Tamir stressed that the US is now significantly more critically towards Israel, even more than during that anti-terror operation “Cast Lead” (Gaza War) or the Second Lebanon War, reports NEWSru.co.il.
A number of organizations uniting Russian-speaking emigrants (the Russian-speaking Jew community of Massachusetts, “Boston for Israel”, the Jewish Russian Telegraph, the Russian mathematic school and the Boston Russian Media Group) issued a collective protest against the statement of the Israeli diplomat.
“Nadav Tamir committed an act which is intolerable for an official functionary”, says the collective statement of the representatives of the Russian-speaking communities.
However, representatives of all-American Jewish organizations categorically disagree with the point of view of the Boston Russian-speaking Jews. Representatives of major Jewish organizations in the US value Tamir as a qualified diplomat, who brilliantly managed to protect the interests of Israel in different situations. “This man has great authority” said Steve Grossman, the former head of the American-Israeli Committee on Public Affairs about Tamir.
The representatives of other Jewish organizations of Boston also support Tamir and express the hope that he will retain his post.
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Сегодня отмечается Международный день памяти жертв Холокоста. В своем послании по случаю этого дня генеральный секретарь ООН Пан Ги Мун призвал народы хранить память о Холокосте и отстаивать человеческое достоинство для всех.
