17 December 2009
The European Union of Jewish Students called for a day of action,
protesting the presence of Dictator Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in
Copenhagen on Thursday 17th December 2009.
The day was meant to begin with a full page ad, sponsored by EUJS
and Stop The Bomb, in The Copenhagen Post (a Danish newspaper in
English, circulating 15,000 papers daily), condemning the Iranian
president and it's regime for it's pursuit of a nuclear bomb,
support for terrorism as well as it's ongoing violence against the
Iranian people. EUJS and Stop The Bomb were however angered and
disappointed to receive news from The Copenhagen Post as they had
decided not to publish the ad for unconvincing and unclear reasons.
This open violation of freedom of speech and press lie in direct
contrast and irony of the UN’s continued insistence to give one of
the worst human rights violators in the world an international stage
to disseminate his constant rhetoric of hate and violence without
limitation.
EUJS had at the same time, in collaboration with a number of Iranian
dissident groups, organised two vans to circle Copenhagen city
centre and the Bella Center Conference Hall. Both cars were draped
with posters, 2x4 Meters in size, graphically showing the human
rights abuses that occur on a daily basis in Iran. The cars received
a high level of public visibility, and continued to raise awareness
and concern on the subject. The cars will continue to be driving the
streets of Copenhagen on Friday.
In the afternoon EUJS chairperson Jonas Karpantschof alongside a
number of high profile Danish MP’s and Iranian Human rights
activists addressed a protest organised by Frit Iran against
Ahmadenijad’s presence in Copenhagen. The Protest was attend by some
600 people.
This was followed immediately by EUJS’s own protest outside the
Danish Parliament, The Folketing, which elaborated on message of the
Iranian human rights violations, but, having collaborated with Stop
The Bomb, introduced the new and vital message of stopping the
Iranian regime developing Nuclear weapons. The protest, despite the
bitter cold, was attended by some 200 people carrying images and
banners condemning the Iranian regime.
EUJS hopes that the combined efforts of all of the days actions has
served to awaken and direct public consciousness towards to the dire
threats that the Iranian regime presents to the world, and how
Ahmadinjad’s presence should not and will not go unnoticed or
without protest in Copenhagen, or any other European city in the
future.
Pictures of all events to come.