CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - A petition, initiated by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), will be presented to United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-Moon this week.

More than 55,000 evangelical Christians from 128 countries signed the petition, entitled 'Stop a Nuclear Iran,' which calls for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be indicted for incitement to genocide against Israel.

"The silence of most Christian clergy in the face of Germany's horrific bid to annihilate European Jewry left a deep stain on the churches," ICEJ director Reverend Malcolm Hedding said.

"Yet from it has arisen a sense among multitudes of Christians today that we have an inescapable moral duty to earnestly speak out whenever another genocidal campaign threatens the Jewish people," he said.

"Unfortunately, we are concerned that just such a genocidal campaign is taking shape in the form of Iran's repeated threats to eliminate the Jewish state and its [Iran's] quest for nuclear means to carry out these threats," Hedding said.

The petition sites the U.N.'s failure to respond appropriately to Iran's "hostile campaign of public incitement to genocide."

"This campaign not only endangers Israel, but [it] is also a threat to the peace and security of the world community," the petition states.

Source: The Jerusalem Post