AJC: Condemn Iran for human rights abuse, Holocaust denial

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) Transatlantic Institute urges all members of the European Parliament to support crucial amendments submitted by MEP Marietje Schaake to a key Iran report, which will be voted on in the plenary next Tuesday in Strasbourg.

These amendments correct some of the report’s worst shortcomings, which in its current form fails to condemn the regime’s anti-Semitic propaganda and repeated calls for the destruction of Israel. The report further fails to adequately address the Iranian regime’s horrific human rights abuses and external aggression, primarily its critical support for Assad’s brutal war on his own population, and its support for international terrorism.

“The European Parliament is known as an important voice upholding human rights, freedom and democracy. But if lawmakers fail next Tuesday to clearly condemn Tehran’s Holocaust denial, threats to Israel and brutalization of its own people, that reputation would suffer a perhaps irreparable blow,” said Daniel Schwammenthal, Director of the American Jewish Committee’s EU office, the AJC Transatlantic Institute.

“If we compromise on our values in pursuit of our interest, we are likely to lose both,” Schwammenthal added.

The report, entitled “EU Strategy towards Iran after the nuclear agreement”, was authored by British Labour MEP Richard Howitt and approved by the Foreign Affairs Committee on October 6.

The report is set to be voted on in plenary on October 25. Dutch Liberal MEP Marietje Schaake proposed this morning the two amendments to the text, which clearly condemn Iran’s human rights abuses and repeated denial of the Holocaust.

The AJC Transatlantic Institute is the EU Office of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), a non-partisan organization founded in 1906 and dedicated to defending universal human rights throughout the world.

###

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/219185