BRASILIA (Reuters) – Jewish leaders on Tuesday criticized Brazil’s plans to receive Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad next month and urged the South American nation to condemn his denial of the Holocaust and “support of international terrorism.”
Brazil, which has defended dialogue and engagement with Iran, is due to get a visit from Ahmadinejad in late November.
“For us, it is very sad to know that Brazil will receive a man who publicly says he wants to destroy our country,” Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger told reporters after meeting with Brazil’s Senate chief, Jose Sarney.
Metzger, who participated in a religious seminar in the capital, Brasilia, urged Brazilian authorities to call off the visit.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, or SWC, a Jewish human rights organization, said Brazil should use the visit to condemn what it described as Ahmadinejad’s anti-Semitic rhetoric.
“Brazil will have the opportunity … to condemn his dangerous calls for the destruction of … >>>
