by MEMRI
In December 2013, two unusual events relating to the Holocaust took place in the Arab world: a first official conference on the Jewish Holocaust was held in Tunisia, dealing with Holocaust of the Jews in that country, and the first visit by an Arab diplomat to a Holocaust memorial site took place as well, when Bahraini ambassador to France Nasser Al-Balushi visited a memorial in Drancy, near Paris. It should be mentioned that on July 27, 2012, Ziad Al-Bandak, the Christian affairs advisor to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, visited Auschwitz and lit a memorial candle for Holocaust victims.[1]
Both events sparked harsh criticism from some elements in the Arab world, who objected that the Holocaust is a fabrication, and that these measures constitute normalization with Israel and a betrayal of the Palestinian cause.
The following are details about the Tunisian conference and the Bahraini ambassador's visit to the Drancy memorial site, and excerpts from the responses.
Holocaust Conference In Tunisia: We Must Remember The Holocaust And Make Sure Such Depraved Deeds Never Happen Again
On December 14, 2013, Tunisia held the Arab world's
first official Holocaust conference. The two-day conference, attended
by historians, clerics, authors, and journalists, dealt with the
Tunisian Jewish Holocaust, and its purpose was to commemorate the 5,000
Tunisian Jews who were sent to labor camps or European death camps
during the Nazi rule of the country. During the conference, speakers
praised Tunisian Muslims who helped Jews during the Holocaust, including
Khaled 'Abd Al-Wahhab, who hid 20 Jews in his factory.
The event was held under the auspices of the
Tunisian Association to Support Minorities, as well as the Foundation
for Ethnic Understanding, which works to bring religions, specifically
Muslims and Jews, closer together. The president of the Association to
Support Minorities, Yasmina Thabet, said that "the conference aims to
preserve the issue of the Holocaust in public consciousness... and
ensure that a depraved act such as the Nazi Holocaust will never happen
again in any form..."[2]
Arab Organization: The Holocaust Is A 'Legend' Based On Lies
In response to the Tunisian conference, the Arab
Nationalist List organization, one of whose founding members is Ibrahim
'Alloush – the editor of the antisemitic website the Free Arab Voice and
a board member of the Association against Zionism and Racism[3]
– published a communiqué stating that the Holocaust is "a legend" based
on lies. Referring to the statement by the President of the Tunisian
Association to Support Minorities, Yasmina Thabet, on the Holocaust,
the Arab Nationalist List's communiqué says: "Her statement expose the
Zionist objectives of disseminating the 'Holocaust' legends, which some
Arabs believe. Most unfortunately, many have been ensnared and have
adopted the claim that 'the Holocaust' actually happened. But what about
the suffering of others who were not Jews?! Is it is permissible to
exploit a lie that the Europeans [allegedly] committed in order to
justify the violation of Arab rights?!
"The Holocaust legend is based on three major
arguments, namely: 1. The claim that the Nazis operated a machine or the
mass extermination of the Jews in Germany and in the areas that they
conquered in Europe; 2. the claim that this led to the annihilation of 6
million Jews in Europe; 3. the claim that this was performed by killing
[the Jews] in special gas chambers.
"In light of the severity of the issue, the
Holocaust legend, and the three arguments on which this historical
falsehood rests, must inevitably be rebutted. Many revisionist
historians investigated and refuted them from several angles, while
relying on history and the sciences of chemistry and engineering. The
scientific studies prove that: 1. The story about systematic mass
extermination is untrue. Nazi documents prove that the Nazis' plan was
to expel the Jews from Germany rather than exterminate them… 2. The
claim that the number of Holocaust victims totaled six million was
refuted by demographic studies proving that there were never six million
Jews in Germany during any part of Nazi period, [but only] 550,000,
[nor were there six million Jews] in all the Eastern European regions
that were conquered by the Nazis…
"According to the legend, the Nazis led the Jews in
groups into large rooms, where they murdered them with arsenic gas.
This is the excellent part of the story, and herein lies the secret of
the Western empathy with the alleged six million [victims] versus [its]
indifference to the 22 million Soviet [nationals who were killed] in the
[second] World War, or the millions of Arabs who were killed by the
Zionist, American and Western killing machines. The reason for this
[empathy] is the way they were killed rather than the quantity of people
killed..."
The communiqué also argued that commemorating the
Holocaust in Tunisia was a normalization measure towards Israel and
constituted "betraying the blood of our martyrs who gave their lives to
liberate Palestine."[4]
Bahraini Ambassador To France Visits Holocaust Memorial: It Is Our Duty To Combat Intolerance And Hatred
The Bahraini daily Akhbar Al-Khalij, citing
the French news agency AFP, reported that on December 10, 2013, Bahraini
ambassador to France Nasser Al-Balushi visited the Holocaust memorial
center in Drancy near Paris. This was the first visit by a Muslim
diplomat to the site, which was established in September 2012. The visit
was conceived by Jewish French author Marek Halter and the Imam of
Drancy, Hassan Al-Chalghoumi. The Bahraini ambassador laid a wreath on
the monument and said: "It is our duty to act together to combat any
expression of intolerance and hatred. Bahrain is a Muslim country, but
its laws enable coexistence with other religious groups. Alongside
mosques, [Bahrain] has synagogues, churches, and [other] houses of
worship."[5]
Bahraini ambassador visits Holocaust memorial center (Akhbar Al-Khalij, Bahrain, December 10, 2013)
The ambassador's visit sparked criticism in
Bahrain. Bahraini MP Khaled Al-Maloud of the Al-Asala Islamic bloc said
that the visit was "shameful" and did not represent the Bahraini people,
who stands alongside the Palestinian cause and is proud of its Arab and
Islamic principles. He added: "Islam forbids harming innocents... But
in today's world it is known that the so-called Jewish Holocaust is a
lie and a deception whose disgraceful [nature] is clear to all, and
which was meant to harm the rights of the Palestinian people and
[facilitate] the theft of its lands. The real Holocaust is the one
taking place against Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and all
the Palestinian territories, where they have been suffering killing,
expulsion and uprooting by the Zionist gangs for close to 100 years."[6]
Another Bahraini MP, Hassan Bokhamas, claimed in a
similar vein that the visit contradicts basic Bahraini, Arab, and
Islamic principles related to support of the Jerusalem and Palestine
cause and the boycott of the Zionist entity, "which harms the people,
the land and the holy sites, and is toying with global public opinion in
order to receive financial and moral support and cover up all the
crimes against humanity that it is carrying out in Palestine." He called
on the government to act to correct the ambassador's mistake, which
harms Bahrain's reputation on the Arab and Islamic level. According to
him, "it is inconceivable to reward the occupation with any
normalization or encouragement while it increases its crimes."[7]
Bokhamas on Twitter: "We demand that the government work to correct the ambassador to France's mistake, which harms Bahrain's reputation on the Arab and Islamic level" (source: Twitter.com/Hasan_Bokhamas)
Article On Website Close To Hizbullah: The Ambassador Visited The Memorial To Draw Close To Israel
The website Alahednews.com, which is close to
Hizbullah, published an article by journalist Nidal Hamade attacking the
visit by the Bahraini ambassador and claiming that his intention was to
draw close to Israel in order to prevent Western criticism of the
Bahraini regime's oppression of its own people: "For anyone who follows
Arab diplomatic activity in France, the news of the visit of Bahraini
ambassador Nasser Al-Balushi to the Jewish Holocaust memorial in Drancy
in the suburbs of Paris is neither strange or shameful, since the man
was appointed to this role in order to draw close to the Israel lobby!
The Bahraini ambassador is not the only Arab ambassador in the French
capital who maintains ties with Zionist and rabbinical circles, but he
was the first to dare visit the Jewish Holocaust memorial... Since
arriving in Paris, Nasser Al-Balushi worked to maintain ties with the
Israel lobby in France...
The Bahraini regime believes that drawing close to
Israel is the best means to avoid defeat in its struggle against the
Bahraini people, which is demanding its political rights and is
oppressed by regime forces due to those demands. Nasser Al-Balushi
ceaselessly speaks of the great Iranian threat to the Gulf and to
Israel. He has become one of the most active Arab ambassadors in France
since the start of the nonviolent revolution in Bahrain, and transformed
the Bahraini embassy into a wasp's nest and a media operation center
meant to damage the [Bahraini] revolution's reputation and prevent any
Western criticism of the Manama regime. Several French journalists
quoted him as saying that 'the Arab Gulf countries, like Saudi Arabia,
Qatar, and the UAE, maintain very close ties with influential Israeli
elements.' Now [it is also] Bahrain's turn, which hosts in its territory
the largest American base in the Middle East – the center for the U.S.
Fifth Fleet – and wants to cover up the oppression suffered by its
people at the hands of the ruling gang's apparatuses by making
accusations regarding Iran, Hizbullah, and Iraq..."[8]
Endnotes:
[1] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 4860, PA Official's Auschwitz Visit Evokes Enraged Responses From Hamas, August 1, 2012.
[2] Magharebia.com, December 20, 2013; Alwatanvoice.com, December 16, 2013.
[3] On Ibrahim 'Alloush, see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 225, "Zionism and Nazism: A Discussion on the TV Channel Al-Jazeera, " June 7, 2001; MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 3908, "Articles
in Hamas Media on How Jews Gained From Holocaust: 'The Holocaust Is One
of the Widest Doorways Through Which Jews Entered the Western World'," June 13, 2011.
[4] Qawmi.com, December 18, 2013.
[5] Akhbar Al-Khalij (Bahrain), December 10, 2013.
[6] Akhbar Al-Khalij (Bahrain), December 12, 2013.
[7] Manamavoice.com, December 12, 2013.
[8] Alahednews.com, December 10, 2013.
MEMRI
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