To The Editor,
December 1, 2100
Joanne Naiman questions the statement of Dr. Catherine Chatterley that the leader of Iran "routinely threatens the nuclear destruction of the Jewish state". Professor Naiman writes: "Routinely? I would appreciate knowing her sources, as I have never heard of such a threat."
The current President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said in 2005 and since "Israel must be wiped off the map". He said in 2006 "this stain of disgrace [i.e. Israel] will be purged from the center of the Islamic world", and "this fake regime [Israel] cannot logically continue to live."
Military parades in Iran display rockets with banners carrying the slogans "Israel must be wiped off the map" and "Death to Israel". Former president of Iran Hashemi Rafsanjani, said in 2001: "the use of a nuclear bomb in Israel will leave nothing on the ground, whereas it will only damage the world of Islam" and in 2002 "one bomb is enough to destroy all Israel". Independent intelligence sources consistently over years have reported that Iran is developing nuclear weaponry.
Professor Naiman is either ignorant or quibbling. Adolf Hitler never said that the Jews should either be gassed and cremated in death camps or shot in front of open graves by roving killing units. Hitler referred rather to a "final solution of the Jewish question". Would Professor Naiman say that Hitler never threatened the Jews with genocide, that she never heard of such a threat?
If Professor Naiman really wants to inform herself on this issue, I suggest she take a look at the article by Gregory Gordon in The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology published in 2008 by Northwestern University, School of Law under the title From Incitement to Indictment? Prosecuting Iran’s President for Advocating Israel’s Destruction and Piecing Together Incitement Law’s Emerging Analytical Framework. The article is posted on the internet; it has over 400 footnotes, providing as many sources as Professor Naiman could possibly want and then some.
David Matas
Senior Honorary Counsel
B’nai Brith Canada