Please
sign this petition, urging the International Criminal Court (ICC) to
bring criminal charges against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for inciting genocide.
Dear President
George W. Bush, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and Chief Prosecutor
Luis Moreno-Ocampo,
We, the undersigned,
are Jewish youth in North America who are concerned about a dangerous
threat to the survival of our people.
The president of
Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has repeatedly called for the destruction
of the State of Israel. Last year, he declared publicly that “
Israel should be wiped off the map.” In addition, his reckless
anti-Semitic tirades, which describe Jews as “a bunch of bloodthirsty
barbarians” who “should know that they are nearing the last
days of their lives,” dehumanize Israelis and Jews everywhere.
Mr. Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric is especially alarming given that Iran
is funding Islamic terrorism, developing nuclear weapons, and expanding
its arsenal of weapons that can reach anywhere in Israel.
President Ahmadinejad’s
threats violate the fundamental principles laid out in Chapter 1 of
the UN Charter: “All Members shall refrain in their international
relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity
or political independence of any state….”
Furthermore, by
advocating the annihilation of all Jews, Ahmadinejad has breached Article
3 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide, which prohibits “Direct and public incitement to commit
genocide....”
We cannot stand
by idly as this racist incitement to mass murder mounts. We cannot stand
by idly as Iran openly threatens Israel, a sovereign UN member state.
The civilized world has surely learned the lesson of the Holocaust,
of Bosnia, and of Rwanda; namely, that we must not stand by when genocide
looms. “Such crimes cannot be reversed,” says former U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan. “Such failures cannot be repaired.”
We urge you to
denounce President Ahmadinejad and to indict him for his violation of
international law.
Yours truly,
