Dec. 14


IRAN:

Iran's Ahmadinejad says Holocaust a myth


Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that the Holocaust
was a myth, ramping up his rhetoric and triggering a fresh wave of
international condemnation.

Last week Ahmadinejad first aired his doubts on the veracity of the
Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed by the Nazis. His
comments drew a rebuke from the U.N. Security Council.

"They have fabricated a legend under the name 'Massacre of the Jews', and
they hold it higher than God himself, religion itself and the prophets
themselves," he told a crowd in the southeastern city of Zahedan on
Wednesday.

The speech was broadcast live on state television.

European countries called the remarks unacceptable and said they could
undermine plans for talks with Tehran on its controversial nuclear
program.

The United States condemned the comments as outrageous while Israel
said they showed Iran's "rogue regime" was acting outside acceptable
international norms.

Ahmadinejad, a former Revolutionary Guardsman who was elected president in
June, said in October Israel must be "wiped off the map," provoking a
diplomatic storm and stoking fears about Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Washington accuses Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons. Iran says its
nuclear program is only for generating electricity.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the Holocaust remarks
could weigh on European Union efforts to resolve the dispute over
Iran's nuclear program.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the comments underscored the
importance of the international community working together to "keep Iran
from developing nuclear weapons."

"All responsible leaders in the international community recognize how
outrageous such comments are," he told reporters.

Ahmadinejad's comments, Israel's foreign ministry said, showed "a warped
understanding."

"The combination of extremist ideology, a warped understanding of reality
and nuclear weapons is a combination that no-one in the international
community can accept," said spokesman Mark Regev.

PROVOCATION OR CLOUT?

Iran's hardline press largely rallied round the president's first
Holocaust remarks but the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Iran's leading
reformist party, printed a critical statement in the liberal Sharq daily
on Wednesday.

"Provocation ... and starting this sort of talk, which benefits neither
Iranians nor oppressed Palestinians, will only increase consensus on
supporting the (Israeli) regime and will unify the approach against Iran,"
it said.

Commentators have said that Ahmadinejad sees himself as a popular,
pan-Islamic leader in the mold of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the
aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Tehran-based political analyst Mahmoud Alinejad said the president perhaps
feels his speeches were winning Iran diplomatic clout.

"There is a perception, based on past experience that only when Iran
threatens and pushes does the West back off," he said.

Ahmadinejad accused the Israeli government and its allies of hypocrisy and
reiterated his view that Israel should be moved from "dear Palestine" to
Europe, America or Canada.

"If your civilization consists of unjust acts, oppression and poverty for
the majority of the globe to provide your own people welfare, then we
shout at the top of our voices that we hate your frail civilization," he
added.

This was greeted by rapturous cries of "God is the Greatest" from the
crowd.

(source: Reuters)


**************************


Iran's President Dismisses Nazi Holocaust as 'Myth'


Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the Nazi Holocaust a
"myth" and said Europe, the US and Canada should use their own land for a
Jewish state.

The West has "fabricated a myth under the name 'Massacre of the Jews,'
and they hold it higher than God himself, religion itself and the prophets
themselves," Iran's leader told thousands of supporters in the
southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, in a speech aired live today on
state television.

"If you say and insist it's true that you killed 6 million Jews in
crematoria during World War II, then why should the Palestinians pay for
that?" Ahmadinejad asked, referring to Europeans. "Our proposal is that
you give a piece of your land in Europe, the US, Canada or Alaska. If you
do that, the Iranian people will no longer protest against you."

This is the strongest anti-Israeli public comment by Ahmadinejad since
he took office in August. The Iranian president drew international
condemnation on Oct. 26 after saying that Israel should be "wiped off the
map." On Dec. 8, he prompted another outcry when he said Europe should
host Israel on its soil. Some 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis
until Germany's defeat in the 1939-1945 war.

Remarks 'Deliberate'

His remarks are "deliberate" and fulfill different aims, said Olivier
Roy, a specialist on Central Asia and Islam at the Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique in Paris.

"First he wants to cut the grass under the feet of other elements in
the regime that favor a more open stance with the US," Roy said in a
telephone interview. "Secondly, he's a pure product of the revolution, who
is just not interested in diplomacy. And finally, the situation in Iraq
makes him feel in a position of strength, as an attack from the US or
Israel looks highly unlikely at the moment."

The remarks by Ahmadinejad, whose election in June gave backers of the
Islamic revolution full power over state institutions, have added to
tensions as Iran faces possible United Nations sanctions over its nuclear
program.

Talks between the European Union and Iran, aimed at ending the
standoff over the nuclear program, are scheduled to resume on Dec. 21. The
negotiations broke down in August after Iran resumed uranium conversion,
an initial step to increase the concentration of the U-235 isotope that
starts and sustains a nuclear reaction.

'Legitimate Nuclear Rights'

"Be certain that we will not back away one iota from our legitimate
nuclear rights," Agence France-Presse quoted Ahmadinejad as saying today
in Sistan-Baluchestan province.

Iran's president, like his predecessor Mohammad Khatami, has said the
country has a "legitimate right" to develop a nuclear power program. The
US alleges Iran is gearing up to build a nuclear bomb.

The board of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency voted in
September to refer the dispute over Iran's nuclear program to the
15-nation UN Security Council, without setting a date.

The US and its European allies decided last month not to press for
such referral immediately, in order to allow more time for an agreement
that would permit Iran's uranium enrichment to take place in Russia.

'Extremist Regime'

"We hope the international community takes these comments about wiping
Israel off the map very seriously and wakes up to the nature of this
extremist regime," Raanan Gissin, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon, said in a telephone interview from Jerusalem. "Iran's
nuclear program and its support of international terrorism are not only a
danger for Israel but for the entire Western civilization."

The Security Council "condemned the remarks the first time he made
them," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in Washington. "I think
all responsible leaders in the international community recognize how
outrageous such comments are."

The US government, which bans American companies from doing business
in Iran, says Iran sponsors terrorism by backing groups such as the
Palestinian Hamas and the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah
was formed in 1982 with the help of Iran's Revolutionary Guards after
Israel invaded Lebanon.

Yesterday, the Iranian president reiterated his support for Hamas,
which has carried out suicide attacks against Israeli targets, after
meeting its political leader, Khalid Mashaal.

"We are all obliged to heed our religious and divine responsibilities
in offering services to the Palestinian movement," Ahmadinejad told
Mashaal in Tehran, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Oil Sales

Iran exported crude oil to Israel until the Islamic Revolution in
1979. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Islamic Republic's founder, put an
end to that trade. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader since
Khomeini died, has repeatedly called for Arab and Islamic countries to
suspend oil sales to Israel.

Anti-Israeli and anti-US comments are frequent in Iran. Friday prayers
throughout the country are regularly punctuated by "Death to Israel, Death
to the US" slogans. Anti-US paintings also abound in Tehran, including
those on the wall of the building that served as the US Embassy.

The war of words goes in both directions, with Iran referring to the
US as "the Great Satan" and US President George W. Bush in 2002 calling
Iran part of an "axis of evil" that included North Korea and Iraq during
Saddam Hussein's rule.

(source: The Nation)




THE NETHERLANDS:

Philips owner who saved Jews in Holocaust dies


Frederik Jacques Philips, former head of the Dutch giant Philips and
savior of hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust died last week, at the age
of 100.

Frederick was the son of Philips Electronics cofounder Anton Philips. He
was chief executive of the firm between 1961 and 1971 and the fourth CEO
of the international company.

For Jews, Philips will always be remembered as the man who saved hundreds
of Dutch Jews from deportation to Auschwitz. Philips, unlike most other
members of his family, stayed in Nazi-occupied Holland and employed as
many Jews as possible at his Vught prison camp factory.

Medal of honour

In 1996, Yad Vashem awarded Philips a special medal given to honour
non-Jews who saved the lives of Jews during the Holocaust.

Frits Philips, in risking his life to save Jews during the Holocaust,
showed extraordinary courage in the face of terrible circumstances, Yad
Vashem told Reuters in response to his death.

A book written about the Philips owner two years ago shed a different
light on the rescue of almost four hundred Jewish prisoners. The book
claims that Philips opened the factory to save his company because the
Allies had already bombed Philips factories in Eindhoven and the future of
the business was in jeopardy.

According to the New York Times a Dutch war documentation center said that
the company played a double role in the war because its factory production
contributed to the German war industry as well.

Philips, who was referred to by employees as 'Mr. Frits', will be
remembered very fondly by his home city of Eindhoven where he was an avid
fan of the local team PSV. In a match last week, the players of PSV all
wore armbands in remembrance of the man who never missed a match.

Philips' influence on the company was massive; he promoted the expansion
to Asia and Americas and was said to behind many of the company's
impressive innovations over the years.

(source: European Jewish Press)




AUSTRIA:

UK historian to face Austrian Holocaust trial


In Vienna. an Austrian court will begin the trial of British historian
David Irving in February on charges of denying the Holocaust, a court
spokesman said.

Irving was arrested in the southern province of Styria last month under a
warrant issued in 1989 and has since been remanded in custody and charged
with denying the Holocaust, a crime in Austria which carries a sentence of
one to 10 years in prison.

"Irving's trial will take place on February 20 and 21 from 9am to 4pm,"
said a spokesman for the Vienna regional court. "I can't say any more on
that now," he added.

Irving's website (see link below) said he had been invited by students to
address a university association in Austria. In a message dated November
11, it said he was on a one-day visit to the Austrian capital.

When driving to the meeting in Vienna, students noticed plainclothes
detectives waiting for him, Irving told Austrian weekly magazine News last
month. He changed plans and drove to Graz in the southern province of
Styria to visit one of his publishers. Police stopped him on the motorway
and detained him.

(source: New Zealand Herald)




FRANCE:

French extreme-right politician to face court for Holocaust revisionism


The European Parliament in Strasbourg Wednesday lifted the immunity of
Bruno Gollnisch, deputy leader of Frances extreme right National Front
party, paving the way for his trial on charges of Holocaust revisionism.

Gollnisch, a member of the European parliament and right-hand man of
Frances far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, is now set to face trial
before a French court from May next year, on charges of denying crimes
against humanity.

The accusations surround comments he made before reporters in October 2004
saying that the existence of Nazi gas chambers during World War II was "up
to historians to decide". He later reiterated the comments.

European deputies decided not to defend their colleagues immunity, in line
with the recommendations of a report from the parliaments legal affairs
committee debated in the assembly on Monday.

The lawmakers decided that Gollnisch had not made the comments while
exercising his parliamentary functions, but in his capacity as professor
at Lyon university in eastern France.

(source: European Jewish Press)