The Republican Party’s candidate for vice-president of the United States, Sarah Palin, is to be disinvited from a demonstration against Iran outside the UN headquarters in New York next week, according to a report by the ‘Jewish Telegraphic Agency’ news service (JTA). The move follows two days of controversy for organizers of next Monday’s rally, which is being held to protest against the appearance of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the United Nations.
The controversy erupted after JTA had reported that Palin had accepted an invitation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations to speak at the event. The news of Palin’s participation prompted senator Hillary Clinton of New York, to announce she was withdrawing from the event, having pledged several weeks earlier to speak at the rally,.
Spokespersons for both Palin and Clinton then traded barbs over who was to blame for tainting the rally with party politics. A Clinton spokesperson said the senator had withdrawn because the rally had become “a partisan political event.” Palin spokeswoman Tracy Schmitt said the Republican nominee “believes that the danger of a nuclear Iran is greater than party or politics.” The National Jewish Democratic Council defended Clinton’s decision not to attend and called for Palin to be disinvited so as to preserve the non-partisan nature of the effort to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions. According to JTA, the Conference of Presidents issued a late invitation to the Obama campaign on Wednesday morning in an effort to avoid the taint of imbalance and partisanship. However, reportedly irked by the conference’s slight, the Obama camp did not commit to sending a representative.
On Thursday, the Conference of Presidents held a conference call for organizers of the rally at which the decision was made to limit participation in the rally to unelected officials, participants on the call told JTA. Shortly afterward, organizers put out a statement saying, “In order to keep the focus on Iranian threats and to ensure that this critical message not be obscured, the organizers of the rally have decided not to have any American political personalities appear.” The statement said Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and Israeli Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik would address the demonstration.
Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad said on Thursday he was ready to debate the two US presidential candidates when he visits UN headquarters for the General Assembly opening next week. "I am ready for a debate with the US presidential candidates over global issues in the presence of the media at the UN headquarters," Ahmadinejad told a press conference before heading to New York. "I have no plans in my schedule to meet with US politicians," he added.
A prominent Jerusalem-based evangelical organization has said it would deliver a petition to UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon this week signed by tens of thousands of Christians from around the world demanding that Ahmadinejad be indicted for incitement to genocide against Israel. The petition was initiated by the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem and signed by more than 55,000 people from 128 countries. "The silence of most Christian clergy in the face of Germany's horrific bid to annihilate European Jewry left a deep stain on the churches. Yet from it has arisen a sense among multitudes of Christians today that we have an inescapable moral duty to earnestly speak out whenever another genocidal campaign threatens the Jewish people," said Malcolm Hedding, the organization's executive director.
Read about the WJC's campaign to Stop the Iranian Threat