Concerning a letter from the Simon Wiesenthal Center to Baroness Ashton. Paris, 6 November 2013. Taken from wiesenthal.com

In a letter to European Union Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Baroness Catherine Ashton of Upholland (pictured), the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's
Director for International Relations, Dr. Shim On Samuels, expressed shock, "To read on 'Electronic Intifada' website that the European Union's Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) – now renamed the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) – 2004 'Working Definition of Anti-Semitism' has been removed from the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) website."

The letter noted, "The BBC Trust, in addressing a complaint, had upheld the definition, in characterizing as anti-Semitic, a broadcaster's critique of comments on Israel made by a Member of the UK Parliament. The Trust has now, apparently, reversed its ruling following the Definition's removal, claiming:

'A press officer at the FRA has explained that this was a discussion paper and was never adopted by the EU as a working definition, although it has been on the FRA website until recently when it was removed during a clear-out of non-official documents. The link to the FRA site provided by the complainant in his appeal no longer works.'"

Samuels argued that:


— the EUMC carried the name 'European Union' in its title and all its published decisions are therefore official documents of the EU

— the FRA, as the successor to the EUMC, carries responsibility for the documents of its predecessor as part of its DNA"



The Centre therefore called on EU Baroness Ashton to:


— launch an investigation into the disappearance of the Working Definition and the coincidental change in the FRA website address

— return this important document to the current FRA website

— ensure that the appropriate EU bodies endorse the Working Definition in its entirety

Well, Keith, you can search the FRA website until you're blue in the face (the FRA, Keith - remember? - the official EU organisation that succeeded the body that drew up the document in the first place?) and you will not find the document. It was never restored, in spite of the pleas from the SWC. It's gone for good, Keith. It is the "official policy" of pro-Israel setups only. Denying as you do that it was discarded is a blatant lie. If it was never adopted as EU policy, and was cast aside by its own authors, you'd better look slightly differently at the places where you still find it. People like you who desperately want to cling to it. People who don't do enough googling and hope we won't notice. Of course you can find antisemitism-fighting websites that use it. They would, wouldn't they, knowing that it has a whiff, no matter how bogus, of EU officialdom about it. They can cite its source without telling us the inconvenient truth that its source discarded it years ago. Well, unless the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Times Of Israel and Wikipedia are all deluded, of course. That is what's going on here, Keith. We know how much you love a document that prevents valid criticism of the Israeli regime. The trouble is, you love it so much that it's blinded you to the truth. Your behaviour in this thread, as with the Wheatcroft matter, has been shameful.