Jerusalem – Exactly 19 years ago, when Iraq launched 39 missile attacks against Israel, causing damage to more than 10,000 homes in the center of the country, a German activist organization known as the “Society for Threatened Peoples,” sent a delegation to Israel to warn the Jewish state that 88 German companies were supplying Iran, Iraq, Syria and Libya with the technology for weapons of mass destruction (WMD), with the full knowledge of the German government.

The full report on the exported WMD to these countries is entitled Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Cases of Iran, Syria & Libya and written by Mr. Kenneth Timmerman.

This reporter, then a correspondent for CNN Radio, flew to Germany to follow up on the story and asked members of the German Bundestag parliament about German companies involved in aiding these nations with such lethal technology. The answer of members of the Bundestag was that, indeed, such exports were illegal, but that these German companies were carrying out their exports of lethal technology through subsidiaries outside of the Fatherland.

This past week, there was an important development in the campaign to advance a German economic boycott of the regime in Iran: The management of the huge German conglomerate Siemens announced yesterday that it had decided not to sign any more new business contracts with Iran. However, the company made it clear that it would not break existing contracts with Iranian clients – including a deal, valued at 1 billion Euro, for producing gas in Iran.

Just recently, Tehran had announced that it had signed the deal with Siemens for improving the gas production.

However, pressure was brought to bear on Siemens to stop its commercial ties with Iran, and that pressure bore results. Peter Loescher, the CEO of Siemens, announced at the meeting of the conglomerate’s shareholders about a decision to halt business ties with Iran. The decision will go into effect by mid-year.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Previous articleTHE INCITEMENT REPORT VOL. I, ISSUE I: Incitement by the Palestinian Authority
Next articleOn Free Speech and Informed Public Debate: An Open Letter to NIF and Affiliated NGOs
David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR