Wiesenthal Center Urges President Obama to Announce Veto Ahead Of Any UN Security Council Meeting on The Goldstone Report

November 5, 2009

WIESENTHAL CENTER URGES PRESIDENT OBAMA TO ANNOUNCE VETO AHEAD OF ANY UN SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING ON THE GOLDSTONE REPORT

Center officials say that any action taken on the “one-sided” report would not only be an attack on Israel, but a “direct assault on America and every nation aggressively defending its citizens against the scourge of international non-state terrorism.”

In the likelihood that the UN General Assembly will recommend action on the controversial Goldstone Report to the Security Council, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has urged President Barack Obama to announce the U.S. will veto any Security Council resolution.

In a letter to the President, Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Center and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean, called the Report on Israel’s month-long action in Gaza last winter, “biased and flawed” adding that with the Report’s targeting of Israel while ignoring Hamas’ use of human shields and the storage of weapons in homes, hospitals and mosques, the “one-sided report” instead “rewards terrorism and penalizes its victims and those who seek the innocent from non-state terrorist attacks. Of all the resolutions that could ever be brought before the United Nations Security Council, none would ever be more deserving of a veto than the Goldstone Report.”

Writing on behalf of the Center’s 400,000 constituent members, the Rabbis said, “There is every indication that the General Assembly, at the behest of Libya, Sudan, and other serial human rights abusers, will urge that the Goldstone Report be taken up by the United Nations Security Council with the aim of incorporating the recommendations of the [the Report] and ultimately, bestowing upon these dangerous and onerous recommendations, the legitimacy of international law.”

“Make no mistake about it Mr. President, if not firmly and permanently rejected by the United States, the European Union and other democracies, the Goldstone Report will be come every terrorists’ Magna Carta,” continued the Rabbis. “It is not only an attack on Israel, but it is a direct assault on America and every nation aggressively defending its citizens against the scourge of international non-state terrorism,” they concluded.

The Center’s chief UN Representative, Mark Weitzman (L) and the Center's Associate Director, Communications, Felice Richter (R) attended the General Assembly Session, monitoring the stream of Arab and Muslim countries pounding Israel and urging further UN action based on the recommendations of the Goldstone Report.

The Center has also launched an online petition drive urging Ambassador Susan Rice, the United States UN representative, to veto any further action on the Report. The petition, which has generated 15,000 signatures, can be seen at www.wiesenthal.com. So far, the U.S. has not participated in the General Assembly Goldstone deliberations.

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, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.

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