Yad Vashem worried by Iranian Holocaust denial

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Last update - 15:34 12/01/2006

Yad Vashem worried by Iranian Holocaust denial / Jan 12, 2006 / www.haaretz.com

By DPA [Deutsche Presse Agentur]

Yad Vashem said yesterday it viewed with "growing concern" what it 
termed Iran's continued Holocaust denial, and called on the 
international community to act "to prevent genocidal intentions from 
becoming genocidal capabilities".

"Reports that the Association of Islamic-Journalists of Iran is 
convening an international conference of Holocaust deniers to 
`examine in depth this myth' illustrate how deeply entrenched 
Holocaust denial is in radical Islamic circles," Yad Vashem Chairman 
Avner Shalev said in a statement.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a series of remarks 
starting in October, has denied the occurence and extent of the 
Holocaust several times, at one point calling the Nazi genocide of 
Europe's Jews a "fairy tale." He said that if Europeans were 
responsible for the Jews' massacre, then they should relocate the 
Jewish state to their continent.

"Iran has embraced such charlatans as David Irving, who was found by 
a British court to be an `anti-Semite' and `racist' whose 
`falsification of the record was deliberate,' as well as Robert 
Faurisson and Roger Garaudy," Shalev said.

"These sham historians - totally discredited in the West - find a 
responsive audience in Iran, where senior officials have called the 
factual events of the Holocaust a `matter of opinion'," he continued.

Shalev said the United Nations and most of the world have recognized 
the importance of Holocaust remembrance as "a safeguard against the 
breakdown of the basic human values that underpin our civilization".

"The dismissal of the veracity of the Holocaust and its legacy 
represents a clear rejection of those values," he said.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=669181>http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=669181
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