 |
Charlotte Knobloch, new elected leader of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
|
|
|
| Page tools |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
BERLIN (EJP)--- The newly elected leader of the German Jewish community said that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a "second Hitler" who should not be allowed to attend the World Cup.
« For me, this man is a second Hitler," the 73-year-old Knobloch said in an interview with the daily newspaper “Bild”.
“Ahmadinejad should not be allowed to set foot on German soil,” she said.
Knobloch, an Holocaust survivor, was elected Wednesday as president of Germany’s Central Council of Jews.
"The German government should therefore not protect him with diplomatic immunity. The authorities should rather investigate him and charge him,” she said.
Knobloch reminded ARD-TV anchorman Ulrich Wickert Wednesday night that Holocaust denial is punishable in Germany. “Ordinary citizens get fined and go to jail when they are sentenced for denying the Holocaust. No immunity can be granted to a person who denies the Holocaust, not even diplomatic immunity," she said.
The Iranian president, who has made repeated statements dismissing the Holocaust as a “myth”, has indicated that he might visit his country’s national team during the World Cup, which opens Friday in Munich. No specific plans however have been announced.
Ahmadinejad has also called for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
Michael Fuerst, chairman of the Lower Saxony Council of Jews threatened Ahmadinejad with a “hail of lawsuits if he comes to Germany”.
He told the Netzzeitung news agency, “the state’s attorney’s office will have their hands full as we will feed them with legal proceedings against Ahmadinejad”. Fuerst said that the suits would be filed from Jewish as well as non-Jewish citizens.
Iranian vice-president in Germany
On Wednesday, the German government announced that the Iranian vice- president Mohammad Aliabadi will attend the opening match of the World Cup between Germany and Costa Rica in Munich.
Aliabadi, who is one of seven vice presidents and is responsible for sport policy, will also be at Iran’s kick-off match against Mexico in Nuremberg on June 11.
Stephan Kramer, secretary general of the Central Council of Jews, told journalists Thursday that the vice-president visit to the World Cup opening ceremony in Munich on Friday “is an apparent provocation and sworn affront towards the federal government.”
Kramer called the possibility of seeing German chancellor Angela Merkel and federal President Horst Koehler stand next to Aliabadi “unbearable”. He said that his participation would turn the World Cup into a “politically abused event”.
Kramer said, “the fact that the federal government is not stopping Aliabadi from coming to Germany shows that Germany’s political position towards the Iranian regime is ''inconsequential and opportunistic”.
A spokeswoman for the German foreign ministry in Berlin said there was no new information about whether Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would travel to Germany for the competition.
Several demonstrations are already planned against Ahmadinejad, including one by Amnesty International International, the Israeli Cultural organisation and exiled Iranian dissident groups.
German extreme-right militants have also threatened to hold demonstrations in support of the Iranian President.
