A Short History of Holocaust Denial in the Middle East

[mhatrw]

http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/lawreviews/meta-elements/journals/bctwj/23_2/04_TXT.htm

Given that the hostility between many Arab countries and Israel historically has spurned anti-Semitic sentiment, Arab countries provide a fertile ground for Holocaust deniers’ theories.105 Hindered by legislation and litigation in the Western world, deniers recently have expanded their activities into the Arab countries of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Authority.106 Deniers have found that, as a result of the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict, the atmosphere in the Arab world creates the ideal backdrop for Holocaust deniers to promote their propaganda.107 To date, Holocaust denial appears throughout many of these countries in articles and columns by journalists, speeches and pronouncements by public figures and religious leaders,108 and resolutions of professional organizations.109 ...

More recently, a new form of Holocaust-inspired anti-Semitism has taken shape in Arab countries, such as Syria and the Palestinian Authority, which have adopted the belief that the Holocaust never occurred.118 Once a longtime phenomenon found only in the West, Holocaust denial has expanded into, and is increasingly accepted by, many citizens of these Arab states.119 Beginning in the 1990s, Holocaust denial began to appear in the media of many Arab countries.123 For example, the July 1990 issue of the Palestinian Liberation Organization-affiliated Palestinian Red Crescent’s magazine, Balsam, contained an article that claimed that Jews created the lie of the gas chambers in order to gain support for Israel and that the Nuremberg trials were set up fraudulently by the Jews in order to establish the Holocaust as historical fact.124 ...

Nonetheless, in August 2002, the Arab League's Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-up, an official think-tank of the Arab League, convened a symposium in Abu Dhabi devoted to Holocaust Denial.135 The Zayed Center described the symposium as an effort "to counter the historical and political fallacies propagated by Israel."136 Previously, the Zayed Center had hosted legitimate lectures by Western heads of state and diplomats, such as former President Jimmy Carter and former Vice President Al Gore.137 The fact that the Arab League, as well as such nations as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority, would give Holocaust denial a legitimate platform represents a critical step backwards in the effort to suppress deniers’ activities.138 ...

Not surprisingly, the Arab perception of the Holocaust is influenced by the immediate state of the Arab-Israeli conflict.145 Whenever tensions escalate between Israel and its Arab neighbors, there is a correlating increase in declarations denying the Holocaust, "as if the denial of the Holocaust automatically eliminates Israel’s raison d'etre."146 Similarly, whenever Israeli and Palestinian negotiators move toward a permanent peace settlement, Holocaust denial increases throughout the Arab world.147 In some Arab and Muslim countries, such as Jordan and Lebanon, only opposition parties and dissident factions that denounce any form of relations with Israel have adopted denial; denial, then, is employed to discredit their government rivals and increase popular hatred of Israel.148 In other countries, including Iran, Syria, and the Palestinian Authority, the national government itself sponsors Holocaust denial.149 For example, the Iranian government provides refuge for Western holocaust deniers escaping legal prosecution.150 During the Pope’s historic pilgrimage to Israel in 2000, Sabri, the mufti of Jerusalem, publicly reiterated his belief that the Holocaust is a myth.151 In addition, the government-controlled newspapers of Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Authority espouse the view that the Holocaust never happened.152 Specifically, Teshreen, the Syrian daily newspaper owned and operated by the ruling Baath party, and Al-Hayat Al-Jadeeda, the newspaper controlled by the Palestinian authority, print numerous expressions of Holocaust denial.153 It is interesting to note that Holocaust denial only rarely appears in the media of Arab countries, such as Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, which have taken steps to normalize relations with Israel. The previous examples of denial activity in Iran, Syria, and the Palestinian Authority, however, suggest that the governments of some Arab and Muslim countries both support and sponsor Holocaust denial and deniers’ activities.154 ...

much more here: http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/lawreviews/meta-elements/journals/bctwj/23_2/04_TXT.htm

[mhatrw]

1. Kick.

What can we do to solve this growing problem?

[Chemical Bill]

5. We could start by...

admitting and publicizing our part in the holocaust. Prescott Bush, Henry Ford, Watson from IBM, et al had a big role in Hitler's rise to power. Bush's Union Bank was charged with trading with the enemy in 1942, and the Bush family got their investment back after the war. If we don't expose their legacy and make their heir's pay, then how do we have moral standing to criticize anyone else?

Bill

[mhatrw]

2. Another kick.

What can we do about this serious and growing abomination? Any ideas that don't include long term occupations?

[cali]

3. Sure. Israel can start talking with Hamas

the democratically elected representation of the Palestinian People. They can immediatlely freeze and start removing settlements in the WestBank. They can offer a real peace deal that includes reparations for refugees along with allowing a a symbolic number to return. The peace offer should include Palestinian sovreignity of East Jerusalem, and a dedicated access between Gaza and the West Bank.

That would, I believe, help with anti-semitism in the Middle East.

[Shaktimaan]

7. What would they talk about?

Hamas is clear that their goal is Israel's destruction and they've not only rejected peace deals like Oslo in the past but have tried to derail them by increasing terrorism strikes inside Israel. The peace deal you mentioned is not what Hamas wants and they are pretty vocal in their rejection of any comprehensive peace with Israel, ever.

And I have a problem with the assertion that if racism and hatred against Jews are caused by Israeli policy that it is Israel's fault. That Israel should take responsibility for this reaction and change their policies in an effort to better Arab views of Jews in general. If anti-Arab sentiment in the US is partly caused by Islamic fundamentalism would the answer be to ask fundamentalists to reform and hope that racism is quelled as a result? Racism isn't a rational process, trying to curb it by asking the targets themselves to change is not a reasonable solution. It is akin to saying, "Maybe Americans wouldn't hate Arabs so much if the Palestinains would stop blowing up buses."

Israeli policy should be based on what is best for Israel. Not based on influencing Arab's anti-semitic views of Jews in general. There was plenty, PLENTY of anti-semitism all over the world before Israel ever existed. The reason that no Jews live anywhere on earth except the US and Israel anymore is not because of anything Israel did.

[bemildred]

4. Well, what do you think?

I don't really see that the historical facts need to be defended, and I don't really see what one can do in any direct way about propaganda and superstition in other sovereign countries. As one can easily see in Iran right now a belligerent attitude can be counter-productive. But if you have some ideas you want to discuss, I would be glad to participate.

[mhatrw]

10. Well, here's what the author of the piece suggested.

http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/lawreviews/meta-elements/journals/bctwj/23_2/04_TXT.htm

While inherent problems exist in applying any one of these models in isolation to enforce human rights violations in Arab countries, a combination of more effective international human rights institutions, more timely complaint processes, and more forcible international insistence that states respect human dignity may be effective in situations in which political leaders and state-dominated media are condoning and perpetrating Holocaust denial.205

A further remedy for dealing with Holocaust denial may be for the international community to rally against state-dominated media and in favor of independent press.206 In addition to the international community’s proclaimed protection of human rights, there is an international consensus that freedom of expression is a fundamental human right that must be guarded from suppression by governments, as seen in Article 19 of both the Declaration and the ICCPR.207 The Declaration guarantees “freedom of opinion and expression . . . to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”208

A free, unbiased media, in which articles are not published solely as political tools and where truthful reporting can exist, may greatly curb Holocaust denial.209 Consistent with the Declaration, the international community did finally take interest in the suppressed Arab media at the end of the Cold War by requiring the observance of press freedom as a condition to the receipt of foreign aid and assistance for development.210 While there is international law supporting media freedom, and although the international community is interested in the growth of an independent and pluralist media, only a very limited number of active steps have been taken to end media oppression in the Middle East.211

It's actually a bit ironic to see free press advanced as a potential solution to Holocaust denial considering some of the solutions that have been successfully advanced in Western Europe, but in the Middle East I think it would be a win-win situation.

[bemildred]

11. That doesn't seem unreasonable.

I always have trouble reconciling throwing people in jail for Holocaust denial with freedom of speech. I understand the "yelling fire in a theater" argument, but I don't think it applies. The Holocaust didn't result from the cogency and appeal of Hitler's "thinking" or from his right to express himself, but rather from the political power he managed to grab to implement his "thinking". If you want to prevent recurrences of genocide, that is where you need to aim, at the sort of absolute political power and unaccountability that allowed it to proceed with impunity for so long.

With regard to repression in Middle Eastern cultures, it has always seemed to me that one needs to encourage modernization. It is in any case most unlikely that the sort of change required can be achieved by coercive methods. People do not become more reasonable when threatened or attacked. And it seems likely that such changes cannot be achieved in a short period, it requires a generation or two, as it did in "the West" where the process is still going on.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. Pull the troops out of Iraq.

It's hard to be serious about holocaust denial when you're causing a holocaust of your own.

[cali]

8. That's not even a straw man.

it's a straw toddler.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Unfortunately this is a sad fact

and the denial of the history of the holocaust is one part of the problem