Holocaust

[Rasputin]

ROME (AFP) - Outrage at an Iranian conference casting doubt on the Holocaust intensified with Israel's leader urging the pope to rally Christians in protest and France threatening a speaker with legal action.

Russia also weighed in, condemning the two-day meeting in the Iranian capital at which papers were distributed claiming to show that the mass slaughter of six million Jews in World War II did not happen.

"Russia shares the determination of the UN not to allow the negation of the Holocaust. That defines our position concerning the event in Tehran," said a statement from foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin.

"Moscow is against the revision of historic events, like when the truth of the odious crimes of the Nazis is hidden, like when the results of the bold struggle of humanity against Nazism are rewritten," the statement said.

Israel has spearheaded international outcry over the meeting and took its indignation a step further on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman said that the Israeli leader had asked Pope Benedict XVI to "personally and publicly" intervene to ask Christians to protest against Holocaust denial.

Later, after a joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, Olmert told journalists that "the position of the pope was without ambiguity" on Holocaust denial.

"We raised the question that there would be a personal declaration and not a statement" to condemn it, he added.

The Vatican issued a statement Tuesday stressing the "appalling tragedy" of the mass murder of millions of Jews by the wartime German Nazi regime and warned of the dangers of denying historical evidence.

Western countries and Israel have railed at the conference which wrapped up Tuesday and was attended by a host of "revisionist" historians, including a former Ku Klux Klan leader.

France warned a French speaker at the event, Robert Faurisson, he might be brought to court "as a result of the comments he made" at the "unacceptable" Tehran gathering.

France has a statute making it illegal to deny the existence of the Holocaust.

Faurisson, a former literary professor banned from French universities, already fell foul of that law in February 2005 when he argued his position on an Iranian satellite television station.

Italy and Spain also expressed distaste at the conference which was styled as a scientific forum to examine questions posed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly cast doubt on the truth of the Holocaust.

"I have expressed my contempt and total disagreement with the method and conclusions of the Holocaust meeting in Iran," said Italy's Prodi after meeting Olmert.

A statement from the Spanish foreign ministry, meanwhile, described the conference as having "no historic or scientific validity".

Croatia later joined the West's angry chorus of disapproval, condemning the conference and any attempt to deny the Holocaust tragedy.

"Croatia deems unacceptable statements which question or deny the right of states or people to exist," a statement from the Croatian foreign ministry said in a clear reference to Ahmadinejad's repeated threats against Israel.

[Rasputin]

Holocaust Conference Brings Disbelief on All Sides

They sent congratulatory telegrams to Hamas, their rabbis advised Yasser Arafat (and took a fee for their trouble), and they stood outside the White House wagging signs -- "Judaism Has No Right to Rule over ANY PART of the Holy Land" -- to protest a November visit by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

But even by the standards of Neturei Karta, these most ultra of ultra-orthodox Jewish Hasids took a step into the world of the very strange, if not the meshuga, or crazy, when they showed up as honored guests at a conference of Holocaust skeptics and deniers in Tehran. With a hug and a smile for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Rabbi Aharon Cohen walked into a conference room with former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, discredited academics, and more than a few white supremacists and served up a rousing welcome speech.

"Let me express my gratitude to the illustrious organizers of this valuable event," Cohen told the 67 delegates from 30 countries this week according to a text printed on the organization's Web site. "To sum up, the Orthodox Jewish view is that, yes, there was a Holocaust to a terribly significant degree whatever that was. But in no way can it be used to justify the illegitimate and criminal cause and actions of Zionism."

This drew, by all accounts, loud applause from the Holocaust-denying set, who insist against all reason that the Nazis never committed genocide by systematically killing millions of Jews. President Ahmadinejad often has accused the West and Israel of using the "myth" of the Holocaust as a propaganda tool to dominate the Middle East, and he speaks hopefully of a day when Israel ceases to exist. Within Iran, 30,000 Jews lead a precarious life laced with many humiliations.

You ring up Abraham Foxman, the chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith and himself a Holocaust survivor, and he cannot contain himself.

"They are a group of religious extremists who have so perverted Jewish traditions that they end up giving comfort and aid to those who hate Jews," he said. "Their brothers and sisters wearing traditional garb just like Neturei Karta were burned at Auschwitz. Their relatives were gassed like mine were!"

Neturei Karta is best understood within the confines and context of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which harbors the world's largest ultra-orthodox Jewish shtetl, or community. Here the garb -- black coats and hats for the men, wigs and demure dresses for the women -- is that of the 18th century, Yiddish is the lingua franca and there is no deviation from the teachings of Torah and Talmud. The Satmar sect dominates this ghetto, and anti-Zionism is central to their identity.

It was a sin before God, the Satmar argue, for the secular Zionists to have created a Jewish state before the Messiah's arrival. Jews live in exile by divine decree. Israel has inflamed Arabs and Muslims and created nothing but pain for the Jews, they argue. They suggest that the Holocaust itself was a terrible symbol of God's displeasure with the Zionists.

During World War II, the Zionist Reszo Kasztner negotiated with Adolf Eichmann to buy the freedom of Satmar's Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum, who had been sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. But Teitelbaum, who died in 1979 and was considered the most charismatic of the Satmar leaders, would later write: "It is because of the Zionists that six million Jews were killed."

Neturei Karta counts Satmars among its small band of adherents. But Neturei Karta goes a step -- no, make that three or four steps -- beyond most Satmars. "They come out of the theology that Rebbe Joel created," said David Pollock, who is associate director of the Jewish Community Relations Council and has written scholarly works on the Satmar. "But he distanced himself from them. He did not like their alliances."

Such displeasure could be heard on the street this week. Sol Wald, 33, sat in his car on a tenement block in Satmar South Williamsburg. He wagged his head at mention of Neturei Karta.

"I'm against Israel but . . . to go to Tehran is a bad idea," he said in accented English. "My grandmother has numbers on her arm [from a German concentration camp]. There are Holocaust deniers there. Jewish people should not participate in that."

Neturei Karta acknowledged never before having gone to a Holocaust deniers meeting but offered no apologies; they are practiced practitioners of the outrageous. Chaim Freimann used to hang around hotels in Washington during the 1992 Mideast peace talks, wearing a Palestinian flag in his lapel and giving old-comrade greetings to Hanan Ashrawi, the Palestinian spokeswoman.

He said in an interview that the Neturei Karta delegation traveled to Tehran to shake the Western world "out of their complacency. . . . It was the spiritual sin of Zionism . . . that was responsible for bringing into existence such an evil personality as Hitler."

Freimann's quote is read to Foxman. For just a moment this hyper-articulate man seems lost for words. "I don't think there are words in the dictionary for what I am thinking now," he says finally.

[Rasputin]

We have been telling the world that the present clique of Islamofascists ruling Iran is not Iranian in the world-view. And with each passing day fresh evidence supports our claim. The recent gathering of some of the world's fascists in Tehran, at the invitation of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Islamofascist President Ahmadinejad, provides further support to our claim.

Iranians have never had any animosity toward the Jewish people. In fact, our friendship with the Jews goes back thousands of years. You have to be a fascist to pick, with no justification at all, on any people to persecute and aim to annihilate. True Iranians are among the world's staunchest supporters of universal human rights.

The circus in Tehran, billed as "a conference", was nothing more than a disgusting attempt by the savage inheritors of Muhammad's dogma of hate to continue in his tradition of wanton attacks on all unbelievers, particularly the Jews.

It is said that you can tell a great deal about people by the company they keep. And who was given a front seat at this "conference?" It was, arguably, one of the world's greatest racist scums, former KKK Imperial Wizard David Duke.

In order to show his hateful fiber and simultaneously ingratiate himself to his newly discovered Petrodollar rich co- fascists, the fool Wizard told the 70 or so participants, "The Zionists have used the Holocaust as a weapon to deny the rights of the Palestinians and cover up the crimes of Israel", music to the ears of the hate-driven mullahs and fascists of the world.

Then, the Wizard told the Associated Press, "The Holocaust is the device used as the pillar of Zionist imperialism, Zionist aggression, Zionist terror and Zionist murder".

You are excused if you dismiss the "conference" as an inconsequential forum, since any event that would have David Duke as its star attraction is bound to be nothing more than an instance of psychopathic bigotry. However, rest assured that this is not the case. The shameless Wizard and his handler, the equally disgusting fascist, have other "luminaries" working with them side-by-side to demonstrate conclusively that the Holocaust is a myth and the Jews will have to re-experience it to make it real to the delight of these children of Hitler.

The impish Ahmadinejad, a man called "monkey" by Iranians, opened Tuesday's session by thanking God that the Zionist regime was about to expire soon and declaring "its lifetime will be over and their interests as well as reputation will be endangered".

Parroting the line of the "monkey", Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, a former interior minister and one of the founders of the Lebanese Hezbollah, told the gathering, "All the studies and research carried out so far have proven that there is no reason to believe that the Holocaust ever occurred and that it is only a tale".

A card-carrying psychopath, Austrian Wolfgang Froehlich, who served a two-year jail sentence in his home country for denying the Holocaust, handed out the text of his speech to participants. Apparently he did not relish another trip to jail, since denying the Holocaust is a crime in a number of European countries, while it can earn one valued privileges in some Islamic lands.

A crowning comment was that of Nabil Soleiman, an adviser to the ministry of religious affairs in Syria. "If the Holocaust ever occurred, it was a conspiracy against the Arab-Islamic world and today the Middle East is still paying the consequences", he said at the event.

Mohammad Ali Ramini, an Ahmadinejad adviser, announced that he will chair a committee to find "the truth on the genocide of Jews", at the end of the gathering. And here the rest of us had thought that these bigots had already the truth about the myth of the Holocaust in hand. They have been saying so, even before this landmark "scholarly" gathering took place. Why bother with another "high" commission to prove the proven? Well, it's one of those fascists' ways.

Serving on the committee with Ramini was Robert Fuerisson, a French professor who denies the existence of gas chambers, as well as Holocaust deniers from Syria, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, the United States and Bahrain.

Now, how could anyone express any reservation, much less disgust about the impartial work of such a "distinguished" international group of "scholars", sponsored by, no less than the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran?

We, Iranians, denounce this circus of hate and fraud that sullies the reputation of our nation. We hold the betrayers of our heritage of friendship and respect for all people accountable for their crimes against us and all humans who are affronted by the shameless actions of the propagators of hate.

We, free Iranians, express our deepest sympathy to the Jewish people for what they have suffered at the hands of the Nazis; and we condemn, in the strongest terms, the new coalition of fascists who are gathering under the disgusting and dangerous banner of Islamofascism.

[Rasputin]

Only in Iran could there be a "conference" where the Holocaust is denied, with Orthodox Jewish rabbis as invited guests. Meimoun Antarinejad is greeting and hobnobbing with everyone like he's the maitre'd at Morton's of Chicago. (Overheard: Antarinejad: "Shalom and thank you for coming, Rabbis, we are glad you have made it. (turns to aide) Hassan! Get the kikes some chai!") David Duke, the former grand drag queen of the KKK is another "honored speaker" (translated: goh-e-sag). He was quoted as saying, "Well, goddamn! you camel jockeys sure smell funny. The stink in this room reminds me of my taxicab ride to the airport." This uber-redneck cracker gets a visa to travel fom the U.S. to Iran faster than an oil change at Jiffy Lube, but if I even use the word "airport" in a sentence, both Homeland Security and the TSA will immediately conference-call me to arrange a joint task force cavity search that takes longer than my actual flight.

Recent articles in Iranian.com have been focused on absolutely trivial nonsense like 1) criticisms of Anousheh Ansari going into outer space, or: 2) Reza Pahlavi's contradictory remarks on an invasion of Iran.

This is all that matters:

1) She spent her own money, not yours or mine. She did what the rest of us can only have wet dreams about. She is now a bona fide astronaut, and those who take issue with her are just space cadets.

2) He is not in power. Like him or not, monarchist or not, he has no power and defintely no say in Iranian matters, just like his father, when he was alive. (khoda biamorz)

The motto of this website is "Nothing is Sacred". That motto is what loosens and altogether removes our traditional cultural restraints and allows us to have such a forum, to talk about subjects that otherwise would remain unspoken, not just as Iranians, but as people.

But this piece of garbage that masquerades as a person has the audacity to hold a conference denying the planned, systematic massacre of 6,000,000 people in order to establish Israel. But to deny the Holocaust is not just to deny 6 million. There were 3.5 to 4 million people, Gypsies, Russians, non-Jewish Poles, Freemasons, Jehovah's Witnesses who were killed by the Nazis also. Their lives were sacred, like all of ours. And their souls and their memories remain so.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to become the target of a lawsuit which accuses him of inciting genocide against Israel.
The suit is expected to be launched by a panel of international lawyers and former diplomats in New York.

The former US envoy to the UN, John Bolton, is backing the move, which is led by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations.

However, it remains unclear which legal body the suit will be filed with.

The Iranian mission to the UN dismissed the call as "a propaganda move, and an act without any substance", according to the Financial Times newspaper.

Mr Ahmadinejad this week hosted a conference in Tehran questioning whether the Holocaust - the murder of some six million Jews by the Nazis during World War II - actually took place.

The conference, which drew in white supremacists and Holocaust deniers, has been widely condemned.

'Genuine threat'

Mr Ahmadinejad has made a string of fiery statements about Israel, calling for an end to the Israeli state.


Some six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis during World War II

"The trend for the existence of the Zionist regime is downwards and this is what God has promised and what all nations want," he said at the Tehran conference.

Mr Ahmadinejad has also played down the extent of the Holocaust, describing it as a myth used to justify the existence of Israel and oppression of the Palestinians.

Some analysts have dismissed this as pure rhetoric - an attempt by Mr Ahmadinejad to boost his credentials in the Islamic world as a defender of the Palestinians, the BBC's Pam O'Toole says.

But groups like the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations (CPMAJO) disagree, our correspondent says.

They feel that the Iranian president poses a significant threat to Israel and want to see him charged with incitement to genocide.

"We always say 'never again', but here is someone who genuinely poses a threat and nothing is being done," says Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice-chairman of the body.

"We can't just dismiss him," he says.

'Difficult to prove'

Legal experts attending the meeting are expected to argue that the Iranian president 's comments constitute incitement to genocide and therefore violate the UN Genocide Convention.

But others experts point out that even the much more serious charge of genocide itself is extremely hard to prove in a court of law.

They say this is because the prosecutor must show that the accused was acting with a very specific intent to eliminate a group on the basis of either its ethnicity, religious beliefs or nationality.

"Incitement is a form of the crime of genocide so there wouldn't be any lesser showing, that I'm aware of, as to the definitional components of genocide in order to make a credible case," says Richard Dicker from Human Rights Watch.

[Rasputin]

ژاک شيراک رئيس جمهور فرانسه از دادگستری اين کشور درخواست کرده است که تحقيق درباره اظهارات روبر فوريسون طی کنفرانسی درباره هولوکاست در تهران را آغاز کند.
روبر فوريسون استاد سابق دانشگاه روزهای دوشنبه و سه شنبه در همايش هولوکاست در تهران شرکت جسته و سخنانی در انکار هولوکاست بيان کرده بود.

به گزارش خبرگزاری فرانسه به نظر کاخ اليزه آقای فوريسون "در کنفرانسی شرکت و سخنرانی کرده که هدف آن انکار واقعيات نابودی يهوديان بوده است."

به موجب اين تقاضا وزارت دادگستری فرانسه از دادستانی کل پاريس خواسته است که تحقيقات قضايی درباره اظهارات نويسنده فرانسوی را شروع کند.

انکار هولوکاست در فرانسه جرم به حساب می شود و در صورت اثبات با يک سال زندان و پرداخت جريمه ای به مبلغ ۴۵ هزار يورو کيفر داده می شود.

به گفته خبرگزاری فرانسه آقای فوريسون که ۷۷ سال دارد، بيش از ۳۰ سال است که تکرار می کند کشتار يهوديان به دست نازی ها دروغ است.

پيش از اين وزير خارجه فرانسه از احتمال پيگرد قانونی روبر فوريسون به علت اظهاراتی خبر داده بود.

پايتخت ايران طی دو روز ميزبان همايشی تحت عنوان "هولوکاست، چشم انداز جهانی" بود که هدف از آن بررسی واقعيت داشتن يا نداشتن ماجرای کشتار سازمان يافته شش ميليون يهودی طی جنگ جهانی دوم در اروپا بود که اصطلاحاً هولوکاست خوانده می شود.

روبر فوريسون که تا کنون با نوشتن مقالات و کتابهای متعددی هولوکاست را جعل تاريخی قلمداد کرده از جمله کسانی بود که برای سخنرانی در همايش هولوکاست به تهران دعوت شده بود و وزير خارجه فرانسه اظهارات او را در اين همايش غيرقابل قبول خواند.

يک روز پس از آنکه همايش هولوکاست در تهران پايان يافت، فيليپ دوست بلازی وزير خارجه فرانسه در مجلس ملی کشورش حاضر شد تا به پرسش دو تن از نمايندگان در مورد سفر روبر فوريسون به ايران و شرکت او در همايش هولوکاست پاسخ دهد.

جرم انکار هولوکاست


انکار هولوکاست
آقای فوريسون که ۷۷ سال دارد، بيش از ۳۰ سال است که تکرار می کند کشتار يهوديان به دست نازی ها دروغ است.


خبرگزاری فرانسه

از شانزده سال پيش به اين سو، انکار و حتی ابراز ترديد در هولوکاست در فرانسه غيرقانونی است و برای آن مجازات تعيين شده است.

آقای دوست بلازی خطاب به نمايندگان مجلس ملی تأکيد کرد که دولت فرانسه تمام راههای قانونی را بررسی خواهد کرد تا برای تحت پيگرد قراردادن روبر فوريسون به دليل ترديد در هولوکاست در خارج از خاک فرانسه راهی بيابد.

روبر فوريسون که اينک تهديد به پيگرد قضائی شده پيشتر نيز به دليل ديدگاههای خود با مشکلات قانونی مواجه شده است.

يک سال پس از آنکه انکار هولوکاست در فرانسه غيرقانونی شد، آقای فوريسون از تدريس در دانشگاه محروم گرديد.

در فوريه 2005 نيز وی ترديدهای خود در مورد هولوکاست را در گفتگو با شبکه ماهواره ای تلويزيون ايران، موسوم به سحر بيان کرد که باعث شد وی تحت پيگرد قانونی قرار گيرد.

روبر فوريسون با تکيه بر استدلالهای فنی، اينکه يهوديان در اتاقهای گاز به صورت دسته جمعی کشته شده باشند را رد می کند و اعتقاد دارد که شمار يهوديانی که در سرزمينهای تحت تصرف آلمان نازی کشته شدند بيش از دويست و پنجاه هزار نفر نمی تواند باشد.

بنابر گزارشها، آنچه باعث شده وزير خارجه فرانسه امکان پيگرد قانونی دوباره او را مطرح کند، بيان اين استدلال در همايش هولوکاست در تهران بوده است.

همايش هولوکاست با واکنش شديد و گسترده ای از جانب دولتها و نهادهای غربی و اروپايی مواجه شد.

گروهی از تشکل های يهودی نيز در آمريکا شکايتنامه ای برای اقامه دعوا عليه محمود احمدی نژاد، رئيس جمهور ايران تنظيم کرده و او را متهم کرده اند که با ابراز ترديد در هولوکاست و خواهان نابودی اسرائيل شدن، دست به ترغيب نسل کشی زده است.

[Rasputin]

آسوشيتدپرس ادعا کرده است که حدود 40 موسسه تحقيقاتی ، پژوهشی اروپا و شمال آمريکا در واکنش به برگزاری کنفرانس هولوکاست در ايران روابط خود را با دفتر مطالعات وزارت امورخارجه اين کشور قطع کردند .
به گزارش خبرگزاری مهر به نقل از آسوشيتدپرس، موسسه های تحقيقاتی مذکور در اعتراض به کنفرانس دو روزه هولوکاست که هفته گذشته از سوی دفتر مطالعات سياسی وبين المللی وزارت امورخارجه ايران برگزار شد؛ چنين تصميمی را اتخاذ کردند .

به نوشته اين منبع خبری کنفرانس هولوکاست با واکنش تند جامعه بين الملل روبرو شد .

اين خبرگزاری غربی همچنين اعلام نمود : شماری ازمحققان اروپايی اين قطع ارتباط را به نوعی قطع ارتباط با دولت ايران دانستند .

دفتر مطالعات سياسی و بين المللی وزارت خارجه جمهوری اسلامی ايران در روزهای 20 و 21 آذر کنفرانسی را با عنوان "هولوکاست : چشم انداز جهانی" برگزار کرد و در آن 67 شرکت کننده از 30 کشور جهان گرد هم آمده و به ارائه مقاله پرداختند.

در فرانسه نيز ژاک شيراک رئيس جمهوری اين کشور دستور داده درباره سخنرانی رابرت فوريسون محقق فرانسوی در کنفرانس اخير هولوکاست در تهران تحقيق صورت گيرد.

[Rasputin]

Iran has been severely criticised for hosting a conference questioning the Holocaust. Delegates included not only some of the world's best-known Holocaust deniers, but also white supremacists and anti-Semites.


Iran frequently plays host to those who criticise Israel.
In the BBC there's a lot of talk about impartial broadcasting. I've always wondered how that would work if you were the BBC correspondent in Nazi Germany reporting on Hitler.

Would you not have to take sides? Well I got closer than ever before to this problem reporting on Iran's Holocaust conference.

I have interviewed suicide bombers, sexually-abused children, raped women - I have seen the devastation of war and the tsunami.

But I have never reported on anything like this. On the second day some of the delegates were coming up to me congratulating me on my coverage of the story.

The guest list was a who's who of holocaust deniers - men who have spent time in prison in Europe for saying Hitler's gas chambers never existed

I was actually lurking around wondering if they wanted to kill me for calling them Holocaust deniers and members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Quite the contrary - all publicity is good publicity for these sort of people. They were delighted to have made it onto the BBC and did not think being called a holocaust denier was at all insulting.

Only one Malaysian woman whose interview I didn't broadcast looked at me rather sourly.


Nazi apologists

The conference was organised by the Iranian Foreign Ministry in a centre where normally the topic of discussion is the price of oil or the future of the non-aligned movement.


David Duke formed the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
When it is so difficult for an American to get an Iranian visa, I cannot understand how the government here let in a man who has been described as perhaps America's best known racist.

There's a photograph on the internet of a young David Duke wearing a swastika on his arm.

He formed the National Association for the Advancement of White People, not to mention the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

One of my colleagues tried to explain to a foreign ministry official what sort of organisation the Klan was - he talked of its history - men in white hoods going around lynching black people.

Every delegate I interviewed congratulated Iran on its commitment to freedom of speech which they said was absent in the West

The official just shrugged it off. I wondered if the Foreign Ministry lost control over the guest list but then again the visa process is rigorous - it took my mother more than three months to get a tourist visa for Iran.

But it was not just white supremacists - the guest list was a who's who of Holocaust deniers - men who have spent time in prison in Europe for saying Hitler's gas chambers never existed.

A small clique of apologists for the Third Reich with only fringe appeal suddenly revelling in being mainstream - well mainstream at least in Iran.

Free speech

Let me give you a flavour of the so-called academic papers they delivered. One French speaker said: "The Holocaust is a gigantic lie and the gas chambers should be put in the rubbish bin of history."

CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS
Australian Fredrick Toeben, jailed in Germany for incitement and insulting the memory of the dead
Frenchman Robert Faurisson, convicted in France under Holocaust denial laws
Frenchman Georges Thiel, convicted in France under Holocaust denial laws
American David Duke, a former KKK leader and white supremacist


Media spotlight on conference
In quotes: World reaction

He had already spent one year in prison because of what he called "one of his little books". Little books - but big lies - denying the Nazis had a deliberate policy to exterminate the Jewish people.

He summed up his argument succinctly. He claimed there were no gas chambers at all - millions of Jews did not die - therefore there was no holocaust.

And if there was no Holocaust then there was no justification for the creation of the state of Israel. Therefore Israel was an impostor.

It had all the simplicity of a mathematical proof - refuting the worst genocide in living memory and absolving one of the most evil and wicked regimes in history of its crimes against humanity.


Holocaust deniers insist Auschwitz could not have been a death camp
So this was the aim of the conference for Iran - to undermine the very argument for the existence of Israel.

And also to score a few points over the West on the issue of freedom of speech. Every delegate I interviewed congratulated Iran on its commitment to freedom of speech which they said was absent in the West where their comrades were in jail for denying the Holocaust.

They all paid tribute to their new hero, President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. I asked them if they knew about the journalists and students who have been jailed in Iran for pushing the limits of freedom of speech in this country.

They were vague - happy to whitewash Iran without knowing the facts. As a journalist living and working in Iran I found it particularly galling to be told that I had freedom of speech by these people.

Eventually I found one of the movers and shakers behind the conference - a friend of President Ahmedinejad and asked him why there was freedom of speech to deny the Holocaust but not to criticise the Iranian government.

He told me there was complete freedom but the Western media was in the pocket of the Zionists and sent spies to undermine Iran's national security.

Presumably he meant all the students, bloggers, journalists and human rights lawyers who've been jailed here are Zionist spies.

Then he went on to say that the very presence of a BBC correspondent in Iran proved there was freedom of speech. Another twisted logic.

But when all the delegates were taken to see President Ahmedinejad for a mutual admiration session, the BBC, unlike other foreign media, was excluded from covering it. So much for Iranian freedom of speech.

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

سيد محمدعلی ابطحی در سايت شخصی خودش در مطلبی با عنوان ,سمينار هولوکاست و هزينه های آن, نوشته است:

در هفته ی گذشته سميناری از سوی وزارت خارجه ی ايران که مسئول گزارش ارتباط با دنياست، سميناری در مورد هولوکاست برگزار شد. می گويند در آن ماجرا افراد فراوانی از يهودی ها و کولی ها توسط نازی ها در آلمان، در کوره های آتش سوختند.

اين سمينار فقط به اين دليل برگزار شد که آقای احمدی نژاد در سخنرانی خود در مورد اين واقعه ی تاريخی ابراز ترديد کرده است. وزير خارجه در افتتاحيه ی سمينار گفته است ما نه هولوکاست را تأييد می کنيم و نه تکذيب؛ فقط می خواهيم در اين مسأله تحقيق شود.

اما اين سمينار و تحقيق بسيار پرهزينه در مورد مسأله ای بود که نه به تاريخ ايران و نه به اسلام و نه به هيچ يک از نيازهای مردم مربوط نبود. ايران، در شرايط فعلی که در معرض تهديدهای فراوان خارجی قرار دارد از سوی اتحاديه ی اروپا، آمريکا، روسيه، دبير کل جديد و قديم سازمان ملل و حتی واتيکان مورد اعتراض شديد قرار گرفت. اين اعتراض بين المللی البته تأثيرات اقتصادی و سياسی و حيثيتی فراوانی برای مردم ايران دارد.

با چه استدلالی ملت ايران هزينه يک بررسی تاريخی در مورد مسأله ای که هيچ ربطی به ايران ندارد را بايد بدهد؟

ظلم است که در اذهان جهان، ايرانيان پر تمدن و پر سابقه، همراهان نازی ها و فاشيست ها معرفی شوند.

[Rasputin]

As a leader of a predominantly Shiite country, President Ahamadinejad understands the utility of politicizing grief. For over thirteen centuries Shiism has found sustenance in mournful rituals commemorating the death of its Imams. In the mind of a Shiite politician, the Holocaust story is a familiar emotional device for amplifying and channeling political power. However, this interpretation of the Holocaust as an instrument of manipulation is behind the times. In the modern world, the Holocaust lesson serves civilization by helping prevent atrocities that would occur otherwise.

Unfortunately the prevention is not always effective. In 1994 Hutus in Rwanda massacred a million Tutsis in a matter of three months. In the 1990's Bosnian Serbs attempted to cleanse Bosnia of its non-Serb population; mass graves are still being found. In the mid seventies the Khmer Rouge systematically killed off millions in the ideological cleansing of Cambodia. Our generation doesn't need to take the word of historians for these events; we witnessed the rising body count daily in the news. Even as I write, the killings in Darfur continue. Genocide it seems is more the historical rule than the exception. Ask any Iranian. Persian culture still displays the scars of the Mongol decimation of Iran's population eight centuries ago.

Despite our instinct for creating civilizations, the human conscience is a fragile organ of cognition. Our sense of right and wrong is easily overwhelmed by anger, jealousy, greed, or suspicion. This isn't all bad news; the unusually rapid evolution of the human brain seems to have been the result of competition against other members of our own species. The down side however--though few of us can face the thought -- is that human societies are prone to murdering each other.

The continual refreshing of the horrors of the Holocaust has been the most successful strategy in controlling outbreaks of genocidal behavior in the West. Minorities living in the United States or Europe enjoy the benefits of multiculturalism -- arts, music, fashion, food, architecture, cinema, festivals, religion˜without worrying about the hazards of being in the minority.

After 9-11, some radio talk show hosts provoked their American listeners by asking "can Muslims be good Americans?" Five million Americans with Muslim backgrounds could have found themselves in concentration camps, or worse. There was no American Bosnia because Holocaust awareness has strengthened the infrastructure of tolerance in America. What kept American Muslims safe during the dangerous times right after 9-11 was Sophie's Choice, Schindler's List, The Pianist, Judgment at Nuremberg and a host of other movies, television shows, books and novels about the Holocaust. For years such works have relentlessly shamed and marginalized anyone who would think of putting people in concentration camps.

President Ahmadinejad says European laws against denying the Holocaust are a curtailment of the freedom of speech. He believes these laws are a testament to Jewish power in the West. Here I offer a parallel explanation: these curtailments are a testament to the nearness of another Holocaust in Europe. What European leaders fear more than Jewish power is another Hitler. In the United States we are reminded of the closeness of this peril whenever a Mel Gibson delivers an anti-Semitic rant, or a Michael Richards goes into a racist rage, or a policeman brutally tasers an Iranian-American student.

President Ahmadinejad says that guilt created by the Holocaust manipulates Western powers into supporting Israel's harsh behavior towards the Palestinians. Be that as it may, acknowledging the Holocaust has a positive function for civilization which we must not give up even as we condemn its abuses.

[abadani69]

تنها يک کلمه باقي مانده که به برگزار کنندگان کنفرانس انکار هولوکاست گفته نشده: متشکريم. متشکريم از اينکه به لطف شما، هولوکاست بار ديگر در صدر خبر رسانه هاي جهان قرار گرفت. رسانه هايي که معمولا از بي عدالتي هاي ديگر، ترس، بيماري و انواع وقايع وحشناک ديگر، اشباع شده است. متشکريم، چون به لطف شما اسرائيل بجاي اينکه محکوم بشود، با توجه شرمسارانه ديگران مواجه شد و بجاي تهديد هاي افترا آميز، از حمايت کشورهاي ديگر برخوردار شد. متشکريم، چراکه ما هم بعضي وقت ها به به دلسوزي و تفاهم نيازمنديم. متشکريم که به جهانيان ياد آور شديد که قرباني کننده بزرگ خاورميانه، شصت سال پيش، که در مقياسه با ابديت ناچيز است، مردمانش قرباني هاي بي نوا، پناه جويان بي هويت و در هم شکسته اي بودند. از اين هم متشکريم که به ما ياد آور شديد که ما چه کساني هستيم و از کجا آمده ايم و چطور با گردش چرخ روزگار، گاهي در قعر بوده ايم و گاه در صدر، گاه حمله مي کرديم و گاه مورد حمله قرار مي گرفتيم.

يک تشکر مخصوص هم از اين بابت که شما با خلاقيت و جسارتتان به رسانه ها اين اجازه را داديد تا بار ديگر افکار عمومي را کمي تکان بدهند. ما - بازماندگان هولوکاست و فرزندان و نوه هايشان- هم به سهم خودمان دست به هر کاري زديم تا خاطره هولوکاست زنده بماند: مراسم پشت سر هم، گفتن جوک هاي سطحي درباره اتاق گاز هيتلر، ساختن اپرايي درباره دختري که درچاه پنهان شده بود، نوشتن رمان درباره عشق هاي جواني که در کمپ ها شکل گرفته بود، گفتن داستان هاي عاشقانه بين زندانيان يهودي و افسر هاي نازي، ساختن مجدد ترانه پارتيزان ها به سبک تکنو، فيلم بحث برانگيز روبرتو بنيني، همسرايي کودکان در نمايش هاي موزيکال، تشکيل گروه هاي جوانان که به اردوگاههاي کار اجباري و اردوگاه هاي مرگ سفر مي کنند، رژه به سوي زندگي که بازسازي دوباره رژه به سوي مرگ از آشويتس به بيرکنو است. ما تقدس و کفر را به هم درآميختيم و چاشني طنز تلخ را به آن اضافه کرديم، ما همه راه ها را امتحان کرديم. اما با وجود همه تلاشي که کرديم، هرگز نتوانستيم به ميزان مراجعيني که يک کنفرانس انکار کننده هولوکاست براي ما فراهم کردند، برسيم.

کنفرانس تهران چين و چردک تصاوير کهنه يادبود هولوکاست را باز کرد. براي درس بازاريابي هم ممنونيم. ذهن يهودي ما، بعد از شصت سالي که از پايان جنگ مي گذرد، هر راهي را رفته بود تا خاطره هولوکاست را در ياد ها زنده نگهدارد. اما ذات فاجعه عليه ما عمل مي کرد و هرچه بيشتر از آن صحبت مي کرديم، حساسيت کمتري ايجاد مي کرد. سرانجام هيچ راهي باقي نماند و هولوکاست به گوشه انزوا رانده شد و مثل يک سنگ در اعماق گودال فراموشي فرو مي رفت.

به همين دليل است که يک تشکر مخصوص، در خور محمود احمدي نژاد، رئيس جمهور ايران، است، او با يک روش غير معمول، چنين تصوير قدرتمندي ايجاد کرد و نشان داد که چطور مي شود جنسي را که روز تاقچه مانده و تاريخ مصرف آن گذشته است، به يک ستاره تبديل کرد.

"جنجال سازي" همان چيزي است که يک بازارياب حرفه اي کار احمدي نژاد را که همان برگزار کردن کنفرانس انکار هولوکاست بود، ارزيابي مي کند. جنجال سازي روشي است که درزماني که مردم از تبليغات و روابط عمومي خسته شده اند و آماده اند تا محصول ديگري را انتخاب کنند، بکار مي رود. جنجال بسياري از مواقع از سوي کساني ايجاد مي شود که ماهيتا ناسزا گويي مي کنند تا کساني که فرياد مي کشند. محکوم کردن، افترا زدن و انکار بيشتر مواقع قدرتي دارد که تمجيد کردن، ندارد. در زمان درماندگي، استخدام کردن افراد حرفه اي از بيرون، کاري معمول و توصيه شده است. آنها قادرند که در آن لحظه، مشکل را ريشه يابي کنند و راه حلي برايش پيدا کنند. نکاتي که از بيرون ديده مي شوند، با آنچه در درون وجود دارد، متفاوت است. به همين دليل نبايد تعجب کرد که دميده شدن روح تازه در رگ هاي چروک خورده هولوکاست، در تهران صورت مي گيرد و نه در اورشليم.

احمدي نژاد موفق به انجام دادن کاري شد که هيچ کس قبل از او قادر به انجام دادنش نبود: او رابطه اي بي واسطه و واضح در ميان افکار عمومي جهان بين دولت اسرائيل و هولوکاست يهوديان اروپا برقرار کرد. اين کار کوچکي نيست. حتي کساني که با واژه هولوکاست آشنايي دارند هم الزاما نمي دانند که آن فصل از تاريخ بشريت، مرحله اصلي شکل گيري دولت اسرائيل بوده است.

حالا همه اين را مي دانند. اين موضوع نه فقط براي تازه کردن ذهن مردم جهان بلکه براي ذهن خودمان هم درمورد حق حيات اسرائيل لازم است.

من هم به نوبه خودم مي خواستم از طرف خودم و پدر و مادرم از احمدي نژاد تشکر کنم. دوم اينکه من چيزهايي را که از او آموختم فراموش نخواهم کرد: مادر من تمام جواني اش را با رفتن از اين اردوگاه به اردوگاه ديگر، هدر نداد؛ پدر و مادرو خواهرش در پونار ليتواني به قتل نرسيدند؛ پدر من، از همان روزي که به گتوي لودز رفت تا آخرين روزي که به اردوگاه کار اجباري ساشنهاوزرفت، کار اجباري نکرد؛ مادرش در اتاق گاز شلمو کشته نشد. من هم اين اتفاق ها را انکار مي کنم. اين اتفاقات هرگز نيافتاده اند.

[Rasputin]

The recent Holocaust conference in Tehran was yet another attempt by the Islamic Republic to distract the Iranian public and world attention from the many issues facing them. It was also a provocation coupled with militant ignorance, and as such an all too familiar aspect of this regime. With this conference, designed to cast doubt on the veracity of a well documented monstrous crime and attended by revisionist “scholars” and a former head of the racist Klu Klux Klan, the Iranian regime under Ahmadi Nejad has once again managed to insult our nation as well as the nations of the world.

If a gathering had been held to review the forty-year Israeli occupation and the Palestinian people’s deplorable conditions in the West Bank and Gaza, the world would have nodded even if it were organized in Tehran by a regime with an egregious record on human and civil rights--a record which includes the execution in 1988 of 4,000 young men and women in Evin prison without due process, the stoning of women for minor crimes, public hangings, torture and murder of political prisoners, and preventing their families from mourning their deaths publicly or even in private.

But a meeting like this, held around a theme which has been historically and factually proven, constitutes yet another sinister chapter in the reprehensible life story of the regime in Iran. While this shameful conference was held, some of the best journalists of Iran were incarcerated and only released after paying hefty bails. Not only are they under pressure to cease using their pens, they are financially squeezed having no other choice but to leave Iran.

Many of them have left Iran as they find no opportunity to write their stories and be at the service of the people. They have to live under substandard conditions so that this despicable regime can hold conferences at the expense of Iran and Iranians and waste the country’s resources for proving what is not provable. This conference has even led to the creation of a Holocaust Foundation, a total sham, headed by a man whose ignorance and conspiratorial theories are beyond belief.

Tehran is seeking international recognition. Instead, the regime is isolating Iran even further, only to manipulate a minority of people who still support them. Meanwhile, even among the devout, the basis of this support is rapidly declining as is indicated in the recent municipal elections. Additionally, the recent protests at Amir Kabir University where Ahmadi Nejad’s photo was burned in front of his eyes show how unpopular this so-called populist is today. It is crystal clear that, since his questionable electoral victory in 2005, Ahmadi Nejad’s government has done nothing to gain the confidence of the people who he claimed voted for him. His slogan, “a man of the people” has proven to be hollow. He is using Iran’s oil revenue to spread money around remote places, acting like a modern day Robin Hood. But, he is a two faced man who cries his heart out for the oppressed people while jailing students, journalists and strangling Iran’s intellectual community. His government refuses to give visas to prominent scholars, while granting a visa to David Duke, the former KKK man.

A year and a half ago, at the table of the then newly elected President in NYC, where I was forced to wear the hejab in order to enter the premises, I confronted him, telling him that his regime had ruined my country. Today, he and the ignorant men around him are still busy ruining my country- economically, politically, socially, and now, by staging this conference, morally as well. God have mercy on all of us for as long as this saga continues!

[Rasputin]

A number of people have recently expressed their disgust and revulsion toward the Holocaust Revisionist Conference held in Tehran. With perhaps the exception of a few nutcases living in the mountains of rural Idaho, I think one would be hard pressed to find many people who would challenge the veracity of the mountains of evidence that verify the historical fact of what we have come to know as the Holocaust.

Our illustrious president, Ahgaye Mamoon ImaWeinerJob, has taken great pride in the fact that many of the participant-scholars attending conference are foreigners. The truth is that these so-called intellectuals, who've been feted to V.I.P. treatment as guests of the Islamic Republic, constitute a veritable Who's Who of Losers, Weirdos, Outcasts, Freaks, and Psychos. It is so f*#*&^* beyond shameful and revolting to think that this filthy gorilla has sullied the good name of the Iranian people by hosting such an utterly pathetic and contemptible symposium.

When I think of my cousins living in Iran who've grown up under the heel and lash of people like our illustrious Mr. ImaWeinerJob, three thoughts pop into my head: first, although selfish on my part, I thank Khoda for letting me be born outside of Iran; second, I pray for the well being of my relatives that are still stuck there; and third, I wonder how much humiliation the people of Iran can stomach.

Vay Khoda, it's been nearly thirty years that these thugs, thieves, terrorists and tyrants have humiliated our people and sucked the vitality from our nation! I want to scream, "Enough is enough!" I know I have no right to criticize. After all, I don't live in Iran and I'm only half-Iranian, but goddamn it, I have pride in my people and my culture and it really bothers me when I see them humiliated before the world with such a scandalous event taking place in their midst. It bothers me that after so many years they just keep on taking whatever the government dishes out to them. It's easy for me to sit faraway and shake my head in bewilderment, but in all honesty I don't understand their passivity after so many years.

What those students did last week at Daneshgah Amirkabir filled my heart with pride. That timeless and noble attribute of courage which has always been a part of the Iranian national character was surely demonstrated by the daring demonstration held by those valiant young men and women. Be Khoda, I wish I could have been there with them. I wish I could have been there with them for my dear, sweet mother who still believes deep in her heart that she will one day return a free Iran; I wish I could have been there for my cousins, aunts and uncles still in Iran stuck in what is for them a never-ending nightmare; I wish I could have been there for my baba and maman bozorg, whom I have lived very far away from all my life and whom I will lose one day still living very far away from.

I wish I could have been there just to let Mr. ImaWeinerJob hear the loud and passionate anger in my voice for being the leader of a corrupt system which has destroyed so many Iranian lives, crushed so many Iranian spirits and broken so many Iranian hearts. If I could have been there, I would have joined the chants, "Marg bar, dictator," but the sad truth is that I couldn't be there.

The government of the IRI easily and freely gives visas out to its boot-licking league of international losers, like America's own disgraceful former Ku Klux Klan KOOK, David Duke who doesn't have a drop of Iranian blood in his body, but for me and others, like me, who are the sons and daughters of Iranian women and foreign fathers, the IRI lackeys in embassies around the world make it as difficult, unpleasant and expensive as possible for us to obtain a visa to visit our family members in Iran each years.

If one is a card carrying member of the Ku Klux Fux, like David Duke, who along with some of his good-ole-boy associates, quite possibly has strung up his fair-share of sand-niggers, camel-jocks, and rag-heads in life, one can quickly and easily get a no-hassle visa to Iran and once there be treated like a rock star.

If on the other hand, the Persian blood which flows through your veins comes from your mother and not your father, you are treated by the government as an outcast, an undesirable and a foreigner. This, I can tolerate, even though I have never liked it much. But, when the government warmly welcomes scum and filth like David Duke and the rest of those misfits to Iran and treats them as kings, it's too much for me. My ancestors have been buried in that land for thousands of years. My mother and I have always been given the third-degree by some low level embassy flunky when I want to go see my grandparents, but human garbage, like Duke gets first class service. When I travel to Iran, I am subject to being fingerprinted because I am classified as a foreign national. I bet Mr. ImaWeinerJob's fascist, fruitcake buddies don't get fingerprinted. They just walk in to town like they're the cat's meow.

I keep trying to tell myself that it really doesn't matter in my personal life what happens in Iran because I don't live there. I keep trying to convince myself that I don't feel the humiliation when our country is disgraced and dishonored time and again by the Mullahs and their lapdogs, like ImaWeinerJob. I keep trying to push down my indignation and rage that Iranians like me (those with a non-Iranian baba) are considered to be less worthy of government acceptance and decent treatment than the likes of David Duke who may have the blood of scores of Iranians on his hands just as his buddy ImaWeinerJob does.

I guess I wouldn't have spent the time to sit and write these pages if I didn't care about Iran and if I didn't feel the shame the Mullahs have brought upon our country. My dad calls the Mullahs and westerners who befriend them, "mullah suckers." It sounds a lot like, mother fu#%*#*, doesn't it? I know which one I'd call them if I could. Sorry, dad; sometimes we're just going to have to agree to disagree. It's just too decent to call them mullah suckers... for they are much, much worse.