PARIS—Following protests from the Israeli ambassador and a Jewish leader, the Paris-based Arab World Institute, a French governmental body dedicated ”to create strong cultural ties and dialogue between the Arab World, France and Europe’’, withdrew a from its website a picture e depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding up bloody hands.
This visual was used to illustrate a conference held at the Institute titled “Hand on Israel. Netanyahu or the end of the Zionist dream. ”
The picture angered Israel’s ambassador in France, Aliza Bin Noun, who wrote on Twitter: “Intolerable and scandalous that a public institute disseminates such defamatory visuals and stirs the hatred of Israel to present a so-called ‘debate’ already dependent.’
‘’The Arab World Institute has crossed the line of objective criticism and is guilty of inciting hatred,” she added.
Philippe Meyer, president of B’nai B’rith France, also protested the image. He wrote on Twitter: “An institution funded by taxpayers’ money cannot propagate anti-Zionist hatred, which feeds antisemitism. Take it down.”
The Institute is headed by former Socialist Minister Jack Lang whose Jewish father is a Holocaust survivor.