Edgar M. Bronfman, the president of the World Jewish Congress, has urged United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan to restage last year's UN Holocaust exhibition during next week's visit by Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In a letter to Annan, Bronfman cited Ahmadinejad's claim that the Holocaust was a "myth", Tehran's planned "Holocaust conference" in December, an exhibition of Holocaust cartoons, Iran's sponsorship of international terrorism, and its pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability in violation of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
The WJC president wrote: "As the first Secretary-General to compel UN recognition of the Holocaust and condemnation of anti-Semitism, including last year's historic Holocaust exhibition in the UN Headquarters, we urge you to make an unambiguous statement of truth and morality, by remounting the Holocaust exhibition during the General Assembly's High-Level Segment the week of September 18th. There can be no lesser response to one who enters the United Nations headquarters to flout its very premise before a world audience. Nor is it any infringement on his freedom of expression or on UN regulations to bring back an exhibition that states irrefutable historic facts." Bronfman emphasized, "Hate speech which incites violence should be met with condemnation and at the very least must be countered with education and affirmation of human dignity." The United Nations first staged the Holocaust exhibition in its headquarters in January 2005, to coincide with the UN's special session in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps.
