Statement

2009

ITF Chair’s Statement on President Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial

The IHRA Chair expresses deep concern about the Iranian President’s statements, stressing on the international community’s shared responsibility to counter Holocaust denial and distortion.

As the ITF (now IHRA) Chair I am appalled by and condemn the President of Iran’s statement of 18 September 2009 denying the reality of the Holocaust. Make no mistake: Holocaust denial is not merely a radical and baseless form of historical revisionism, but a form of antisemitic hate speech. It is aimed not just at Israel or Zionism but at inciting hatred against Jews everywhere.

As the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre said in his statement following a similar instance of Holocaust denial by the Iranian President at the Durban Review Conference on 20 April 2009, “I heard the messages in the President’s speech – and they amount to just that: incitement of hatred, spreading politics of fear and promoting an indiscriminate message of intolerance.”
Such statements of Holocaust denial spread malice and ignorance; they fan the flames of antisemitism and are unworthy of the leader of the Iranian people.

**UPDATE** WIESENTHAL CENTER PRAISES INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST TASK FORCE FOR SHARP CONDEMNATION OF AHMADINEJAD’S CONTINUED HOLOCAUST DENIAL