WIESENTHAL CENTER CALLS ON INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST TOP PALESTINIAN LEGISLATOR FOR 'INCITEMENT TO GENOCIDE'

Center asks, "Is this what the Saudis call a legitimate partner for peace?"

The Simon Wiesenthal Center called upon the international community to take action against Sheik Ahmed Bahr, the acting speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, for his sermon given in a Sudan mosque in which he called upon Allah to kill Jews and Americans "to the very last one." (translated quote provided courtesy of MEMRI)

"Rather than going to the Sudan to deliver a sermon on stopping the genocide in Darfur and ending the suffering of his fellow Muslims, Sheik Bahr used the pulpit to call for the annihilation of Jews and Americans," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. "Can there be a more compelling reason why the international community should continue to withhold funds from the Hamas government when the acting speaker of its Parliament wants to complete the work of Adolf Hitler? Is this what Saudi Arabia would have us believe is a legitimate partner for peace?"

"The Wiesenthal Center is therefore calling upon Angela Merkel in her dual capacity as Chancellor of Germany and the current President of the EU to formally urge the United Nations Human Rights Council to immediately take action against Sheik Bahr for incitement to genocide," 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, and the Council of Europe.

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