BERLIN (EJP)--- Thousands of demonstrators are expected to descend on Berlin this coming Sunday, to show their discontent with the policies of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad has not only publicly called for the destruction of the State of Israel, he has also been at the forefront of a large international campaign denying the Holocaust. His recent quest to build up his country’s atomic programme has also made people wary, worldwide.

Sunday’s demonstration coincides with the 62nd anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, which is marked around the world by ceremonies on the occasion of Holocaust Memorial Day.

Countrywide participation

The I Love Israel association (ILI) and the German-Israel Society (Deutsch Israelisches Gesellschaft or DIG) have been the main sponsors of the demonstration.

Over the last three months, ILI and DIG have lobbied organisations throughout Germany who have historically been involved in propagating tolerance, human rights and reconciliation between Jews and Germans as well as Israel.

The two organisations have chartered buses throughout Germany, in order to facilitate participation at Sunday’s event. Over 70 organisations have already confirmed their participation. Even synagogues throughout the country have rallied their congregations to travel to Berlin this weekend.

Leo Sucharewicz, representative for ILI in Germany, said that the total costs of the demonstration will amount to over 14,000 euros. He and his colleagues have been actively raising funds from private sponsors in order to fund the event and transportation to it.

“Counterproductive”

Missing from the demonstration will be members from the Central Council of Jews in Germany, the largest Jewish umbrella organisation in the country. Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Council, has publicly declared that the planned demonstration will be “counterproductive”.

The Central Council prefers a subtle “diplomatic approach” to taming Iran’s atomic ambitions and anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric. Knobloch believes that lobbying the strong arm of the German government, during its current six-month presidency of the European Union, “will reap far grater results than heckling during a rally”.

Instead, the Central Council is joining forces with Germany’s Lutheran Church in supporting a benefit concert organised by Israel’s AMCHA charity. The concert is intended to commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz as well as raise funds for the AMCHA’s activities in Israel.

AMCHA is the largest organisation in Israel which works with Holocaust survivors still traumatised by their experiences. Hamburg’s Doctors Orchestra will perform Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdys’s “Return from Abroad” and Franz Schubert’s “Mass in E-Flat”.

The concert, presided over by Berlin’s Lutheran Bishop Wolfang Huber and Knobloch of the Central Council, will take place in Berlin’s Protestant Cathedral, the city’s largest church on Saturday evening.