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Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi: 202-857-6644, jenniferm@theisraelproject.org
Jennifer Packer: 202-857-6657, jenniferp@theisraelproject.org
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Statement is latest in rash of Ahmadinejad’s anti-Semitic comments

As Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon fought for his life Thursday following a massive stroke, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used the opportunity to publicly wish  for Sharon’s death.

“Hopefully, the news that the criminal of Sabra and Chatilla has joined his ancestors is final,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the Iranian Students News Agency.

In the meantime, Ahmadinejad has been busy building up his country’s nuclear capabilities. On Jan. 3, Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that on Jan. 9 it would resume nuclear research and development that had “been suspended as part of its expanded voluntary and non-legally binding suspension,” according to the IAEA. For more information on this, please visit this link.

Ahmadinejad’s comment about Sharon was just the latest in a wave of troubling anti-Israel and anti-Semitic statements.

On Oct. 26, 2005, at a Tehran conference entitled The World without Zionism:

Ahmadinejad declared that “Israel must be wiped off the map.”
Link

Dec. 8, 2005, at a news conference in Saudi Arabia:

“Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces … Although we don’t accept this claim…If the Europeans are honest they should give some of their provinces in Europe — like in Germany, Austria or other countries — to the Zionists and the Zionists can establish their state in Europe.”
Link

Dec. 14, 2005, reported by the Islamic Republic News Agency:

Stressing that “the same European countries have imposed the illegally-established Zionist regime on the oppressed nation of Palestine,” he said, “If you have committed the crimes so give a piece of your land somewhere in Europe or America and Canada or Alaska to them to set up their own state there.”
Link

Other recent TIP press releases:

• PM Ariel Sharon Suffers Significant Stroke; Powers Transferred to VPM Ehud Olmert
• Acting PM Olmert’s Positions Illustrated in Quotes from Recent Interviews
• Opinion: Olmert on the run

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