WASHINGTON (JTA) — The World Jewish Congress is urging a boycott of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly.
The organization is calling on representatives of U.N. member states to "leave the room when Ahmadinejad speaks" this month and is collecting signatures on a petition at its Web site to General Assembly members.
"Although the rules of the U.N. require that he must be admitted, we believe that in view of his past performances, he has relinquished the moral right to speak from that pulpit," WJC President Ronald Lauder said in a statement. "Member states have an obligation to show that the U.N. cannot be hijacked for the purposes of spreading the kind of racist diatribe and bigoted views which the organization was founded to combat and overcome."
