Denial of History

Alex Grobman, a former director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and author of a number of books on the Holocaust, writes about Holocaust denier Ernest Zundel and concludes:

The deniers have convinced the media that this is a free speech issue--of Holocaust a, which it is not. Deniers should be allowed to speak and publish their works; but we have no moral or legal obligation to publish them or to help them promote their lies.

There is a certain irony in that, since according to The Guardian, it is this issue--of Holocaust cartoons--and not the publishing of the original 12 cartoons that led to the editor, Flemming Rose, to go on leave:

The Danish editor at the centre of the prophet caricature furore has been sent on indefinite leave after a disagreement with management about whether their newspaper should also print cartoons of the Holocaust.

...he would also be open to reprinting cartoons depicting the Holocaust commissioned by an Iranian newspaper. That prompted a public disagreement with editor-in-chief Carsten Juste, who has also come under pressure to resign over the row.

I suppose the editor-in-chief had the stomach for just so many controversies--I somehow doubt that he was cringing in fear of the Jewish Street.

Dr. Grobman finishes off:

Finally, Arab Holocaust denial raises the bar to a new level. Arabs deny the Holocaust, or at least its severity; vilify Zionist leaders for allegedly collaborating with the Nazis and becoming their heirs, and claim the Jews are responsible for precipitating whatever happened. They try to prove that Jews have no historical connection to the land and thus no legitimate right to any part of Israel. And if there was no Holocaust, then Jews are also not victims. Only the Arabs are.

Holocaust denial is a form of pseudo-history. We need to understand how the deniers cleverly manipulate and distort the facts. Holocaust denial is an insult against history and how we practice the science of history.

To deny the Holocaust is also shocking because it attempts to deny our search to find out why it happened. For this reason, we note that Holocaust denial is dangerous and despicable - it is an attempt not just to deny a true past, but also to deny a meaningful one.

This is not the first time that Moslems have played games with Jewish history. In an opinon column in the Washington Post, Hershel Shanks--the editor of the Biblical Archaeology Review--wrote in July 2000:

The Waqf has been destroying our history for nearly three decades without interference from Israeli authorities, despite the country's strict antiquities laws.

...As early as the 1970s the Waqf used a bulldozer to dig an illegal trench for utility lines that uncovered an ancient wall six feet wide and 16 feet long. The wall was removed before archaeologists could record and study it.

According to Haaretz:

During the 1970s and 1980s, the Islamic waqf, or religious trust, accused the state of Israel of crimes against archaeology and against Islam in Jerusalem. Under the influence of Islamic religious leaders and with the backing of Arab states, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), decided to stop financial aid to Israel. [this seems to no longer be the case]

It now remains to be seen, with Iran claiming to investigate the truth of the Holocaust, if the Moslem world is trying out a new tactic at delegitimizing Israel--and if the rest of the world will respond with anything more than lukewarm righteous resignation indignation.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Iran and Holocaust and Archaeology and History.