Press statement  (December 30, 2008)

Since Israel gave up all of Gaza in 2005 thousands of rockets and mortars have been fired into Israel from Gaza. On December 19 Hamas declared the end of the „ceasefire“ and intensified its attacks. In light of the attacks Israel is forced to protect its citizens with military means.

Germany is also involved in this conflict – the Federal Republic of Germany is the most important Western trading partner of the Islamic Republic of Iran, that is financing Hamas and other Islamist terror organizations, trains and arms them.  

The result of the demand for ceasefire and a political equidistance will be the strengthening of the Hamas and the Islamist forces in the Middle East. The declared aim of the Hamas is the destruction of Israel. Hamas opposes negotiations with Israel, the covenant of the Hamas comprises explicit calls to kill Jews. The covenant is openly antisemitic – the fight against Israel is defined to be the first step in a worldwide anti-Jewish war.

The Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin calls for participation on the following demonstration in Berlin:

No deportation of refugees to Syria!
Against German collaboration with the torture-regime in Syria!

Wednesday, December 10 2008, 1 a.m., Brandenburger Tor (Platz des 18. März)

More Information (German)...

Yossi Melman on the Nuclear Weapons Program of the Islamic Republic of Iran and on Strategies to Stop the Bomb 

 
Yossi Melman is a journalist for the Israeli daily Haaretz and Author of „The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran" (Caroll&Graf 2007, together with Meir Javedanfar).

The event took place on November 27 2008 in the Centrum Judaicum in Berlin, organized und supported by STOP THE BOMB, the Jewish Forum for Democracy and against Anti-Semitism and the Coordinating Council of German NGOs against Anti-Semitism. The greeting by Klaus Faber (Coordinating Council) can be found here (German).

The Mideast Freedom Forum is one of the initiators of the STOP THE BOMB campaign in Germany. Click here for more information and to sign the petition!

The U.N. as forum for "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion"

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech in front of the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, 2008 is another highlight of the Iranian regime's "final solution" anti-Semitism.

Ahmadinejad's discourse was not just limited to a smear campaign against Israel.Instead he continued in the traditions of Nazi anti-Semitism when he stated the people of the world are being played with by "a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists.“

According to Ahmadinejad, the Zionists have "been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the US in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner."

He claimed the "Zionist murderers" are responsible for practically all the evils in the world and that the United States and Europe needs to "obey the demands and wishes of a small number of acquisitive and invasive people.“ 

If even more proof is needed that there is no difference between Ahmadinejad's anti-Zionism and his anti-Semitism, it is presented here before the eyes of the world in this speech. 

As he has done so often before, Ahmadinejad talked about the pending collapse of the "Zionist regime" and openly stated what he was planning to use the nuclear weapons for, which his country is without a doubt striving for. 

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemned Ahmadinejad's statements as "blatant anti-Semitism" and called them "irresponsible and unacceptable."However, he does not associate the Iranian regime's anti-Semitism with its pursuit of nuclear weapons. 

However, there can be no "dialog" or a "balancing of interests" as desired by Steinmeier with a regime that in front of the United Nations proclaimed the anti-Semitism of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” as its reasons of state. 

The Iranian regime threatens Israel's annihilation and does all it can to attain the technical means to implement this threat.The longer it takes for effective sanctions to be placed against the religious dictatorship in Iran, the more insolent and aggressive it will become. 

If the condemnations of Ahmadinejad's anti-Semitism are not fancy speeches without substance, there is only one possible answer to Iran's threats:

·       All business transactions that support the Iranian regime must be stopped.    

·       The federal government must also enact unilateral sanctions that put a stop to these transactions.

·       Instead of having a dialog with the mullahs, talks must be held with those powers who stand up for humanrights, personal freedom, gender equality and a secular democracy in Iran.

This press release was recently supported by the following people:
 
Dr. h.c. Johannes Gerster, President of the German-Israeli Society, Mainz

Stefan Hensel, Chairman of the German-Israeli Youth Forum (Deutsch-Israelische Jugendforum), Hamburg

Sacha Stawski, Editor in Chief, Honestly Concerned e.V., Frankfurt/Berlin
Dr.Nikoline Hansen, Chairman of the Organization of the Victims of the Nazi Regime (Bund der Verfolgten des Naziregimes Berlin e.V.)
Prof. Diethard Pallaschke, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East - German Chapter
Dr. Elvira Grözinger, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East - German Chapter

Benjamin Krüger, BAK Shalom spokesman

Annemarie Werner, Minister, Evangelische Vaterunserkirchengemeinde (Our FatherProtestantChurch)

Dr. Clemens Heni, Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism,USA
Rosemarie Matuschek, Erik-Verlag [publishing company],  Berlin
Dr. Gideon Römer-Hillebrecht, Confederation of Jewish Soldiers
Roger Bückert, Pro-Israel-Initiative „Neveragain“, Wilnsdorf
Dip.sc.pol. Leo Sucharewicz, Communications Psychologist and Journalist, ILI e.V., Munich
Dr. Oliver Kraigher, Editor for NahostFocus [Middle East Focus]
Henry H. Faktor, Managing Director, Plan Plus Faktor, Frankfurt/Main
Kerstin Heimbold, German Media Watch
Markus Vallen, German Media Watch
Michael Moreitz, Political Scientist, Berlin
Suzan Aytekin-Alavi, Journalist, Vienna
Tom Goeller, Foreign Correspondent The Washington Times, Berlin
Dr.Klaus Thörner, Social scientist and Publisher, Oldenburg
Bernd Iwanter, Senior teacher
Hans-Jürgen Krug, Press speaker Israel - Heute, Christen an der Seite Israels [Israel today - Christians at the side of Israel]
ISRAELFREUNDE NORDDEUTSCHLAND, Wedemark [Friends of Israel]
Bernd Dahlenburg, M.A., Protestant. Theologian / Free Editor Honestly Concerned, Augsburg
Dr. Rafael Korenzecher, Berlin, Publisher JBO Jewish Berlin Online
Dr. Hassan Kianzad
Susanne Wein, Berlin, Philip Stühler-Walter, Bonn, Adrian Josepovici, Frankfurt am Main, Fabian Junk, Dresden, Jakob Saternus, Berlin, André Fischer, Hamburg, Frank Küchler, Reinhardtsgrimma, Andrea Lauser, Freiburg, Michael Großmann, Martin Dornis, Michael Trube, Philip Hogh, Judka Lisker, Martin Uhlig, Edda Lutsch, Teltow, Andrea Meyer, Assessor jur., Bremen, Christof Maihoefer, Dornstadt, Michael Barthel, Cem Erkisi

[Farsi PDF]

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, 

My name is Fathiyeh Naghibzadeh. I am so pleased that I can speak here on behalf of the Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin.

Back in 1973, six years before the downfall of the Shah of Persia, the Ayatollah Khomeini called on all the Muslims of the world to join together in a holy war against Israel. Immediately upon taking power and establishing the Islamic regime in Iran in 1979, the Ayatollah Khomeini declared the International Day of Al-Quds as a global day of fighting against Israel. 

In addition to the oppression of women and the obligation to wear a veil, the Iranian regime's first and most important goal was spreading anti-Semitism throughout the world. 

The latest expression of this anti-Semitism on German soil was the speech by Iran's so-called Secretary General of the Iranian Human Rights Committee, Muhammad Larijani, at a Hessian Foundation for Peace and Conflict Research conference in June of this year here in Berlin. During this conference, which was politically and financially supported by the German federal government, he was able to call for the destruction of Israel and declare that the denial of the Holocaust in the Muslim world has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. (See the MFFB press release)

Most Iranians know Muhammad Larijani. As chairman of the "Human Rights Staff of Iranian Justice" he declared in 2007 that stoning is neither inadequate nor torture:

"Some people think that we are ashamed if Westerners insult us because of the stoning, while we are only obeying the law. This is not the case at all. One does not need to be ashamed of the religious law." 

Muhammad Larijani voiced the foundation on which the Iranian regime is based years ago. 

"Up to now everyone always thought that the source of political power was military and economic strength. Imam Khomeini's fatwa [against Salman Rushdie, in other words the inducement to murder the author] has shown that the source of political power is something completely different than those two." 

Ladies and gentlemen, what Mr. Larijani was insinuating with this sentence 14 years ago is something that the people in Iran, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Lebanon and in Israel learn from experience every day. The source of theocratic Iran's political power and global expansion is terror.

This regime's brutal anti-Semitism is in no way Ahmadinejad's invention. It is the foundation of the Islamic Republic of Iran and is held by each and every one of this regime's top officials and politicians. 

There are executions, people are brutally suppressed, and union officials, opposition leaders, women, gays and lesbians, and national and religious minorities are persecuted every day in Iran. 

The regime constantly associates this persecution with anti-Semitism. Anyone who gets in the regime's way is branded as an agent of the Zionists. 

The Iranian government is currently conducting another terrible campaign against the Baha'i Faith. The Baha'i have always been a thorn in the mullah's side; they are considered fair game in Iran. And of course the government also calls them Zionists. 

Ladies and gentlemen, the more suppression there is in Iran, the more shameless the regime's anti-Semitic smear campaign will be in the world. We have the support for the Iranian regime from the European Union and particularly the German government and German companies such as Siemens, Daimler, Steiner and many others to thank for this. 

Not every dictatorship is as popular as the Iranian one. It is the regime's anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism that wins over such extremely diverse powerful allies. 

United Nations General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto hugged Ahmadinejad following his inflammatory speech in front of the United Nations a few days ago. 

In Germany, well-known political consultants such as Christoph Bertram openly campaign for a strategic partnership with Iran and hardly anyone is outraged. 

And while Neo-Nazis are filled with enthusiasm for their new heroes in Teheran, the so-called leftists demonstrate hand in hand with religious Islamic fascists, for example at this year's Al-Quds demonstration in London. 

The Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin was founded to combat this disastrous development with everything it has. We would like to say to the German society and German politicians: The Al-Quds demonstration is not a peace demonstration, but rather a demonstration for the Iranian regime's global war. 

A regime that is based on anti-Semitism and terror, that constantly pushes for Israel's annihilation, should under no circumstances be allowed to possess nuclear weapons. 

Any support or toleration of this regime on a political, diplomatic or economic level does not lead to the easing of tensions, but rather to a militaristic escalation. 

Those people who do not want war must now and immediately call for the total isolation of the regime, stand up for consistent political and economic sanctions and fight for the support of all the people in Iran and those living in exile who fight for human rights, personal freedom, gender equality and a secular democracy in Iran. 

The Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin is a co-initiator of the STOP THE BOMB campaign in Germany, which will start soon. We have lots of additional information available if you have questions and ask you all to support this campaign. 

Ladies and gentlemen, 

In conclusion, please allow me to add a personal remark. As an Iranian woman, I know that the Israeli and Iranian people are the people who are suffering the most under the Iranian regime. I would like to say here, without any hesitation: anyone who is serious about standing up for democracy and human rights in Iran must stand up against anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism and for the defense of Israel against the Iranian regime. 

Thank you very much!