UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee meets in Krakow, Poland. Photo: Screenshot

Germany’s ambassador to UNESCO has drawn the ire of a prominent Jewish human rights organization after he stood for a minute’s silence for “Palestinian victims” at the global cultural organization’s annual meeting in Krakow, Poland last week.

The ceremonial tribute to the Palestinians took place after the Cuban delegate to the meeting complained that the Israeli ambassador had violated procedure by calling for a minute’s silence for the victims of the Nazi Holocaust.

Most of the delegations assented to the Cuban appeal — among those who rose for the silence was German Ambassador Stefan Krawielicki. On Monday, Dr. Shimon Samuels — the international director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) who is attending the meeting in Krakow — told The Algemeiner of his “outrage” at the “German amalgam drawn between 6 million murdered Jews of Europe and the ‘Palestinians.'”

In a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Samuels stated that “on July 4, following the egregious passage of a resolution to obliterate Jewish sovereignty or even affinity to Jerusalem, the Israeli ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama Hacohen, requested a moment of silence to the memory of the victims of the Nazis.  German Ambassador Stefan Krawielicki stood among most others in the hall.”

The letter continued, “At the bidding of the Cuban ambassador, a second moment of silence was then held in support of ‘the Palestinians.’ Ambassador Krawielicki stood once again.”

“We are horrified at this amalgam between the millions of defenseless Jews gassed and shot — among them 1.5 million children — by the Nazis and their associates across Europe on the one hand,” Samuels wrote. “On the other, Palestinians, who rejoice when their terrorists murder Jews — among them children.”

“To link the Holocaust, in any way, to so-called ‘Palestinian victims,’ thus casting Israelis as Nazis, is a form of Holocaust revisionism illegal under German law,” Samuels declared.