ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE 'OUTRAGED' - AGAIN!

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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    ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE 'OUTRAGED' - AGAIN!

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Swiss floated idea of neutral 'Holocaust' seminar

  ADL Outraged At Report That Swiss Foreign Ministry Floated Idea Of 
Holocaust Seminar With Iran

  ADL  Thursday, 31 May 2007

  NEW YORK - The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today expressed outrage 
at a report that the Swiss foreign ministry proposed a seminar "about 
different perceptions about the Holocaust" during talks with Iran 
over its nuclear program last year.

  The idea was reportedly floated by Switzerland's president, 
Micheline Calmy-Rey, during a working visit with the Iranian deputy 
foreign minister on December 21, 2006, shortly after the Iranian 
government sponsored its Holocaust denial conference in Tehran.  Word 
of the proposed Swiss seminar emerged this week in written 
proceedings of the meeting obtained by the weekly Zurich-based 
newspaper, Weltwoche.

  "We are outraged that the Swiss government could have pitched the 
idea of a seminar on the Holocaust to - of all countries - Iran," 
said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust 
survivor.  "The Swiss government owes an apology to all Holocaust 
survivors."

  According to the report in Weltwoche, minutes from the diplomatic 
meeting indicated that Ms. Calmy-Rey had proposed "that a seminar 
about different perceptions of the Holocaust could be organized in 
one of the Geneva centers."

  Mr. Foxman said: "Any seminar on so-called perceptions of the 
Holocaust, especially one that would possibly include Iranian 
participants, would be tainted because it would aid and give comfort 
to the anti-Semites and the deniers who call the fact of the 
Holocaust into question."

  The article notes that there has been no follow-up on the seminar 
since it was first proposed at the meeting, and that Ms. Calmy-Rey, 
through a spokesman, indicated that she made clear to her Iranian 
counterpart that the Holocaust was historical fact.

  <http://www.adl.org/PresRele/HolNa_52/5062_52.htm>http://www.adl.org/PresRele/HolNa_52/5062_52.htm