by Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel
As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plans to speak in the opening of the United Nations General Assembly in
“We feel a profound and telling moral duty to speak out against the growing Iranian nuclear threat to
"The silence of most Christian clergy in the face of
"Unfortunately, we are concerned that just such a genocidal campaign is taking shape in the form of Iran's repeated threats to eliminate the Jewish state, and its quest for nuclear means to carry out these threats," said Hedding.
'Hold Ahmadinejad Legally Accountable for Clear Calls to Genocide'
For several years Ahmadinejad, as president of the Islamic Republic, has repeatedly threatened to “wipe Israel off the map,” and has repeatedly denied the holocaust as a “myth.” Israeli Government officials and American legal experts say that such statements are a clear call to genocide and thus a violation of the U.N. Charter Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, a treaty drafted by the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights and approved in 1948 by the General Assembly.
A week ago
In 2006, following a Holocaust denial conference in
At another event, in
The latest shot in the battle has been fired by the I.C.E.J., who plan to deliver their petition, signed by more than 55,000 people in 128 countries, to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the eve of next week’s appearance by Ahmadinejad at the General Assembly. The petition reflects the sentiments of community leaders and government officials around the world, who are outraged that the U.N. has bestowed upon him the honor of addressing the Assembly on its opening, rather than pursuing his indictment for violating the Assembly’s very own charter and treaties.
The petition is called ‘Stop a Nuclear Iran’, and it points out that the Iranian president's statements that
Chilling Film Concludes with a Call to Action
A short film,produced by the the I.C.E.J., compares Hitler’s partly successful campaign to wipe out the Jewish nation with that of the Iranian leader.
“It was a crime of genocide, so enormous, so horrific, committed by men so sinister, with so many innocent victims, and so few rescuers, that it has it deserves its own name: the Holocaust,” the narrator begins.
“Nothing compares to the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews. Yet today, an alarming campaign to commit genocide, targets the same Jewish people.
“It is
“We should take these threats seriously,” the voice in the film says, as direct quotes from Ahmadinejad’s speeches to cheering crowds appear on the screen:
“
“The elimination of the Zionist regime will be smooth and simple.”
The video shows
The film continues: “The Iranian president has violated an international treaty on incitement to genocide, yet the United Nations has yet to hold him to account or to take effective action against
As for the Holocaust, says the narrator, “he says it never happened.”
“We say, never again!” proclaims the film.
“Let’s be the rescuers of the day. Let’s stop
The petition adds that Ahmadinejad’s campaign “not only endangers
The I.C.E.J.’s Hedding also slammed the leaders of certain Christian groups, among them the Mennonites and the Quakers, who plan to further honor Ahmadinejad by hosting him at a special reception during his visit to the
"These Christian leaders will forever be associated with the appeasement of wickedness,” said Hedding, bringing to mind the lasting condemnation of Western leaders for appeasing Hitler in the 1930’s.
Hedding explained to his fellow Christians that “Jesus did not talk with Herod because he represented a system that was corrupt and evil."
Rally at
David Parsons spoke to INN a day before his departure for a New York rally at the
The rally will repeat the message of the petition and demand that the U.N. bring the recalcitrant Iranian leader to justice.
“I think there are lessons we can take from Hitler,” Parsons said. “When someone develops a warped self-awareness, like Hitler had about being the ‘fuhrer’ of the fatherland, and makes threats against the Jews, and then develops the means to carry them out, we should take all this seriously.
“It looks like Ahmadinejad has all three—warped self awareness, threats and the means to carry them out.”
As Parsons discussed the Islamic Republic’s support for its leader's “radioactive rhetoric,” he could only speculate on the “dark religious reasons” of
Rafsanjani said that
“It’s not just a threat to
Parsons offered words of warning to his fellow Christians: “The history is that Christian leaders were silent during the Holocaust, and we dare not be silent again in the face of another genocidal threat against the Jewish people.
“We feel a profound and telling moral duty to speak out against the growing Iranian nuclear threat to
Ze'ev Ben-Yechiel
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