Shimon Peres Does Not Speak for Us ! We are writing this letter as Israeli citizens. Some of us are 1st, 2nd or 3rd generation Holocaust survivors, and we are all activists who are pursuing peace and justice for everyone in our troubled region. We wish to express our concern regarding Germany’s Middle East policy, which is harmful and immoral. Our appeal also regards the upcoming visit of Israeli president Shimon Peres to Germany this week. While it is certainly justified to condemn and act against attacks on innocent Israeli civilians, it is morally unacceptable that German decision-makers consistently ignore, or even defend, Israeli attacks on innocent civilians, which inflict a much higher number of casualties, mostly in Lebanon and in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Furthermore, we are concerned about a climate of fear in German politics, when moderate and well-founded criticism of severe Israeli violations of human rights is treated with McCarthyite methods, such as the attacks against Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul and Herman Dierkes. When President Shimon Peres lands in Berlin, an honest person should not lavish him with automatic praise, but ask, politely yet firmly, why he has been a member or a senior propagandist for Israeli governments which have used cluster munitions , flechette artillery shells and white phosphorus bombs in densely populated civilian areas in Gaza and Lebanon, have built more settlements in the OPT and have imposed separate legal systems for Israeli settlers in the OPT and their Palestinian neighbors. One can also ask him why he authorized the kidnapping and ill-treatment of an Israeli citizen in Rome (Mr. Mordechai Vanunu, September 1986), a clear violation of international law, and why it should be acceptable for one state in the Middle East to acquire nuclear weapons, a situation which necessarily brings about a dangerous arms race in this volatile region. One can ask him why he authorized, as Prime Minister in April 1996, the mass bombing of villages in Southern Lebanon, explicitly aimed at creating a wave of refugees flooding Beirut. We suspect that Mr. Peres has not learned that it is illegal to inflict lethal collective punishment on a civilian population. Germany should obviously draw a lesson from the Holocaust, and other genocidal policies carried out by Germans. The true lesson is that everyone should stand up for universal principles of human rights. Therefore, Germany is morally obliged not only towards Jews living in Israel, but also towards Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. President Shimon Peres, who has been responsible for numerous severe human rights violations, should not be regarded as the representative of world Jewry. In fact, he does not even speak for all Israeli Jews. We call on the German government to stop ignoring or justifying severe human rights violations committed by Shimon Peres and the State of Israel, including those documented by the Goldstone Report, and to stop providing the weapons which facilitate these violations. Signatories: next talkback

Gali Agnon Udi Aloni Galit Altshuler Adam Yishay Amorai Zohar Atai Ofra Ben-Artzi Ronnie Barkan Ilil Bartana Eitan Buchvall Adi Dagan Maayan Dak Yossi David Shiri Eisner Michael Engel Eva Ferrero Tamar Freed Prof. Rachel Giora Maya Golan Elana Golden Vardit Goldner AdAr Grayevsky Yoav Haas Dr. Roni Hammermann Iris Hefets Shir Hever Seffy Hurwitz Chaya Hurwitz Iaroslav Youssim Peretz Kidron (Holocaust refugee) Assaf Kintzer Felicia Langer (Right Livelihood Award (Alternative Nobel) 1990, Erich-Mühsam- Prize 2005) Moshe Langer Noam Lekach Yonatan Mendel Zohar Milchgrub Susanne Moses Regev Nathansohn Ofer Neiman Dr. David Nir Dr. Eyal Nir Orly Noy Hava Oz Prof. Nurit Peled-Elhanan (Sakharov Prize for Human Rights 2001) Moshe Perlstein Fanny Michaela Reisin Attorney Emily Schaeffer Itamar Shapira Roy Siny Nirit Sommerfeld Gideon Spiro (survivor of Pogromnacht 1938) Shir Sternberg Aliyah Strauss Sahar Vardi Einat Weizman-Diamond Elian Weizman Maya Wind Tom Yuval Yahav Zohar David Zonsheine Moshe Langer

I misjudged you, my sincere apologies. I wholeheartedly agree with the contents of the letter. It is entirely too unusual to see a rational collection of people recognizing truth from "explanations".

Long and healthy life mr. president. You're a true and a pure zionist of the first calibre.

we invent several names and then congratulate each other for what we invent when in fact all the names are one and the same person this makes for a great story that then the same person sends links to others as evidence to their imaginary claims and biased opinions

In case anyone needs translation, # 4 headline reads; "But he speaks for us"

hard leftists. Many others are Marxists and neo Stalinists. I wouldn't pay attention to this authomatic condemnation of Israel.Israel of coarse is a democrathy and we appriciate this fact. We in US trust and admire Israel for being a moral and just society. BTW Felicia Langer doesn't live in Israel. is NT a citizen of Israel and took German citizenship.To present her as an israeli is a lie.

say after German President regrets the reward and nobody in Israel but extreme left has anything to do with the above individuals. http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1251804511821&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

And we do not give damn to those Marxism anti Israeli that dose not have a brains, those people are free to move to Iran nor Saudi Arabia ,Long life to Shimon Peres and State of Israel.

Wearing religious robes does not mean that for the defence of the deprived the religious heads don't talk about war.Yes,they do and you very well know about it Mr.Peres.From your statement,one wonders how Iran manages to handle so many things at the same time.Don't you wonder as well?

On February 14, 2005, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer Kharrazi, secretary general of the Iranian Hezbollah, declared, “We are able to produce atomic bombs and we will do that. We shouldn’t be afraid of anyone. The United States is not more than a barking dog.” And, on May 29, 2005, Hojjat al-Eslam Gholam Reza Hasani, the supreme leader’s personal representative to the province of West Azerbaijan, declared possession of nuclear weapons to be one of Iran’s top goals. “An atom bomb . . . must be produced,” he said. “That is because the Quran has told Muslims to ‘get strong and amass all the forces at your disposal.’” More at (3 parts): http://xrl.us/owrbs

Not even yellow.

to: "Israel Israeli"or whatever your muslim name is: I could add hundreds of real names of my peers, who are real first generation of holocaust survivers...You are an obvious bluffer and a very pathetic writer. Last time I checked and I check every day, it is the palis who cant stop shooting misiles to Israel and attempting terror acts every day, as well as intimidating Israel borders and security....How is that for "moral acceptance " ? "Casualties mostly in Lebanon" ? Hello! When was the last time ISrael set "foot" in Lebanon ? I could go on and on thru your diatrab, but wants to "touch" this kind of VOMIT.....Brrrrrrr..