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July 31, 2024
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean and Director for Global Social Action of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, issued the following statement on a recent decision by the City of Nagasaki to selectively not invite Israel to its ceremony commemorating the dropping of the Atomic bomb in 1945.
“The Nagasaki Mayor’s immoral decision not to invite Israel to the Atomic-bomb Memorial debases the memory of innocent Japanese who perished that day and insults the memory of 1,200 Israelis mass murdered on Oct 7th by Iran-backed Hamas terrorists—the largest single-day killing of Jews since the Nazi Holocaust. Adding insult to injury the local mayor did invite a Palestinian representative to attend, a decision that will only embolden terrorists everywhere to conclude that mass violence works to advance their agendas.”
Rabbi Cooper also noted that “the Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki finally ended World War II, a war which saw Japan allied with Nazi Germany. For decades, people of goodwill in Japan, the US, and among world Jewry have labored to forge new trusts, friendships, and alliances as we all struggled to absorb difficult lessons from the past. While the mayor of Hiroshima did invite the Israelis to attend, the mayor of Nagasaki’s insulting refusal has harmed that trust.”
For further information, please email Michele Alkin, Director of Global Communications at malkin@wiesenthal.com or Erik Simon at esimon@wiesenthal.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is an international Jewish human rights organization. It holds consultative status at the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the OAS, and the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO).
