Middle East

Israel remembers Holocaust as world seethes over Ahmedinejad’s comments

Article published on the 2009-04-21 Latest update 2009-04-21 13:52 TU

Israel's army chief Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi salutes during a ceremony marking Holocaust Remembrance Day.
(Photo: Reuters)

Sirens wailed across Israel in remembrance of the six million Jews killed by the Nazi regime during the Second World War, only a day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad provoked a maelstrom of debate when he criticised Israel during the UN’s anti-racism conference in Geneva.

People across Israel also observed a two-minute silence for Holocaust Remembrance Day, with pedestrians stopping in their tracks and traffic coming to a halt.

The national commemoration came only a day after Ahmedinejad outraged European delegates by describing the Israel as “the most cruel and repressive racist regime”.

“Anti-semitism is an ancient historic phenomenon,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a ceremony at Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem on Monday. “If anyone thought that following the horrific events of the Holocaust this malignant phenomenon would vanish from this world, it is today obvious that he was wrong.”

Netanyahu acknowledged Ahmedinejad’s comments by saying that, “Some chose to attend the show of hatred against Israel held as we speak in the heart of Europe … We will not let Holocaust deniers carry out another Holocaust of the Jewish people. This is the supreme commitment of the state of Israel.”

While his remarks prompted 23 European Union delegations to walk out in protest, not everyone found them offensive. Several delegations, including Venezuela, applauded the speech, which was in turn lauded in the Iranian press on Tuesday.

“I admire Ahmadinejad’s position against the Zionist regime,” conservative Tehran MP Ali Motahari was reported to have said. “It was important to inform the world of the Islamic republic’s stance against the Zionist regime and the president managed that very well.”

Hassan Ghashghavi, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, agreed.

“Some western governments do not tolerate freedom of speech when it concerns Zionism,” he is quoted as saying in another Iranian newspaper.

Also on Monday, the leader of the newly-formed French Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA) was turned away at the border to the Gaza strip, and also denounced Israeli policies towards Palestinians.

Stopped at the Israeli border with a delegation from his party, Olivier Besancenot said he wanted to go to Gaza to “demonstrate his solidarity with the Palestinian population and those who, in Israel, oppose the criminal policies of their state.”

The Israeli border guards said that while humanitarian and diplomatic delegations are permitted entry into Gaza, political delegations are not.