For information specific to membership in the Arab League see Member states of the Arab League.

Country	Area (Rank)	Area (km2)[Note 1]	Area (sq mi)	Area (% of Total)	Area (Notes)	Pop	Pop (World rank)	Density (rank)	Density (/km2)	Density (/mi2)
Algeria	1	2,381,741	919,595	18.1%	Largest country in Africa and in the Arab world.	37,100,000	34	17	16	41
Bahrain	22	758	293	0.005%		1,234,596	155	1	1,646	4,263
Comoros	21	2,235	863	0.01%		691,000	163	4	309	800
Djibouti	16	23,200	9,000	0.1%		864,000	159	15	37	96
Egypt	6	1,002,000	387,000	7.6%	Excluding the Hala'ib Triangle (20,580 km2/7,950 sq mi).	81,650,212[1]	16	9	90	233
Iraq	10	435,244	168,049	3.3%		30,747,000	40	12	70	181
Jordan	14	89,342	34,495	0.7%		6,316,000	106	11	71	184
Kuwait	17	17,818	6,880	0.1%		3,566,000	134	5	200	518
Lebanon	19	10,452	4,036	0.08%		4,224,000	125	3	404	1,046
Libya	4	1,759,540	679,360	11.4%		6,420,000	103	21	3.6	9.3
Mauritania	5	1,025,520	395,960	7.8%		3,291,000	138	22	3.2	8.3
Morocco	9	446,550	172,410	3.4%	Does not include Western Sahara (266,000 km2/103,000 sq mi).	36,064,173	35	10	75	194
Oman	11	309,500	119,500	2.4%		2,845,000	139	20	9.2	24
Palestine	20	6,020	2,320	0.05%		4,136,540 (Disputed)	126	2	687	1,779
Qatar	18	11,586	4,473	0.08%		1,699,435	149	6	154	399
Saudi Arabia	2	2,149,690	830,000	16.4%	Largest country in the Middle East.	28,146,658	45	19	131	339
Somalia	7	637,657	246,201	4.9%		9,133,000	85	18	14	36
Sudan	3	1,861,484	718,723	14.2%	Formerly the largest country in Africa.	30,894,000	39	16	16	41
Syria	12	185,180	71,500	1.4%	Including the part of the Golan Heights (1,200 km2/460 sq mi) currently administered by Israel.	21,906,000	55	7	118	306
Tunisia	13	163,610	63,170	1.2%		10,673,800	77	13	65	168
United Arab Emirates	15	83,600	32,300	0.6%		8,264,070	93	8	99	256
Yemen	8	527,968	203,850	4.0%		23,580,000	49	14	45	117
TOTAL  Arab League	#	#	#	#	#	349,870,608

Notes[link]

References[link]

Danny Ayalon דני אילון
Date of birth	(1955-12-17) 17 December 1955 (age 56)
Place of birth	Tel Aviv, Israel
Knessets	18
Party	Yisrael Beiteinu
Ministerial posts (current in bold)	Deputy Foreign Minister

Daniel "Danny" Ayalon (Hebrew: דניאל "דני" אילון‎, born 17 December 1955) is an Israeli diplomat and politician who currently serves as Deputy Foreign Minister and as a member of the Knesset for Yisrael Beiteinu. Formerly he served as Israeli Ambassador to the United States from 2002 until 2006. He frequently writes in Israeli and international newspapers, notably in the Jerusalem Post and the Wall Street Journal.

Early life and education[link]

Danny Ayalon was born in Tel Aviv in 1955 to Lily Ellon, a Polish Jew who immigrated to Israel in 1937 and Rafael Ayalon, an Algerian Jew. Ayalon was raised and educated in Tel Aviv and was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces where he rose to the rank of Captain in the Armored Corps. He received a BA in economics from Tel Aviv University and an MBA from Bowling Green University in Ohio.^[1]

Prior to his career in public service, Ayalon was a partner at Gravitas Ltd., an international consulting group, past president of private investment firm Hod Ayalon Ltd, and a finance manager for Koor Industries.^[2]

Ayalon is married. He and his wife, Anne, have two children.^[1]

Foreign Service Career[link]

Ayalon was a member of the Israeli delegations to Sharm el-Sheikh (1997), Wye Plantation (1998) and Camp David (2000) summits. From 1993–1997, he served as the Director of the Bureau of Israel's Ambassador to the U.N. in New York. He was Israel’s Ambassador to Panama from 1991–1992.^[3]

Israel's Ambassador to the United States[link]

Ayalon was appointed Israel’s Ambassador to the United States in 2002 by then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Before his appointment, Ayalon had served as a Deputy Foreign Policy Adviser to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and to Ehud Barak as well as Chief Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.^[4]

Throughout his time in Washington, Ayalon cultivated a strong relationship with President George W. Bush and played a leading role in the Road Map for Peace negotiations between President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon .^[5] He also secured the agreement for $9 billion in U.S. grants and loan guarantees to Israel beginning in 2003 which Israel needed in order to raise funds abroad at low interest rates. In early 2012, as Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Ayalon, met with his U.S. counterparts to secure another three-year, $3.8 billion extension of loan guarantees.^[6]

Co-chairman of Nefesh B’Nefesh[link]

Upon retiring from the foreign service in 2006, Ayalon became the co-chairman of Nefesh B'Nefesh, an organization that encourages Aliyah by Jewish people to Israel from North America and other English-speaking areas.^[7] Forming alliances with government bodies in Israel and Jewish organizations from around the world, he played a critical role in Israel’s decision to fund private Aliyah beginning in September 2007. On 31 December 2008, Ayalon left Nefesh B’Nefesh “to pursue an independent political career opportunity”.^[8]

Deputy Foreign Minister[link]

Election and Appointment[link]

In August 2008, Ayalon joined Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu as chairman of World Yisrael Beiteinu,^[8] opening branches of the party around the globe. Ayalon explained that Israel Beiteinu was a natural fit for him as he entered politics because he saw many problems, especially with Israeli foreign policy. Ayalon is working to reform the Israeli parliamentary style democracy into a more representative democratic government. Such change will allow Israel to have a greater unity of government and to take more uniformed political positions.^[4]

Ayalon was placed seventh on the party's list for the 2009 elections to the Knesset,^[9] and was elected in February 2009 after the party won 15 seats.^[10] In April 2009, Ayalon was appointed Deputy Foreign Minister in Binyamin Netanyahu’s newly elected government.^[11] According to the Jerusalem Post, “Ayalon's role is to serve as Lieberman's de-facto foreign minister, explaining and justifying his Lieberman's diplomatic plans to the world in a way that only a respected, seasoned diplomat can”.^[4]

Government and Electoral Reform[link]

According to Ayalon, a major focus of Israeli diplomatic work involves branding: “We must brand Israel as a democratic Western society, productive and technologically advanced, one that contributes to the world and helps solve the major challenges facing humankind. Israeli democracy in general, and its political system in particular, are the best tools with which to showcase our brand”. However, Ayalon, who admires the American system, in conjunction with Lieberman, calls for political and electoral reform in Israel to create greater accountability and consistency within the government, stating: “In autocratic regimes you have maximum governability, because the leadership can make decisions without an opposition, and there are no checks or balances. Here, we are perhaps too far toward the other extreme; we have almost complete representation with little governability”.^[12] In his opinion, “a homogenous government, comprised of like-minded ministers speaking with one voice and representing a singular policy framework is required to contribute to clear public diplomacy, the sort of diplomacy that Israel sorely needs now to combat the cohesive narrative and branding effort put forth by the Palestinians”.^[13]

Foreign Policy[link]

Ayalon aims to develop and expand Israel’s diplomatic ties worldwide and to form new coalitions through economic and political cooperation and greater foreign aid.^[14] In 2011, he embarked on a Latin American tour with an official visit to Mexico and a visit to El Salvador where he attended the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), addressing the ramifications of the Palestinian unilateral declaration of statehood and the mounting Iranian threat.^[15] Earlier, Ayalon had worked with several nations in order to combat the Goldstone Report and its effects.^[16]

Israel-U.S. Strategic Dialogue

Ayalon maintains a strong relationship with the United States. He serves as Israel’s representative in the semi-annual Israel-U.S. Strategic Dialogue.^[17]

Israeli-Arab relations

In an appeal to the Arab world, Ayalon wrote a piece for the pan-Arab newspaper, Asharq Alawsat in 2009, explaining Israel’s past and ongoing partnerships within the Arab world such as Israel’s training of Jordanians in advanced agricultural techniques, calling them positive bridges on the road to peace and coexistence.^[18]

At the sixth annual international WATEC-Israel exhibition in November 2011, Ayalon offered the Arab world to share Israel’s advanced water technologies. “Israel will benefit from a peace agreement, but you will also gain a genuine partner for development and the assured welfare of future generations in the region,” Ayalon said at the opening session.^[19]

Israeli settlements

Ayalon slammed the claims that settlements were the cause of violence, citing the pre-state 1929 Arab killing of Jews in Hebron.^[20] He has criticized world leaders who accuse Israel of destroying the peace process by building in East Jerusalem neighborhoods such as Gilo.^[21]

In 2005, as Israel’s representative to the United States, Ayalon suported Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, in which all Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip were evacuated.^[22] However, as a Member of the Knesset, Ayalon explained that he feels the disengagement was a mistake and, “in hindsight we shouldn't have done it because it was excruciatingly painful“.^[23]

Israeli-Palestinian conflict

According to Ayalon, “the real obstacle to peace is Palestinian rejection of Israel and the self-determination of the Jewish people”. He has condemned Palestinian claims which “deny the Jewish people’s connection with its homeland”, and the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Information’s false claims that the Jews have no past connections to the Western Wall of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem and to the Tomb of Rachel the Matriarch.^[24]

Ayalon called the Gaza flotilla raid of May 2010, in which nine activists were killed and many injured a “provocation”, stating: “On the deck we found weapons which were used against the forces. The organizers’ intent was violent and the results were unfortunate. Israel regrets the loss of life. We called the organizers once again the [sic] stop the provocations”.^[25] He has criticized claims that the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip are in the midst of a humanitarian crisis as a result of Israel’s blockade citing that, “Gaza receives equivalent of 40% of goods imported by Israel. It's absurd for Israel to take care of Gazans while Hamas fires rockets.”^[26]

Iran

At the Munich Security Conference in February 2011, Ayalon, emphasizing Germany’s crucial part in crushing the Iranian threat, stated: “The Iranian regime today is just as dangerous to the world as Hitler was in the 1930s. We don't have the luxury of waiting for the results of the sanctions on Iran; we must immediately put heavy pressure on Iran until it cracks. Germany, as the strongest country in the European Union, must provide an answer to the needs of the European states that get oil from Iran, so that they will no longer be dependent on Iranian oil.”^[27] He also made an appeal to Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay to cancel her plans to visit Iran, stating that the visit would legitimize a regime that “maliciously violates human rights, executes its citizens and openly calls for genocide”.^[28]

Refugees

Ayalon has appealed to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to end what he called the “morally and politically unacceptable” solution created for the Palestinian refugees, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), accusing it to perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by not finding permanent solutions for refugees. “While the UNHCR has found durable solutions for tens of millions of refugees, the agency created specifically for the Palestinian context, UNRWA, has found durable solutions for no one”, he stated at a conference in Geneva. He also called for redress for the aproximatly 850,000 Jews from Arab counties, who fled their homes after Israel was established. He said that while the refugee issue was a “core element” in solving the conflict, both Palestinian and Jewish refugees have to be taken into account.^[29]

Turkish Relations

Ayalon became internationally known in early 2010, after he summoned the Turkish ambassador to Israel, Ahmet Oğuz Çelikkol, to complain about a Turkish television series, Kurtlar Vadisi Pusu, which showed anti-Semitic motifs, including Mossad agents snatching a Muslim baby to convert to Judaism and shooting old men.^[30] At the meeting, Ayalon did not display the Turkish flag, and pointed out to the waiting media that the Turkish Ambassador sat on a lower sofa. Ayalon later apologized to Çelikkol for any personal slight or insult, but not for the substance of the rebuke.^[31]

Holy See Negotiations

In December 2009, Ayalon led high-level diplomatic discussions with the Holy See concerning Church properties and taxes,^[32] leading to an agreement in early 2012 between Israel and the Vatican in which the latter agreed to waive its demand to receive sovereignty over The Cenacle, the location of the Last Supper, on Jerusalem's Mount Zion. Israel, in return, agreed to consider giving the Church access to the site and is considering a leasing option. As part of the agreement, the Vatican will for the first time pay a reduced property tax for its large amount of assets in Israel.^[33]

International aid[link]

Ayalon supports expanding Israel’s global initiatives through MASHAV, Israel's National Agency for International Development. Following the 2010 Earthquake, MASHAV deployed emergency medical services and polices forces to Haiti.^[34] Israel was also the first country to set up a field hospital in Japan after the 2011 earthquake.^[35] Through MASHAV Israel has partnered with the United States in Ethiopia, with Germany in Ethiopia and Ghana, with Italy in Senegal, and with Japan and Denmark in the Middle East.^[36]

In January 2011, Ayalon and German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dirk Niebel met and signed a joint Declaration of Intent aimed to increase bilateral cooperation in effort to assist developing nations, agreeing to work towards the rehabilitation of the contaminated Lake Victoria in Kenya, the main source of water for several states and one of the sources of the Nile River.^[37] In February of the same year Ayalon and Niebel met again to examine aid to the new Republic of South Sudan.^[27]

Also in February 2011, Ayalon signed a joint declaration of cooperation on water supply and sustainable energy technology management with Polish Minister of the Environment Bernard Blaszczyk. Israel and Poland will cooperate to promote investment, the exchanging of technologies, and the sharing of information.^[38]

Videos[link]

In a video titled “The Truth About the West Bank” released by the Israeli foreign ministry in June 2011, Ayalon presents a historical narrative meant to help wage the public diplomacy battle about Israel’s ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. In the video made in cooperation with StandWithUs, which is very similar to one released earlier by the Yesha council, the organization of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Ayalon asks viewers to stop referring to Judea and Samaria as “occupied territories”. “It is time for Israel to return to a ‘rights-based diplomacy’ and talk about the facts, rights, history and international law which are little known but give a dramatically different viewpoint to what is currently accepted,” he said after the video’s release.^[39] After the video was posted online, Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Authority’s top negotiator, denounced the video as a “falsified account of history and international law”, but refused to participate in a public debate on the issues raised in the video proposed by Ayalon.^[40]

Two more videos staring Ayalon were released: “The Truth About the Peace Process” in September 2011, and “The Truth About the Refugees” in December 2011.^[41]

Social Media[link]

In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ayalon has worked to expand Israel’s social media diplomacy by helping the ministry maintain over 100 Facebook pages, including “Israel speaks Arabic”, a page written in Arabic.^[42] After the initiatives launch, Ayalon explained that “it is vital that Israel's voice is heard in every corner of the world and even more so amongst its immediate neighbors”.^[43] Ayalon has over 36,000 Facebook followers.^[44] The Jewish Telegraphic Agency ranked him as the most influential Israeli Politician on Twitter and one of the 100 most influential Jews in 2010.^[45] Ayalon has more than 18,100 Twitter followers.^[46] He also has nearly 1,000,000 totally upload views on YouTube.^[47] He has been recognized as one of the world’s leading politicians to utilize social media by web based policy center Dimpool and by Foreign Policy, surpassing President Barack Obama.^[48][49]

Community Service and Involvement[link]

Ayalon has served as a member of the Executive Board at the University Center in Ariel, as Vice Chair of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce, and as a Board Member of the America-Israel Friendship League.^[50] He is a suporter of Aish HaTorah yeshiva and says he tries to make time each week to learn with Rabbi Ephraim Shore of the yeshiva.^[51]

In partnership with “Latet,” Ayalon asked the workers at the Foreign Ministry as well as Green-Israel and Alma-Gilro to donate food to make over 100 Purim baskets for Holocaust survivors in Jerusalem.^[52] In 2011, together with “United with Israel,” Ayalon helped launch another Purim basket campaign to give soldiers a special thank you during the holiday.^[53] For Passover that same year, Ayalon and workers at the Ministry initiated the project, “Lending a (Diplomatic) Hand to the Community”, where they hand-picked over 2,000 Kg of beetroot that was donated to over 700 needy Israeli families.^[54]

Ayalon has been a co-host on the English speaking Rusty Mike Radio station based in Jerusalem where he expressed his affection for the English speaking community and played some of his favorite music including the Beatles.^[55]

Awards and Recognition[link]

In 2005, Ayalon received the Brandeis Award of the Jewish Community of Baltimore. He was the recipient of Aish Hatorah’s Builder of Jerusalem Award in 2008.^[56]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Daniel Ayalon

• Ayalon's Official English Website
• Ayalon's Official Hebrew Website
• Ayalon's Official English Knesset Website
• Ayalon's Official Hebrew Knesset Website
• Ayalon's Official Facebook Page
• Ayalon's Official Youtube Channel
• Yisrael Beiteinu's Official English Website
• Yisrael Beiteinu's Official Hebrew Website
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs Official English Website
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs Official Hebrew Website
• All Ministers in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

v t e Israeli ambassadors to the United States Eilat (1948–50) · Eban (1950–59) · Harman (1959–1968) · Rabin (1968–1973) · Dinitz (1973–1979) · Evron (1979–1982) · Arens (1982–1983) · Rosenne (1983–1987) · Arad (1987–1990) · Shoval (1990–1993) · Itamar Rabinovich (1993–1996) · Ben-Elissar (1996–1998) · Shoval (1998–2000) · Ivry (2000–2002) · Ayalon (2002–2006) · Meridor (2006–2009) · Oren (2009–)

The Honourable Irwin Cotler PC, OC, MP
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Mount Royal
Incumbent
Assumed office November 15, 1999
Preceded by	Sheila Finestone
Minister of Justice
In office December 12, 2003 – February 5, 2006
Prime Minister	Paul Martin
Preceded by	Martin Cauchon
Succeeded by	Vic Toews
Personal details
Born	(1940-05-08) May 8, 1940 (age 72) Montreal, Quebec
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	Ariela Cotler
Residence	Montreal
Profession	Lawyer, law professor
Religion	Judaism

Irwin Cotler, PC, OC, MP (born May 8, 1940) was Canada's Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada from 2003 until the Liberal government of Paul Martin lost power following the 2006 federal election. He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons for the constituency of Mount Royal in a by-election in November 1999, winning over 91% of votes cast.^[1] He was sworn into Cabinet on December 12, 2003.

Early life[link]

The son of a lawyer, he was born in Montreal, Quebec, studied at McGill University there (receiving a BA in 1961 and a law degree three years later) and then continued his education at Yale University. For a short period, he worked with federal Minister of Justice John Turner.

Cotler was a professor of law at McGill University and the director of its Human Rights Program from 1973 until his election as a Member of Parliament in 1999 for the Liberal Party of Canada. He has also been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Yale Law School and is the recipient of ten honorary doctorates. He was appointed in 1992 as an Officer of the Order of Canada. He is a past president of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

Human rights activity[link]

Cotler has served on the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and its sub-Committee on Human Rights and International Development, as well as on the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. In 2000, he was appointed special advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs on the International Criminal Court.

He is considered an expert on international law and human rights law. As an international human rights lawyer, Cotler served as counsel to former prisoners of conscience Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Jacobo Timmerman in Latin America, Muchtar Pakpahan in Asia, as well as other well known political prisoners and dissidents. Cotler represented Natan Sharansky, who was imprisoned in the Soviet gulag for Jewish activism. After his release, Sharansky went on to become Israeli Deputy Prime Minister.^{[citation needed]}

Saad Eddin Ibrahim, an Egyptian democracy activist imprisoned by the Egyptian government, was represented by Cotler and acquitted in 2003. He acted as counsel to Maher Arar during part of Arar's imprisonment and supported demands for a public inquiry. He has also defended both Palestinians and Israelis against their own governments, and participated in a minor role in the Camp David peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.^{[citation needed]}

In 1986 he was chief counsel to the Canadian Jewish Congress at the Deschênes Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals.

Cotler is on the Board of Advancing Human Rights (NGO).^[2]

National Security and the Law[link]

Irwin Cotler (left) (May 11, 2004, Washington, D.C.)

One of the central challenges for Cotler during his time as Justice Minister was to address concerns about terrorism while guarding against arbitrary and unnecessary limits on rights. Part of his work in this regard, has included a review of Bill C-36, Canada's relatively recent Anti-Terrorism Act. The Anti-Terrorism Act has been criticized by some human rights groups and defense lawyers, as an unreasonable trade-off between security and freedom.^[3] Cotler believed that the legislation did, in fact, strike a balance between rights and national security concerns, but understood that further consultation was necessary in reviewing the legislation. On February 21, 2005, Cotler spoke of the important work that Bill C-36 involved, and invited experts and other groups to continue dialogue to improve the legislation in the review process.^[4]

Cotler presided over other legislative changes concerning national security. This included proposed changes to privacy legislation known as “Lawful Access” to give police and intelligence officers the tools to conduct surveillance of electronic communications for law enforcement and national security purposes.^[5][6]

Due to his position as Justice Minister, Cotler has received many appeals from various groups asking that so-called "secret" trials and detentions in Canada be abolished.^[7] But these "appeals" and protests are often based on false or inaccurate information. For example, the security certificates are subject to judicial review and constitutional scrutiny by the Federal Court of Canada and the proceeding is not "secret". Rather, only evidence deemed to relate to national security is protected from disclosure.^[8] Additionally, the Canadian federal court of appeal ruled, in December 2004, that security certificates were fully consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.^[8] This decision was appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. The Supreme Court heard the (related) appeals in June 2006, has reserved its decision.^[9]

Politics[link]

Though he intended his foray into politics to be a brief departure from his academic career, this changed on December 12, 2003 when Prime Minister Paul Martin called upon him to enter Cabinet as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.

He recommended the appointment of numerous women and aboriginal judges, including of two women to the Supreme Court of Canada in August 2004: Louise Charron and Rosalie Abella, making the Supreme Court the most gender-equity high court in the world.

Cotler attempted to introduce several bills to decriminalize marijuana.^[10][11]

On February 22, 2006, the Liberal Party appointed Cotler Critic for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness in the opposition shadow cabinet for the 39th Canadian Parliament. On 18 January 2007, Cotler was appointed Critic for Human Rights by newly elected leader Stéphane Dion.

In January, 2009, Irwin Cotler was named Special Counsel on Human Rights and International Justice for the Liberal Party, under Michael Ignatieff, and subsequently Critic for Human Rights.

In the 2011 election, Cotler fended off a serious challenge from former city councillor Saulie Zajdel, a longtime Liberal supporter running as a Conservative who lost by only 2,500 votes. It was only the third time that the Liberals have been seriously threatened in Mount Royal since initially winning it in 1940, and the closest that a centre-right party has come to winning anywhere in Montreal since 1993. In May 2011, Cotler was named Justice and Human Rights Critic by interim Liberal leader Bob Rae.

Views on anti-racism, genocide and anti-Semitism[link]

As Minister of Justice, Cotler tabled Canada's first-ever National Justice Initiative Against Racism, in parallel with the government's National Action Plan Against Racism.

Cotler has also fought against genocide and impunity. His attempts to bring Nazi war criminals to justice have won praise as has been his founding of all-party Parliamentary groups to bring attention and action to end the genocide in Darfur. Cotler has worked with a group of international jurists to indict Iranian President Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide under the UN Charter and the Genocide Convention.^{[citation needed]} Cotler released a petition in 2008 entitled “The Danger of a Genocidal and Nuclear Iran: A Responsibility to Prevent Petition.”

Cotler separated six categories of anti-Semitism and found thirteen indices of discrimination against Jews that characterizes the "new anti-Jewishness".^{[citation needed]}

Irwin Cotler is a member of MEMRI's Board of Advisors (http://www.memri.org/content/en/about.htm)

Irwin Cotler is an Honorary Member of The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.

Cotler was re-elected to Parliament in 2008 to represent the Mount Royal riding in Quebec with 55% of the vote,^[12] and re-elected again in May 2011.

Family[link]

Cotler's wife, Ariela, is a native of Jerusalem and worked as a legislative assistant to the Likud members of the Israeli Knesset from 1967 to 1979.^[13]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official site
• Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Irwin Cotler from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Irwin Cotler McGill University Biography
• "Irwin Cotler: A Canadian Anti-Apartheid Activist" - Interview form 1997
• "Is the war on Iraq illegal?" - Article by Cotler in "The Globe and Mail" 21 March 2003
• Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler comments about same sex marriage
• Human Rights and the New Anti-Jewishness in "FrontPageMagazine.com" 16 February 2004
• How'd They Vote?: Irwin Cotler's voting history and quotes
• Order of Canada citation
• Parliament Webpage

v t e Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General Macdonald Dorion Smith (acting) Fournier Blake Laflamme Campbell Thompson Tupper Daly (acting) Dickey Mowat Mills Fitzpatrick Aylesworth Doherty Bennett Gouin Lapointe Guthrie (acting) Patenaude Lapointe Guthrie Geary Lapointe Michaud (acting) St. Laurent Ilsley St. Laurent Garson Fulton Fleming Chevrier Favreau McIlraith (acting) Cardin Trudeau Turner Lang Basford Lang Lalonde Flynn Chrétien MacGuigan Johnston Crosbie Hnatyshyn Clark (acting) Lewis Campbell Blais Rock McLellan Cauchon Cotler Toews Nicholson

v t e   Current Members of the House of Commons of Canada Government v t e Conservative Party Harper Ablonczy Adams Adler Aglukkaq Albas Albrecht Alexander Allen Allison Ambler Ambrose Anders Anderson Armstrong Ashfield Aspin Baird Bateman Benoit Bernier Bezan Blaney Block Boughen Braid Breitkreuz G. Brown L. Brown P. Brown Bruinooge Butt Calandra Calkins Cannan Carmichael Carrie Chisu Chong Clarke Clement Daniel Davidson Dechert Del Mastro Devolin Dreeshen Duncan Dykstra Fantino Fast Findlay Finley Flaherty Fletcher Galipeau Gallant Gill Glover Goguen Goodyear Gosal Gourde Grewal Harris Hawn Hayes Hiebert Hillyer Hoback Hoeppner Holder James Jean Kamp Keddy Kenney Kent Kerr Komarnicki Kramp Lake Lauzon Lebel Leef Leitch Lemieux Leung Lizon Lobb Lukiwski Lunney McColeman MacKay MacKenzie McLeod Mayes Merrifield Menegakis Menzies Miller J. Moore R. Moore Nicholson Norlock Obhrai O'Connor Oda Oliver O'Neill-Gordon Opitz Paradis Payne Penashue Poilievre Preston Raitt Rajotte Rathgeber Reid Rempel Richards Rickford Ritz Saxton Scheer Schellenberger Seeback Shea Shipley Shory Smith Sopuck Sorenson Stanton Storseth Strahl Sweet Tilson Toet Toews Trost Trottier Truppe Tweed Uppal Valcourt Van Kesteren Van Loan Vellacott Wallace Warawa Warkentin Watson J. Weston R. Weston Wilks Williamson Wong Woodworth Yelich T. Young W. Young Zimmer Official Opposition v t e New Democratic Party Mulcair Allen Angus Ashton Atamanenko Ayala Aubin Benskin Bevington Blanchette Blanchette-Lamothe Boivin Borg Boulerice Boutin-Sweet Brahmi Brosseau Caron Cash Charlton Chicoine Chisholm Choquette Chow Christopherson Cleary Comartin Côté Crowder Cullen D. Davies L. Davies Day Dewar Dionne Labelle Donnelly Doré Lefebvre Dubé Duncan Dusseault Freeman Garrison Genest Genest-Jourdain Giguère Godin Gravelle Groguhé D. Harris J. Harris Hassainia Hughes Jacob Julian Kellway Larose Lapointe Latendresse Laverdière LeBlanc Leslie Liu Mai Marston Martin Masse Mathyssen Michaud Moore D. Morin I. Morin M-A. Morin M-C. Morin Nantel Nash Nicholls Nunez-Melo Papillon Patry Péclet Perreault Pilon Quach Rafferty Ravignat Raynault Rousseau Saganash Sandhu Savoie Scott Sellah Sims Sitsabaiesan Stewart Stoffer Sullivan Thibeault Toone Tremblay Turmel Third Party v t e Liberal Party Rae Andrews Bélanger Bennett Brison Byrne Casey Coderre Cotler Cuzner Dion Duncan Easter Eyking Foote Fry Garneau Goodale Hsu Karygiannis Lamoureux LeBlanc MacAulay McCallum McGuinty McKay Murray Pacetti Regan Scarpaleggia Sgro Simms St-Denis Trudeau Valeriote Independents v t e Bloc Québécois Plamondon Bellavance Fortin Mourani v t e Green Party May v t e Independent Goldring Hyer 41st Canadian Parliament Vacancies: 1

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Rima Khalaf, (born in 1953), a national of Jordan, was appointed as Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia ESCWA by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Ms. Rima Khalaf Hunaidi held several high-ranking ministerial positions in Jordan, including:

• Minister of Industry and Trade (1993–1995).

• Minister of Planning (1995–1998).
• Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Planning (1999–2000).

In her capacity as Deputy Prime Minister and head of the ministerial economic team, Ms. Khalaf promoted economic reform in Jordan while working on promoting social development through building human capital, alleviating poverty and strengthening social safety nets.^{[citation needed]}

Ms. Khalaf held the position of Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the Regional Bureau for Arab States (RBAS) at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from 2000 to 2006. She led important regional initiatives on education, knowledge acquisition and economic growth in the Arab States. She was the founder of the pioneering Arab Human Development Report. The first Report in the series, entitled “Creating Opportunities for Future Generations,” received the 2003 Prince Claus Award. The third Report, entitled “Towards Freedom in the Arab World,” received the King Hussein Leadership Prize in 2005.

Ms. Khalaf is a regular contributor to regional and international policy forums concerned with the state of development in the Arab world. She participated in a number of international commissions chief among them are the High Level Commission on the Modernization of the World Bank Group Governance (2008–2009), and the International Advisory Group for Managing Global Insecurity (2007–2008). Ms. Khalaf also served as the Chairperson of the Advisory Board of the United Nations Democracy Fund (2006–2007). She was a visiting scholar at Harvard University during the spring semester of 2009-2010.

Ms. Khalaf received the League of Arab States award for “the Most Distinguished Arab Woman in the Field of International Organizations” in 2005 and an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the American University of Cairo in 2009, in recognition of her “important regional initiatives in education, women’s rights, civic engagement and economic growth”. In December 2009, the Financial Times listed Ms. Khalaf among the top fifty people who shaped the decade.

A citizen of Jordan, Ms. Khalaf holds a BA in Economics from the American University of Beirut and a Master’s in Economics and a Ph.D in System Science from Portland State University in the United States of America. She is married and has two children.

External links[link]

• UN Biography Rima Khalaf

Benny Morris
Born	(1948-12-08)8 December 1948 Ein HaHoresh, Israel
Residence	Israel
Nationality	Israeli
Alma mater	Hebrew University of Jerusalem University of Cambridge
Occupation	Historian
Known for	One of Israel's "New Historians"

Benny Morris (Hebrew: בני מוריס‎‎; born 8 December 1948^[1] in Ein HaHoresh, Israel) is professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel. He is a key member of the group of Israeli historians known as the "New Historians".

Morris's work on the Arab-Israeli conflict and especially the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has won praise and criticism from both sides of the political divide. He is accused by some academics in Israel of only using Israeli and never Arab sources, creating an "unbalanced picture".^[2] Regarding himself as a Zionist, he writes, "I embarked upon the research not out of ideological commitment or political interest. I simply wanted to know what happened."^[3]

Biography[link]