File #: Res 1269-2005    Version: * Name: Denouncing and expressing outrage with respect to the comments of Iran’s new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Type: Resolution Status: Filed
Committee: Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Intergroup Relations
On agenda: 11/30/2005
Enactment date: Law number:
Title: Resolution denouncing and expressing outrage with respect to the comments of Iran’s new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regarding his belief that “Israel must be wiped off the map,” and calling on the U.S. federal government to make Iran’s plan to acquire nuclear weapons its most important foreign policy issue.
Sponsors: David I. Weprin, Lewis A. Fidler, James F. Gennaro, Vincent J. Gentile, Letitia James, G. Oliver Koppell, John C. Liu, Michael C. Nelson, Domenic M. Recchia, Jr., James Sanders, Jr., Larry B. Seabrook
Council Member Sponsors: 11

Res. No. 1269

 

Resolution denouncing and expressing outrage with respect to the comments of Iran’s new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regarding his belief that “Israel must be wiped off the map,” and calling on the U.S. federal government to make Iran’s plan to acquire nuclear weapons its most important foreign policy issue.

 

By Council Members Weprin, Fidler, Gennaro, Gentile, James, Koppell, Liu, Nelson, Recchia Jr., Sanders Jr. and Seabrook

 

Whereas, During Ayatollah Khomeini’s reign as ruler of Iran, from 1979 to 1989, “death to Israel” chants were almost a permanent feature of street politics in that nation; and

Whereas, Western nations were encouraged during the tenure of the reform-minded former president, Seyyed Mohammad Khatami, the fifth President of Iran who served from August 2, 1997 to August 2, 2005, when political, cultural and economic ties greatly improved; and

Whereas, While addressing Persian students in a conference in Tehran, entitled “The World Without Zionism,” Iran’s new President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stated that, “Israel must be wiped off the map;” and

Whereas, According to BBC news, President Ahmadinejad also repeated his anti-Semitic statement at a street demonstration and defended his remarks; and

Whereas, President Ahmadinejad’s deliberately antagonistic comments demonstrate a refusal to live in a world of tolerance and mutual respect for other cultures and religions; and

Whereas, According to an October 30, 2005 article in The Observer, President Ahmadinejad’s statements represent an attempt following President Seyyed Mohammad Khatami’s reformist era to resurrect the revolutionary fervour of Ayatollah Khomeini’s rule, and reassert the ideals and slogans of that past regime; and

Whereas, President Ahmadinejad’s statement, delivered in the midst of Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear program, casts doubt on Iran’s claim to harbour only peaceful ambitions for its nuclear technology; now, therefore, be it 

Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York denounces and expresses outrage with respect to the comments of Iran’s new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regarding his belief that “Israel must be wiped off the map,” and calls on the U.S. federal government to make Iran’s plan to acquire nuclear weapons its most important foreign policy issue.

 

 

 

LS#3768

11/21/2005