Iran hosts Holocaust conference

[N.O.R.F]

Iran hosts Holocaust conference

 

Iran says the conference is aimed at providing a forum to air views about the Holocaust

 

Iran has opened a conference to examine the Holocaust and question whether Nazi Germany used gas chambers to kill Jews, drawing condemnation in the West and criticism from Iran's Jewish community.

 

Jewish rabbis were present on Monday at the government-sponsored event Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision, alongside academics from Europe.

 

Some European countries have made it a crime to deny the Nazi killing of six million Jews from 1933 to 1945.

 

Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister, said in a welcome address: "The aim of this conference is not to deny or confirm the Holocaust.

 

"Its main aim is to create an opportunity for thinkers who cannot express their views freely in Europe about the Holocaust."

 

The event, which Iran has said will question whether gas chambers were actually used against the Jews, has drawn criticism from Holocaust survivors, Jewish organisations, human rights groups and Western governments.

 

Sessions at the two-day conference, held at the foreign ministry's Institute for Political and International Studies, were to include Holocaust: Aftermath and Exploitation and Demography: Denial or Confirmation?

 

The conference was inspired by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, who since coming to power last year, has been criticised for comments referring to the Holocaust as a "myth" and calling Israel a "tumour".

 

Among the participants was American David Duke, a former Louisiana Republican representative. He praised Iran for hosting the event.

 

"There must be freedom of speech, it is scandalous that the Holocaust cannot be discussed freely," said Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader. "It makes people turn a blind eye to Israel's crimes against the Palestinian people."

 

French writer Georges Thiel, who has been convicted in France for spreading revisionist theories about the mass extermination of Jews, said the Holocaust was "an enormous lie".

 

"Jewish people have been persecuted, that is true, they have been deported, that is true, but there was no machinery of murder in any camp, no gas chambers," he said.

 

Participants included about half a dozen Jews from Europe and the US, some wearing badges depicting the Israeli flag crossed out. One wore a badge saying: "A Jew, not a Zionist."

 

"We came here to put the Orthodox Jewish viewpoint," said British Rabbi Ahron Cohen. "We certainly say there was a Holocaust... But in no way can it be used as a justification for perpetrating unjust acts against the Palestinians."

 

 

The conference has upset Iran's 25,000-strong Jewish community, said Moris Motamed, the sole Jewish representative in Iran's parliament.

 

"Denying it [the Holocaust] is a huge insult," he said. "By holding this conference, they [the government] are continuing to insult the Jewish community."

 

Many ordinary Iranians admitted to embarrassment about the event, which follows Iran's decision to hold a competition for cartoons about the Holocaust in October.

 

A former senior government official, who declined to be named, said that hosting the conference was unwise given diplomatic pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme.

 

He said: "Such conferences should not be held."

 

AL J E

[N.O.R.F]

Holocaust Denial or Smart Move?

 

 

Why would a man of obvious intelligence, as President Ahmedinejad of Iran surely is, want to provoke the West by inspiring a conference meant to look at the Holocaust? What is really behind the 'Review of the Holocaust: Global Vision' conference?

 

Throughout Western media, from the day this conference was announced until today, and for many more days to come I am sure, nowhere is this question asked: Why is this conference being held? Rather, we see a lot of fingers pointing at Mr. Ahmedinejad's 'obvious' anti-semitism and Holocaust denial. Furthermore, it is taken for granted that this is the case. President Ahmedinejad cannot be anything else other than an anti-semite who is bent on exterminating the Jews living in Israel.

 

Yet, no one has bothered to ask why he doesn't start with the 30 000 or so Jews living in Iran. Why doesn't he start, for example, with Moris Motamed, an Iranian Jew who just happens to sit in Iran's Parliament. How did he get to be a member of the Iranian Parliament, anyway? Was he elected? I thought there was no democracy in Iran. Hmmmm.

 

Could it be that Mr. Ahmedinejad is not interested in picking up where Hitler left off? After all, it wouldn't be all that difficult to kill 30 000 people. Look at Iraq. Unless of course he is afraid that the whole world would spring into action. After all, we all know that the life of one Jew is worth the life of a thousand Muslims. Right? To kill 30 thousand Iranian Jews would mean killing the equivalent of 30 million people. The world would most certainly not allow that. Right?

 

What if Mr. Ahmedinejad is doing one of the most sane things in the world? What if he is merely calling the West's bluff? Remember a while back, how the Islamic world was up in arms over the publication of a cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammed? People in the West pointed to Islamic reaction and said "See, these people are backward. Look at how they react to something as self evident as freedom of speech."

 

Well, it seems to me that Mr. Ahmedinejad has made a fool of the West by tricking us into behaving in the same way. Mr. Ahmedinejad pinpointed the one thing that would stir up controversy in the West. Just as it is a sacrilege to depict the prophet for Islam, so it is a sacrilege to question the Holocaust in the west. Being an intelligent man, and knowing full well that the Holocaust happened, Mr. Ahmedinejad has not questioned the Holocaust itself. Rather, he questioned the myth that has grown around it and how it has been used by Israel and the West in order to deny the rights of the Palestinians. A smart move by the President of Iran.

 

I don't think that Mr. Ahmedinejad believes that some new evidence will be brought forth that will help the world see that the Holocaust did not happen. He himself knows that it did. What he wanted to achieve with this conference he did: he got the Western media and governments to overreact and by this to show the Islamic world that the West is untrustworthy and carries a double standard when it comes to Muslims. It can offend them at will, but they will not stand for their 'holy taboos' to be questioned.

 

Surely the West is now behaving as if a taboo has been broken. Perhaps this is a good opportunity for people in the West to reflect on the necessity of respecting the taboos of other people, and to see that they serve a purpose and are not just there because people are 'backward'. Also, it may help us to question our own taboos. What if the Holocaust has been used as a weapon against the Palestinians? Is that an impossibility? What if a mythology has been built around the death of 6 million Jews? There's no denying, to my mind, that millions of Jews were killed, but how has this fact been used ever since? Has it been used to beat people into submission? Has it been used to intimidate North Americans especially, into an uncritical attitude towards Israel for fear of being called anti-semites and racists? Perhaps. It may not be such a bad thing for us to think about these things...

 

 

Chris Voidis

 

http://www.yioni.com/counter-spin.html

 

A contribution on CiF

[Taliban]

This conference has to be commended. The time to to investigate, analyze, review, inspect, ask critical questions about and dispel the taboo and myth of the Holocaust is overdue. The West claims to be democratic and touts its Freedom of Speech, yet you will be sent to a prison if you deny the Holocaust. Talk about hypocrisy!

[NGONGE]

^^^ Correction. You’ll only be sent to prison if you uttered such words in Austria not the West at large.

 

This conference is nothing but a silly Iranian gimmick to hit back those prophet cartoons. It’s vulgar, silly and totally pointless.

[N.O.R.F]

^^I dont think so.

 

Never was really into history at school. All they taught us was Romans, 1st and 2nd World Wars and Slavery as a token! But the Holocaust is something that is always shoved down your throught. this conference will at least make people think did it really happed as is said? Have the zionist used it to their advantage? Is the west on one big guilt trip? etc

[rudy-Diiriye]

they should call this dude ahmed majnoon! 4 real.

the truth is that iranians always thought of themselves Aryans...and even courted hitler. so this should be no surprise!!

 

Aryan and shiite...thats a heavy load!!

[Allamagan]

Whatever Iran's agenda behid this is, I believe people should be allowed to talk and to discuss any matters openly including this Holocaust thing without being framed as anti-semitic. If there is nothing to hide then let people to discuss and be challenged.

[Taliban]

Originally posted by Allamagan:

If there is nothing to hide then let people to discuss and be challenged.

There is something to hide. Letting the people to discuss and be challenged can lead to self-incriminating truth.