LONDON  (EJP)---The European Jewish Parliament (EJP) deplored the announced  participation of Geneva’s Mayor, Remy Pagani, in the 4th session of the "Russell Tribunal on Palestine" which is taking place in New York on 6-8 October. 

"His own support for this mockery of justice is highly harmful to his credibility and to his city's reputation," the Jewish body said in a statement on Friday.

The European Jewish Parliament stressed that this year's Tribunal will be chaired by Stephane Hessel who recently told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the Nazi occupation was "relatively harmless" compared to the "Israeli occupation of Palestine".

The EJP denounced the the so-called "Tribunal" whose sole purpose, it said, "is the demonisation and delegitimisation of the Jewish State of Israel."

"The ‘Tribunal only focuses on the question of Arab refugees resulting from the war of aggression launched against Israel in 1948. It completely ignores the forced exodus of one million Jewish refugees from Arab countries at the same time," the Jewish parliament said, stressing that United Nations Resolution 242 calls for a "just settlement of the refugee problem which applies to Jewish and Arab refugees alike."

Inaugurated earlier this year the European Jewish Parliament is an innovative forum based in Brussels, composed of 120 elected members, from 47 countries across Europe. It voices the thoughts, beliefs and ideas, as well as concerns, of European Jews.