{"id":9108,"date":"2016-02-27T12:59:34","date_gmt":"2016-02-27T10:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.friedenkoeln.de\/?p=9108"},"modified":"2016-03-01T12:01:24","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T10:01:24","slug":"codepink-international-press-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.friedenkoeln.de\/?p=9108","title":{"rendered":"CODEPINK INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE – 2016-02-27"},"content":{"rendered":"

CODEPINK INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE<\/span><\/p>\n

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/span>

Contact: Medea Benjamin, Co-founder of CODEPINK, Medea@codepink.org<\/a>, +1 415 235-6517<\/span>
Elsa Rassbach, CODEPINK Speaker in Germany, elsarassbach@gmail.com<\/a>, +49 170 738 1450<\/span>
Colonel Ann Wright, CODEPINK Delegate to Bayreuth in Germany, annw1946@gmail.com<\/a>, +1 808 741-1141<\/span>


CODEPINK Rejects Slanderous Accusations Made by the Israeli Ambassador to Germany and the Jerusalem Post<\/span>

CODEPINK Works For Peace and Justice for All People and Stands Against Hate and Prejudice in All Forms<\/span>

February 26, 2016 \u2014 Yesterday the Israeli Embassy in Germany strongly objected to the city council of Bayreuth’s vote on<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Wednesday to confirm that the U.S. peace and civil-rights organization CODEPINK will receive the 2016 Wilhelmine-Tolerance<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Prize from the city in a public ceremony on April 15th. CODEPINK was founded in 2002 and is led by women.<\/span>

CODEPINK has designated seven of its members to go to Bayreuth to receive the the award. The internationally recognized<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>U.S. peace organization has previously received numerous awards, including the prestigious Aachen Peace Prize in Germany in<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>2014. The CODEPINK delegates are planning a speaking tour in Germany from April 7th to 19th.<\/span>

In the complaint yesterday, the Israeli Embassy again reiterated allegations against CODEPINK, of denying the right of<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Israel to exist and of having ties to Holocaust deniers in Iran, made by journalist Benjamin Weinthal in an article<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>published on February 10th in the Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post. In the article, Weinthal cited a statement by Rabbi Abraham<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Cooper of Simon Wiesenthal Center.\u00a0<\/span>

„We have already rebutted all these allegations in documents we submitted to the elected city council members of Bayreuth,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>who have the duty and the right to make the decision regarding the Wilhelmine-Prize,“ said Elsa Rassbach, CODEPINK Speaker<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>in Germany.<\/span>

Prior to publishing his February 10th article in the Jerusalem Post, Weinthal had on February 7th sent a lengthy letter in<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>German to the mayor setting forth his allegations against CODEPINK. Weinthal demanded that the mayor, a member of the local<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>independent party „Bayreuth Community,“ forthwith obtain a detailed response from CODEPINK to his allegations.<\/span>

Without waiting for a response from CODEPINK, Mayor Mark-Erbe issued a press statement on February 11th stating that she<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>would ask the Bayreuth city council to revoke the award because doubts had been raised about the worthiness of CODEPINK to<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>receive it. The award to CODEPINK was first proposed by the University of Bayreuth and approved by the city council in the<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>summer of 2014. Former Wilhelmine-Tolerance-Prize laureates include Madjigu\u00e8ne Ciss\u00e9, founder of the Women’s Network for<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Sustainable Development in Africa, Hassan ibn Talal of Jordan, and the Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim.\u00a0<\/span>

On the afternoon of February 11th, CODEPINK’s speaker in Germany, Elsa Rassbach, provided a detailed statement on behalf of<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>CODEPINK to Mayor Mark-Erbe in response to Mr. Weinthal’s allegations. On February 12th, CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>wrote to Mayor Mark-Erbe in English, providing further information in response to the allegations.<\/span>

But in its meeting on February 15th, the members of the city council denied the mayor’s request to revoke the award to<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>CODEPINK and instead voted to suspend the award pending further investigation by council members. A group of city council<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>members then informed Ms. Rassbach that they had not received most of the documents and supporting letters Rassbach said<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>she had provided to the mayor. They requested that she send the documents to them directly, and she did so.\u00a0<\/span>

On February 19th, the four parliamentary representatives to the German-Israeli parliamentary group in the Bundestag wrote<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>to the mayor and to all the city council members in Bayreuth, reiterating the allegations of Weinthal and urging the city<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>council to revoke the award to CODEPINK. Behind the scenes the Israeli Consulate in Munich also wrote letters to the mayor,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>most recently on February 22nd, citing the allegations made by Weinthal and urging that she persuade the city council to<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>revoke the award.\u00a0<\/span>

Nevertheless, the city council members voted, after an extended discussion in its meeting on February 24th, to immediately<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and fully confirm the award of 10,000 euro (ca. $11,000) to CODEPINK. The more than forty members of the city council,<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>representing eight political parties, voted 23-18 on the Green Party motion to confirm the award to CODEPINK. Those who<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>voted against the Green Party’s motion had made alternative proposals, either to delay the decision pending further<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>investigation, or to grant the money award of 10,000 while at the same time suspending the public award ceremony because of<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>fears that the ceremony might be disrupted by CODEPINK’s detractors. While a few council members criticized CODEPINK in<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>some respects, not a single council member called for revoking the award to CODEPINK. And some members stated during the<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>debate that they felt the attempts to exert outside pressure on them were inappropriate. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>

In issuing its formal public objections to the vote of the Bayreuth city council yesterday, the Israeli Embassy again<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>repeated the allegations of Mr. Weinthal that CODEPINK is „an organization which openly denies the right of the State of<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Israel to exist.“ Rabbi Cooper of Simon Wiesenthal Center stated on Thursday that CODEPINK is „devoted to a dangerous<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>agenda that threatens six million Jewish citizens of Israel.“ Though city council members of Bayreuth had not found this<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>characterization of CODEPINK to be persuasive, nevertheless Rabbi Cooper on Thursday even called on German leaders across<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>the spectrum to denounce the „shameful“ vote, and the American Jewish Committee’s Berlin office urged Bavarian state<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>legislators „to publicly distance themselves from the Bayreuth award.“\u00a0<\/span>

CODEPINK’s Ann Wright, a\u00a0<\/span><\/span>retired U.S. Army Colonel and former U.S. diplomat who is\u00a0<\/span>one of the CODEPINK<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>delegates who will be coming to Germany in April, said: \u00a0„Repeating a lie over and over does not make it true. It is sad<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and even a bit frightening when many in the media and even some members of the German parliament keep repeating such lies<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>despite all the evidence to the contrary that we have provided. \u00a0CODEPINK has never made statements denying the right of<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>the State of Israel to exist. But we do insist that Israel stop its illegal policies in the West Bank and Gaza. We are firm<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>that Israel must adhere to international law and also implement true equality for all its Jewish and Arab citizens. Many<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Jewish Israelis advocate the same positions.“<\/span><\/div>\n

Asked about the allegations regarding CODEPINK’s participation in a 2014 conference in Teheran where there were Holocaust<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>deniers,CODEPINK Co-founder Medea Benjamin said, „I have traveled to Iran three times, always on missions to advocate tolerance and diplomacy. At<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>the 2014 conference, where I was invited to speak about my new book on Drone Warfare, I traveled with US scholars working on<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>the Iran nuclear deal, something that CODEPINK has been actively supporting. \u00a0I spent my time in Iran talking about the<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>importance of coming to a deal so that the people in the region could avoid another disastrous war.\u00a0<\/span>We believe in people-to-people diplomacy, and as with all other diplomacy, we do not assume that all people we meet will<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>necessarily have all the same viewpoints we do. Certainly if I were to encounter a Holocaust-denier, I would definitely tell<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>that person in no uncertain terms that such ideas are outrageous, untrue, dangerous, and also very painful to Jewish people<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and many others; likewise I would argue against any racist I met in the United States.“\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CODEPINK INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Medea Benjamin, Co-founder of CODEPINK, Medea@codepink.org, +1 415 235-6517Elsa Rassbach, CODEPINK Speaker in Germany, elsarassbach@gmail.com, +49 170 738 1450Colonel Ann Wright, CODEPINK Delegate to Bayreuth in Germany,...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aktionen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.friedenkoeln.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.friedenkoeln.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.friedenkoeln.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.friedenkoeln.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.friedenkoeln.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9108"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.friedenkoeln.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9116,"href":"https:\/\/www.friedenkoeln.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9108\/revisions\/9116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.friedenkoeln.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.friedenkoeln.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.friedenkoeln.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}