12 December 2006
At the opening of the Holocaust conference in Tehran, Iran's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki again questioned the right of Israel to exist. The two-day gathering in Teheran is being attended by dozens of international guests, including a British rabbi and several other anti-Zionist Jews, some of whom wore badges that had Israel's flag crossed out. In his opening remarks, Mottaki said: "If the official version of the Holocaust is thrown into doubt, then the identity and nature of Israel will be thrown into doubt. If (.) is proved that the Holocaust was a historical reality, then what is the reason for the Palestinians having to pay the cost of the Nazis' crimes?" The conference, entitled "Review of the Holocaust: A Global Vision", was initiated by Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, who has described the killing of six million Jews in Nazi Germany as a "myth" and called for Israel to be wiped off the map. His remarks have caused grave international alarm at a time that Iran is feared to be developing nuclear weapons. In an address broadcast to the nation yesterday, Ahmadinejad questioned why the West would not allow "any investigation" into the Holocaust. He was expected to address the conference on Tuesday. Earlier in the day Ahmadinejad faced the first public protest since winning elections 18 months ago. Students lit a firework and burned his photograph in the audience as he delivered a speech at the Amir Kabir technical university. Up to 60 protesters chanted "death to the dictator", according to reports by the "Islamic Republic News Agency". The president's supporters in the audience then shouted back, before his speech continued. There were no reports of arrests.
Meanwhile, the European Jewish Congress (EJC) "condemned in the strongest terms" the conference questioning the truth of the Shoah and urged European leaders to take sanctions against Tehran. In a statement, the EJC described the participants in the gathering as "pseudo-historians and intellectuals" who had downplayed the scale of the Holocaust or denied that it claimed the lives of six million Jews. "How far will Europe go in accepting such insults to the memory of humanity and such threats to world peace as the Iranian regime is now doing?" asked Pierre Besnainou, president of the EJC asked. He said the time to negotiate was over and called "solemnly on European leaders to take all sanctions necessary" against Iran's president.
Read about the WJC's campaign to Stop the Iranian Threat
