From JTA News:
House resolution calls for Ahmadinejad genocide charges
A bipartisan slate of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives proposed a resolution calling on the Iranian president to face genocide incitement charges.
The non-binding resolution brought last week to the House’s Foreign Affairs Committee and initiated by Reps. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), says statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling for the destruction of Israel amount to crimes according to the 1948 Convention on Genocide.
The convention not only provides for punishment for genocide, Rothman and Kirk wrote in a letter to their colleagues, but “also prohibits ´direct and public incitement to commit genocide.´ It further provides that individuals committing genocidal crimes shall be punished ´whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.´ Ahmadinejad´s hateful rhetoric calling for the elimination of Israel, a Member State of the United Nations, qualifies as inciting genocide.”
Uh oh! Looks like Mahmoud may find it difficult to be a Jew-hating genocidal maniac in the future.
Ahmadinejad’s quote was actually mistranslated- he said something more like “vanish from the page of history” than “wiped off the map”. But why quibble over semantics- if you look at the text of the speech, Ahmadinejad is using a phrase also applied to the Iranian revolution of 1979, and he is clearly not going to call for a genocide of his own country. And while we’re at it, why don’t we charge:
Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for forced deportation, a crime against humanity under UN law, for his quote, “Everyone there should move, should run, should grab more hills, expand the territory. Everything that’s grabbed, will be in our hands. Everything we don’t grab will be in their hands.”.
Vice Premier Shimon for genocide, for his quote, ““the president of Iran should remember that Iran can also be wiped off the map.””
Former Congressman Tom Delay for treason and conspiracy against the federal government for his quote, “I AM the federal government!”
Emperor George Bush the Second as an accomplice to the murder of three thousand US troops, for his infamous quote, “My answer is bring them on.”
Union general William T. Sherman for incitement to mass murder, for his condemnation, “If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world but I am sure we would be getting reports from hell before breakfast.”
Some random guy on the Internet for conspiracy to kill the President, for his statement, “I am trying to without digging it out.”
I’m reminded of a cartoon- “You’re all getting detention for bad things I think you might do!”
Exactly. It is a joke that this mistranslation gets repeated and even some clowns from U.S. are trying to bring genocide charges.
Bush should be the one to get hanged for his deaths of Iraq civilians.
Tom — I’m aware of the mistranslation, but apparently what he’s been saying is still enough for his own parliament to attempt ousting him.
Randpost — this is not the US bringing genocide charges, it’s his OWN PARLIAMENT.
“A bipartisan slate of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives proposed a resolution calling on the Iranian president to face genocide incitement charges.”
That’s “US House of Representatives”. US. United States, as in where we live. Or at least where I live.