There were also several hopeful developments: two prominent Muslims, the former prime minister of Indonesia and the president of the Islamic Society of North America, condemned Holocaust denial; the United Nations General Assembly and UNESCO both passed resolutions opposing Holocaust denial; and the European Union urged all its member-states to adopt legislation prohibiting Holocaust denial.The report also covers various countries in the Middle East. Here is what Medoff and Grobman had to say about Israel's peace partners:
Palestinian AuthorityRead the entire report.
On July 16, Al-Jazeera Television aired a speech by Hamas leader Khaled Mash’al, at a conference honoring his colleague Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi: “I want to make it clear to the West and to the German people, which is still being blackmailed because of what Nazism did to the Zionists, or to the Jews. I say that what Israel did to the Palestinian people is many times worse than what Nazism did to the Jews, and there is exaggeration, which has become obsolete, regarding the issue of the Holocaust. We do not deny the facts, but we will not give in to extortion by exaggeration. As for the Zionist holocaust against the Palestinian people, and against the peoples of the Arab and Islamic nation --this is a holocaust that is being perpetrated in broad daylight, with the coverage of the media of globalization. Nobody can deny it or claim that it is being exaggerated.”32
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Speaking at a U.S. Senate hearing on February 8, 2007, Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch, explained how the new series of Palestinian Authority school books described the Nazis: “The books create a World War Two without the Holocaust. There are extensive details about the history of World War Two -- they teach about the "race theory" of the Nazi movement: “Race theory evolved during the thirties of the previous century, when the Nazi movement appeared in Germany in 1933 and divided the nations into superior and others who were inferior. It espoused the superiority of the Aryan race, from which the Germans originated, passed racist laws…" [The History of the Arabs and the World in the 20th Century, grade 12, p. 123] They even talk about the trials of the Nazi war criminals at the end of the war: “The Allied states established an international court to bring to trial the senior Nazi leaders as war criminals.”
[The History of the Arabs and the World in the 20th Century, grade 12, p. 46] ...but they don’t teach why they were on trial. They teach the history of WW2, the Nazi racism, and the trial of war criminals. But the Holocaust is not a part of that history.”33
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On November 27, the Palestinian Authority’s official radio station, Voice of Palestine, aired a quiz which depicted the life of Adolf Hitler in a favorable light and omitted any mention of the Holocaust. The quiz, which was the 20th installment of the Ramadan Educational Quiz, required listeners to guess the subject of the description, who was said to be “a leader and politician, born in 1889 in Braunau, Austria. He served in the German army during the First World War, was wounded in service and awarded two Medals of Honor. He joined a small right-wing party in Munich and became the head of this party without a struggle within two years. In 1923, he attempted to execute a coup but failed. He was arrested, imprisoned and released after serving a year in prison. In 1933 he became his country’s Chancellor, and used the state's mechanisms to crush his political opponents. He earned his popularity by succeeding to lower unemployment rates and to generate an economic recovery in his country. Later he prepared his country for the Second World War. His golden year was 1940, when his armies invaded Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Holland, and Belgium and defeated France in June 1940. That year Britain managed to withstand the attacks of his Air Force and he missed the victory over Britain. His armies conquered Greece and Yugoslavia in 1941. That year he violated the non-belligerency treaty and attacked Russia. His armies took control of vast Soviet areas. His armies were defeated in Stalingrad. He declared war on the United States in 1941. By mid 1942, his country controlled the largest land area in Europe and large parts of North Africa. The turning point of the war occurred late in 1942, when his forces were defeated in the Battle of Al-Alamein. He refused to surrender and continued to fight for two more years, but, his bitter end came in the spring of 1945 when he took his own life, and his country surrendered a week later. Who is he?” The first prize winner received approximately $150.34 [p. 11-14]
32 MEMRI Dispatch 1672, 2 August 2007.
33 Palestinian Media Watch - www.pmw.org.il
34 Palestinian Media Watch, www.pmw.org.il
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