Wiesenthal Center: Jakarta Crowds Cheering Ahmadinejad's Call For Israel's Annihilation, Reminiscent Of Hitler’s Rallies

May 11, 2006

Wiesenthal Center: Jakarta Crowds Cheering Ahmadinejad's Call For Israel's Annihilation, Reminiscent Of Hitler’s Rallies

  The Simon Wiesenthal Center expressed shock and disgust over today's rally in Indonesia capitol of Jakarta when students cheered Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he vowed that Israel would soon be “annihilated” and again questioned the genocide of 6 million Jews during the Nazi Holocaust.

  “Such behavior is ominously reminiscent of the Nazi rallies of the 30s when Germans and Austrians embraced Hitler's racist and genocidal vision that eventually plunged the world into history’s bloodiest conflict,” said Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, Founder & Dean and Associate Dean (respectively) of the Jewish human rights group.

  “Those cheering crowds and the silence of the world's leaders emboldened Hitler to launch WWII and the Final Solution against the Jewish people,” the Wiesenthal Center officials continued.  “Today’s rally in Jakarta along with the failure of moderate religious and political leaders throughout the Moslem world to rebuke Ahmadinejad empowers the Iranian President to pursue his reckless course that further destabilizes the Middle East and ultimately threatens world peace,” they 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 and has presented historic exhibits throughout Asia, including China, Japan and India.

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