Following pressure from the Israeli Embassy in Switzerland and pressure exerted by several pro-Israel organizations, the city of Geneva decided to ban an exhibition that promotes and praises Palestinian terrorism.
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The exhibition, which displays posters endorsing terrorist acts by Marc Rudin, also known as Jihad Mansour, was supposed to take place at a conference organized by the city of Geneva and was scheduled to open a few days ago.
Rudin is a Swiss-born illustrator and painter who worked as a graphic artist for the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) between 1980 and 1991. The posters that were set to go on display praised Palestinian weaponry, violence and terrorism.
Rudin is also a convicted criminal, sentenced to eight years in prison in Denmark for bank robbery. He was part of the Blekingegade gang, a group of politically motivated criminals who carried out several robberies in Denmark and sent the money to the PFLP to fund the organization's terrorist activities.
The exhibition is part of a series of terrorist exhibitions organized by the solidarity organization Samidoun – Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network across Europe. Samidoun is a non-governmental organization that supports the release of Palestinian prisoners and operates in Europe, Lebanon, Canada and the United States. In February 2021, then-Defense Minister Benny Gantz labeled Samidoun as a terrorist organization due to its connections with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The Samidoun exhibition was presented in Brussels in October 2022 and was scheduled to be exhibited in other European cities. Following the announcement of the intention to display the terrorist exhibition in a municipal facility in Geneva, an organization associated with it approached the mayor of Geneva and the Israeli Embassy in Switzerland, requesting their intervention to cancel the event. Several Jewish organizations across Europe, including ELFI - European Lawyers for Israel, also joined the call for cancellation.
Israel's embassy in Bern, which worked to get the exhibition canceled, reported that the city of Geneva decided to cancel the event. The municipality will prohibit the display of the exhibition in its own buildings. It is possible that the organizers of the event or the exhibition will attempt to relocate it to a privately-owned building. However, the organizers themselves announced that the event was canceled and said it was being censored under the directive of the mayor of Geneva.
"There is no place for exhibitions that encourage terrorism anywhere, certainly not with public funding," said Shai Glick, CEO of the right-wing NGO Betzalmo. "We are pleased that the city of Geneva responded to our request, and we thank the Israeli Embassy in Switzerland for their extensive efforts on the matter. Any supporter of terrorism should know that their hateful incitement will not be given a platform to spread hatred and incitement against the State of Israel."