Protesters in NY: 'Ahmadinejad not wanted here'
Sep. 24, 2009
E.B. SOLOMONT, Jerusalem Post correspondent , THE JERUSALEM POST
Throngs of people descended on the UN Thursday to protest the Iranian president's anti-Israel diatribe at the General Assembly and to stand in opposition to human rights violations in Iran following the usurped June election.
Waving signs that declared "No Nuclear Iran" and "Ahmadinejad not wanted here," they filed into Dag Hammarskjold Plaza at noon to denounce Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, just as other demonstrations were to take place in other US cities.
At New York's "Stand For Freedom in Iran" demonstration - organized by the Jewish community in conjunction with labor groups and others - shouts of "Stop Iran Now" were punctuated by three shofar blasts, meant to summon world leaders to act against the Iranian nuclear threat.
On stage, four volunteers stood with tape across their mouths and carrying signs that read: "I'm gay and in Iran I'm killed" and "I'm a woman and in Iran I'm stoned."
Protesters held clusters of green balloons and waved Iranian flags in solidarity with the opposition movement there.
Mansour Etehid, an Iranian Jew who traveled to New York from his home in California summed up in two words his reason for attending the rally. "For freedom," he said.
Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel pleaded with the international community to charge Ahmadinejad with crimes against humanity and try him at The Hague.
"This is a solemn appeal to the leaders of the world," Wiesel said. "His presence anywhere is an insult to what is sacred in democracy... He is an enemy of humanity."
Although demonstrators were largely Jewish, organizers included a broad coalition of groups, including the Jewish Community Relations Council, synagogue groups, churches and local chapters of the NAACP civil rights organization and the AFL-CIO labor federation. Among those in attendance were New York Governor David Paterson and former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Iranian activists also joined the rally, including Hassan Zarezadeh Ardeshir, who told the crowd: "Ahmadinejad and other faces of [the] Islamic regime are not just an internal issue. This is about terrorism, nuclear weapons and human rights abuses."
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