(AFP) – Sep 22, 2008

NEW YORK (AFP) — Activists from Jewish organizations demonstrated Monday against Iran at UN headquarters in New York in a rally overshadowed by US domestic politics with Senator Hillary Clinton declining to appear alongside Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Young Jewish demonstrators were brought to the UN by dozens of school buses in the late morning Monday to join a protest that drew hundreds of people.

Demonstrators brandished placards that read "Stop Iran Now," "No Nuclear Iran," and "Zero Tolerance: United For Israel."

Clinton had been scheduled to speak at the rally, held a day before Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Tuesday speech before the UN General Assembly, but the Democrat cancelled her appearance after organizers also extended an invitation to Palin.

Organizers of the "Stop Iran Now" rally withdrew Palin's invitation from the event shortly after Clinton's cancellation, citing the need for their "critical message" to not be obscured by US political personalities.

The McCain campaign presented the move as a result of pressure from "Democratic partisans," and said "Senator Obama chose politics rather than the national interest."

Obama spokesman Tommy Vieter described the accusation as "another dishonorable lie."

At the rally Jewish activists were joined by members of the organization Code Pink: Women for Peace, who called on the United States and UN members to "negotiate with Iran" and to "stop the next war now."

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