hiver - Historical Revisionism by Vrij Historisch Onderzoek

——————————————————————> Conseils de révisions / hiver winter 2007
Denial IS dangerous. The West has already learned that lesson — haven’t we
National Review, 27 dec. 2006
http://article.nationalreview.com/q=OWJjMTY1NjU0MzNlZmI5NDE1N2MwMDhlYTFiYTUxNTg=
BLACK HATS
Anti-Israel "rabbis" face fallout from Jewish world
By Jonathan Saul
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Jewish leaders from across the globe have decried the sight of six Jews with beards
and black hats embracing Iran's president at a conference questioning the Holocaust, believing their gesture hurt
the faith.
The Nazis' mass murder of 6 million Jews remains one of the most sensitive issues for Jewish people. Israel was
partly founded as a haven for Holocaust survivors.
Jews continue to be alarmed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who since coming to power in
2005 has sparked international condemnation by terming the Holocaust "a myth" and calling for Israel to be
"wiped off the map".
Despite this, a small cluster of Jews took part in the December conference. They say they went under the
banner of Neturei Karta, a fringe ultra-Orthodox movement estimated by many commentators to number around
100, which does not recognise the state of Israel, and seeks its demise.
They believe Jews must remain stateless before the coming of the Messiah, and view the Zionist
movement - which established Israel - as an abomination before God for founding a state prematurely.
Even before the Tehran conference, the movement had angered many Jews by supporting former
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and having ties with Islamist group Hamas.
The six Jewish visitors to the conference in Iran regard themselves as part of the Haredi community -- a
very conservative branch of the Jewish faith, whose name in Hebrew means those "fearful" of sinning.
"PROPAGANDA TOOL"
But even in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Mea Sharim neighbourhood, home to many detractors of the
Jewish state -- including some who share Neturei Karta's anti-Zionist beliefs -- many residents said those who
attended the Tehran conference went a step too far.
"While we do not agree with the secular state of Israel, these people have desecrated the name of God,"
said Haim Freid, an ultra-Orthodox Jew who lives in Mea Sharim. "They do not represent us."
A spokeswoman for Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust remembrance body, said the group was "an
unfortunate caricature that has been used as a propaganda tool by the Iranian regime".
Israel's Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger called on rabbis worldwide to ban the Jewish participants --
who were from the United States and Europe -- from synagogues.
Agudath Israel of America, which represents tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews in the U.S., said
despite their Haredi garb, the six were a "disgrace" and "dangerous" to Jews.
The two-day Iranian government-sponsored conference was also attended by Westerners who have cast
doubt on the Holocaust, even though some of the countries they come from have made it a crime to deny that it
happened.
At the conference, Neturei Karta Rabbi Aharon Cohen said Germany had carried out "a catastrophic policy
and action of genocide" on the Jews, but said it was open to question how many millions had perished.
Neturei Karta's leader in Israel, self-styled Rabbi Yisrael Hirsch, said while it "hurt when people deny the
Holocaust happened" the Jews' participation in Tehran was important.
"The purpose was to reveal to the whole world that the Iranians do not have any hatred to Jews, they only
oppose Zionism like we do," he said, surrounded by volumes of sacred Jewish scriptures at his modest home in
Mea Sharim.
"We wanted to show that Zionism does not represent the Jewish people."
Hirsch, a 51-year-old U.S. citizen by birth who rejected Israeli citizenship, said he was unable to go to
Tehran because he lived in Israel. Iran does not grant entry to visitors with Israeli entry stamps in their passports.
Hirsch's father Moshe, a New York-born rabbi, was Arafat's adviser on Jewish affairs.
ANGER
Neturei Karta, Aramaic for "guardians of the city", was formed in Jerusalem in the 1930s as a bulwark
against the growing Zionist movement in what was then British Mandate Palestine.
The large and influential Satmar Hassidic sect, which also opposes the state of Israel and believes
Zionism is an "idolatrous temptation", is a traditional Neturei Karta ally but has increasingly distanced itself from
the movement.
Satmar's United States-based rabbinical leadership described the Jews' attendance at the Tehran
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