Press Releases and Statements

For years and with impunity, the Iranian regime has egregiously violated international agreements restricting its nuclear program. Today’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors vote to censure the Islamic Republic of Iran for its failure to comply with inspections and lack of cooperation with the agency is a welcome step to hold the regime accountable.

American Jewish Committee (AJC), the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people, today welcomed the House of Representatives’ unanimous passage of H.Res.599, a resolution urging the European Union (EU) to declare all of Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Like Hamas, Hezbollah is backed by Iran – financially and materially.

American Jewish Committee, the global advocacy organization for the Jewish people, today urged California Schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond to ensure public funds will not support an ethnic studies organization or its affiliates that attempt to justify or promote violence and terrorism.

I am thrilled for the Americans who will soon be reunited with their families after so many years. As the author of the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery and Hostage-Taking Accountability Act (2020), I welcomed the sanctions leveled by the Administration against Ahmadinejad who notoriously oversaw the political hostage-taking of many Americans and foreign nationals, including my former constituent Robert Levinson, who went missing in Iran in 2007. Iran has still not accounted for Bob’s disappearance and tragic passing. The Levinson family deserves this justice.

AJC CEO Ted Deutch issued a statement today following the Aug. 26 racially motivated shooting rampage in Jacksonville, FL, which left three people dead.

I am encouraged by the news that five Americans whose lives, and whose families’ lives, have been upended by Iran’s longstanding callous practice of political hostage-taking and wrongfully detaining foreign nationals for use as bargaining chips, are closer than ever before to coming home as a result of the agreement announced today.

American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch today observed the 29th anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires and vowed the global Jewish community would not rest until those responsible are brought to justice.

Today at AJC Global Forum 2023, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said her nation stands with Israel in stemming the threat posed by Iran’s growing nuclear capability and promised her country would do its part to keep Iran’s nuclear ambitions in check.

On the anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, American Jewish Committee (AJC) is urging Congress to pass legislation designating the Wagner Group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). A private military company with ties to Russian white supremacist and neo-Nazi far-right extremists, the Wagner Group has a long record of committing atrocities against civilians in Ukraine and in African countries.

220 lawmakers from Europe, the United States, and Canada urged Western democracies to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its proxies, such as Hezbollah, as terrorist organizations. The legislators’ call for action against the regime’s state terrorism comes only days before EU foreign ministers are set to deliberate further measures against Tehran on Monday. Spearheaded by the AJC-backed Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI), the interparliamentary statement was released amid the regime’s deadly crackdown on protesters

American Jewish Committee (AJC) CEO Ted Deutch, in a letter to President Biden, has urged the United States to mobilize the international community to convene a Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council to address the Iranian regime’s deadly crackdown on peaceful protesters. AJC also launched today an online campaign, AJC.org/StopIranAbuses, encouraging individuals to sign a petition calling on the White House to take action detailed in Deutch’s letter to the president

Masih Alinejad, one of the most outspoken opponents of the Islamic regime in Tehran, was honored today by American Jewish Committee (AJC) with the global advocacy organization’s Moral Courage Award. AJC honored Alinejad for her “moral, intellectual, and physical courage, extraordinary bravery, and commitment to the protection of human rights.”

His Excellency Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain, addressed a worldwide audience of thousands participating in the 2021 American Jewish Committee Virtual Global Forum. In a conversation with Jason Isaacson, AJC Chief Policy and Political Affairs Officer, the foreign minister discussed the historic Abraham Accords, Bahrain-U.S. relations, and the Iranian threat.

Mithal Jamal Al-Alusi, an Iraqi politician who has reached out to Israel and world Jewry, was honored today with the American Jewish Committee (AJC) Jan Karski Award.

U.S. government and civil society friends of Sri Lanka gathered at the U.S. Capitol to express sorrow and solidarity with the people of the island nation after the Easter Sunday terrorist bombings of churches and hotels that claimed more than 250 lives and wounded hundreds more.

“Recognition of the IRGC as a key arm of Iran’s global terrorism strategy is vitally important to the U.S., which first designated Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1984,” said AJC CEO David Harris. “We applaud President Trump for taking this highly significant step.”

American Jewish Committee (AJC) is appalled by the murderous assaults on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

American Jewish Committee (AJC) praised British Home Secretary Sajid Javid for initiating action today that will designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in its entirety.

Following President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order yesterday, which restored major sanctions on Iran, AJC CEO David Harris issued the following statement: We support the U.S. decision

AJC CEO David Harris, responding to President Trump’s announcement today that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal, issued the following statement: