Simon Wiesenthal Center: “We Take Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s Threat Very Seriously”

July 7, 2006

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER: “WE TAKE IRANIAN PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD’S THREAT VERY SERIOUSLY”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center condemned the latest remarks by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stating that continued strikes against Palestinians could lead to an Islamic ‘explosion’ targeting Israel and its Western supporters.

“As a Jewish human rights organization with 400,000 members worldwide, we take Ahmadinejad’s threat very seriously given his regime’s record as a worldwide sponsor of terrorism,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. “Jews have never forgotten the Iranian-sponsored deadly attack on the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in 1995.”

“If there is anything the world can do without, it would be the Iran of President Ahmadinejad whose brand of fanaticism belongs in the 12th century not the 21st. The only reason Israel is in Gaza is because Hamas decided that it was more important to fire 1000 rockets at Israeli cities - cities well within the borders of the pre-1967 Jewish State rather than to rebuild the Palestinian economy and offer their citizens hope for a better life” Hier concluded.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS and the Council of Europe.

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036.