Successful protest

On November 29, 2011, the Foundation Schloss Neuhardenberg announced that it split up with its board of trustees member Mostofa Dolatyar, deputy foreign minister a.i. of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This success came after protests by STOP THE BOMB and others.

Iranian Anti-Semite in German Banks Foundation

STOP THE BOMB calls for the expulsion of anti-Semitic board of trustee member of the German Banks Foundation "Schloss Neuhardenberg"

STOP THE BOMB Press Release, 24 November 2011

The campaign STOP THE BOMB is calling on the Foundation Schloss Neuhardenberg, a foundation of a German trustee saving's bank association, to split up with its board of trustees member Mostofa Dolatyar, deputy foreign minister a.i. of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The representative of the Iranian regime attracted attention for his anti-Semitic remarks. Board of Trustee members of the Foundation Schloss Neuhardenberg include among others Matthias Platzeck (SPD), minister president of the Land Brandenburg, and Bernd Neumann, German federal commissioner for culture and media. [1]

In June 2010 Dolatyar told an Iranian news agency: "We hope that the prophecy of the Imam [Khomeini] regarding the downfall of this regime [Israel] will occur very soon and that we will be witnesses of it." [2]

STOP THE BOMB spokesperson Michael Spaney says: An anti-Semite, who welcomes the annihilation of Israel, is simply out of place as a board member in a democratic foundation. As a

representative of a regime that brutally oppresses the brave resistance of its people in their own country, Dolatyar should also be intolerable for a Foundation, which claims to work in an „ethical tradition“ of a „consistent, ethically justified resistance against dictatorial rogue regime.“ [3]

The Iranian regime suppresses dissidents, women, homosexuals, Baha'is and members of other religious groups, tortures and murders them. [4] It is official state policy to deny the Holocaust, to announce the destruction of Israel and to work on a nuclear weapons program. Moreover, the Iranian regime, whose defense minister himself is an internationally wanted terrorist [5], is the world's largest sponsor of terrorist groups.

In October, the Foundation Schloss Neuhardenberg had to cancel a planned meeting with Iranian Ambassador Alireza Sheikh Attar and the philosopher Rüdiger Safranski due to massive protests. [6] Sheikh Attar was, according to Iranian human rights groups personally involved in violent crime during his term as provincial governor and remains under suspicion of being the procurement activities for the Iranian nuclear program, as well as responsible for the surveillance and intimidation of dissident Iranian exiles. [7]

The protests against Dolatyar take place in a time when the emergence of the Iran-question splits the EU. [8] While Britain and France continue to restrict their business with Iran, Iranian lobby groups in Germany increased their promotion for the expansion of economic relations between Germany and Iran. In October an „expert discussion“ took place in Berlin with the Vice Minister for Economic Affairs of Iran in the premises of the German Foundation DGAP [9]. Recently a German-Iranian economic conference in cooperation with the largest Association of Medium-Sized Companies in Germany (BVMW) took place in Berlin as well. [10]

Michael Spaney: "The protests against Dolaytar's position in the board of trustees refer once again to the fact that the question of dealing with an anti-Semitic dictatorship can not only be solved alone by the federal government, it is a matter of all democratic institutions. Especially German democratic institutions should be aware of their responsibility towards anti-Semitism and dictatorship. The Foundation Schloss Neuhardenberg stands with its board of trustees for the legitimization and subsidy of the anti-Semitic Islamist dictatorship in Iran."

[1] http://www.schlossneuhardenberg.de/service/kontakt/kuratiorium_der_stiftung.html
[2] http://www.mehrnews.com/fa/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=1095347
[3] http://www.dsgv.de/de/gesellschaftliches-engagement/kunst-und-kultur/schloss-neuhardenberg.html
[4] http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=a%2F65%2F370&Lang=E
[5] http://www.europeandemocracy.org/media/european-media/iran-s-defence-minister-german.html
[6] Press Release of the Foundation Schloss Neuhardenberg regarding the cancellation of the event with Sheikh Attar and Rüdiger Safranski
[7] http://de.stopthebomb.net/de/attar.html#c1347
[8] http://www.matthiaskuentzel.de/contents/what-about-the-european-union
[9] http://de.stopthebomb.net/de/dgap.html
[10] http://de.stopthebomb.net/de/d-iran/eivent.html

Event of the Neuhardenberg Foundation with Sheikh Attar cancelled!

STOP THE BOMB, October 12, 2011

The Foundation Schloss Neuhardenberg had announced a talk between the Iranian ambassador and the German TV philosopher Rüdiger Safranski about the Persian poet Hafiz for October 15. After protests from STOP THE BOMB, the Foundation canceled the event.

But that is not the end of the story, because Mostafa Dolatyar, deputy foreign minister a.i. of the Islamic Republic is still on the Advisory Committee of the Foundation Schloss Neuhardenberg, together with Matthias Platzeck (SPD), minister president of the Land Brandenburg, Heinrich Haasis, president of the German Savings Banks Association (deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband), and Bernd Neumann, German federal commissioner for culture and media. This is an ongoing scandal, and STOP THE BOMB demands the immediate removal of the Iranian regime member from the board. 

Matthias Platzeck, Rüdiger Safranski and the Iranian Regime

STOP THE BOMB Press Release, 11 October 2011

The campaign STOP THE BOMB is calling for the cancellation of “Tribute to Hafiz”, a public event with the Iranian ambassador Ali Reza Sheikh Attar. Attar is announced to discuss with Rüdiger Safranski, a German publicist and moderator of the TV show “The Philosophical Quartet”, on October 15, 2011, in Neuhardenberg (Brandenburg). [1] The event is organized by the Foundation “Schloss Neuhardenberg” which has Matthias Platzeck (SPD), minister president of the Land Brandenburg, and Mostofa Dolatyar, deputy foreign minister a.i. of the Islamic Republic of Iran on its board of trustees. Further members of the board are Heinrich Haasis, president of the German Savings Banks Association (deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband), and Bernd Neumann, German federal commissioner for culture and media. [2]

Attar is not only the ambassador of a murderous regime. According to reports from members of the exile-Iranian opposition, Attar is personally responsible for crimes. He was governor of the provinces Kurdistan and West-Azerbaijan from 1980 until 1985 and personally controlled the terror against the opponents of the regime. [3] According to press reports, Sheikh Attar is responsible for procurement activities for the nuclear program and for the surveillance and intimidation of the exile-Iranian opposition. [4]

“An event with representatives of a regime that is the deadly enemy of art and of intellectuals is a slap in the face of the Iranian freedom movement”, says Javad Asadian, Iranian writer and Hafez expert living in Germany. “You could as well invite a Nazi for an expert talk about Thomas and Heinrich Mann. In fact, Hafez is in no way compatible with the Islamist ideology.”

It is not for the first time that Germany uses cultural policy to signal the Iranian regime that it wants normal relations with the Islamic Republic, despite international sanctions. In November 2009, German officials invited Attar to a conference for teachers at the Königin-Luise-Foundation school in Berlin. [5] Further events with Omid Nouripour, member of the Green Party in the German Bundestag [6] and the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation [7] were cancelled after protests by STOP THE BOMB.

STOP THE BOMB spokesperson Michael Spaney: “The invitation of a criminal like Attar is bad enough. But the fact that Matthias Platzeck, Minister President of Brandenburg, is on the board of the Foundation Schloss Neuhardenberg together with a high ranking Iranian official is a form of institutionalized collaboration with the Iranian terror regime. In the light of the recent wave of executions in Iran [8] and the uninterrupted continuation of the military nuclear program [9] this collaboration is even more cynical.”

The campaign STOP THE BOMB calls on the Foundation Schloss Neuhardenberg to “no longer collaborate with a murderous regime, to immediately quit the board membership of Mostafa Dolatyar and to cancel the event with the brutal regime henchman Attar”, says spokesperson Michael Spaney.

 [1] http://www.schlossneuhardenberg.de/programm/lesungen_debatten.html?no_cache=1&tx_konoprogramm_pi3%5Byear%5D=2011&tx_konoprogramm_pi3%5Bmonth%5D=10&tx_konoprogramm_pi3%5Buid%5D=1369&tx_konoprogramm_pi3%5
[2] http://www.schlossneuhardenberg.de/service/kontakt/kuratiorium_der_stiftung.html
[3] http://jungle-world.com/artikel/2009/23/35188.html
[4] http://daserste.ndr.de/panorama/archiv/2009/panoramairan106.html
[5] http://de.stopthebomb.net/lehrerkonferenz.html
[6] http://de.stopthebomb.net/text-audio-und-video/texte-aus-der-stb-koalition/green-party-of-iran-zu-attar-und-nouripour.html
[7] http://de.stopthebomb.net/leipzig.html
[8] http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/09/27/Iran-Executions-point-to-killing-spree/UPI-12931317141256/<
[9] http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,790042,00.html