But where did that lack of love tolerance & common sense begin?
We know many Arab kingdoms supported the Axis of WW-II. Radical Islam is the faction which shows a total of tolerance & would convert the world (by force if needed) to their way of life.
Arab League Seminar Denies Severity of Holocaust
By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
August 29, 2002
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Israel and Jewish groups expressed their outrage on Thursday at a seminar held in United Arab Emirates in which Arab scholars and others gathered to refute the severity of the Holocaust.
The one-day seminar in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday on "Semitism" was sponsored by the Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-up, which belongs to the 22-member nation Arab League.
According to the ZCCF's website, the symposium was held "to counter the historical and political fallacies propagated by Israel... Israel has indulged in spreading lies and exaggerations about Holocaust in order to squeeze out huge sums of money from European countries through worst forms of blackmail and to create false legends in support of ... establishing a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine."
"Absolutely outrageous," Dr. Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Weisenthal Center in Jerusalem said of the seminar. "It's a reflection of the problems Israel has in forming peaceful relations with its neighbors."
Zuroff said that in the past Arabs did not engage as much in Holocaust denial but the situation is getting worse.
"It's a very bad development and a sign they're headed in the wrong direction," Zuroff said.
"It is outrageous that an official think-tank of the Arab League has convened a symposium that labels the Holocaust a 'false fable' perpetuated by Israel," said Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League.
"The growing use of Holocaust denial has become increasingly common in the Arab world as a weapon to attack Israel and the Jewish people," Foxman said in a statement.
"Now, with an official think-tank of Arab nations giving Holocaust denial a platform under the guise of legitimate policy research, this dangerous and insidious form of anti-Semitism has gained further acceptance," Foxman added.
"It is unfortunate that leaders of the Arab League have taken up Holocaust denial in an official forum in an underhanded and vindictive attempt to de-legitimize Jews and Israel," he said.
Foxman warned world leaders to beware of participating in events sponsored by the Zayed Center in the future. Previous speakers there have included former President Jimmy Carter, former Vice President Al Gore and former Secretary of State James Baker.
Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem, also condemned the symposium and vowed to continue fighting the Holocaust denial phenomenon through education.
"Yad Vashem continues to strengthen bodies fighting anti-Semitism by providing accurate Holocaust materials and promoting current research," said Chairman of the Directorate of Yad Vashem, Avner Shalev.
"In addition, we provide educational tools and explanatory activities aimed at better educating the public and combating such obvious fabrications," Shalev said in a statement.
Israel declined to formally respond to the symposium but an Israeli diplomatic source said Israel was "concerned and very worried" about the denial of the Holocaust.
"We're very worried about the education of the next generation," said the source, who asked not to be named.
She said that the phenomenon is connected to two things: growing anti-Semitism throughout the Arab world and ignorance and lack of information about the history of the Jewish people and the State of Israel.
At the seminar, Ahmed Salim Jarad, representative for Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa challenged the use of the term "anti-Semitism" to describe hostility toward Jews since Arabs are also Semites.
The term was first used in Europe and has been widely used only to describe anti-Jewish sentiments and acts.
Jarad also accused Israel of using the concept of "terrorism" falsely after September 11 to defame Arab and Islamic nations.
"We can distinguish terrorism from legitimate resistance against occupation that is recognized by international law," Jarad was quoted as saying in Gulf News online.
The center's director Mohammed Khalifa charged that Israel keeps "telling lies after lies to make people believe that that are Semites and are being persecuted by others. They resort to this in order to cover their heinous crimes against the Palestinian people."
According to the Israeli diplomatic source, Abu Dhabi, where the conference was held, has been one of the leaders in propagating anti-Semitism.
Abu Dhabi television was the only Arab station to air a series on television in which Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was portrayed in a grotesque manner as a vampire after the blood of Palestinians, she said.
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