ISRAEL: ISRAELI MOSLEM WILL TELL AHMADINEJAD THAT THE HOLOCAUST WAS REAL...

Israeli Muslim to take on Holocaust denial at Iran conference

An Israeli Arab who opened a Holocaust museum in his home last year is planning to attend an upcoming conference in Iran on whether or not the Holocaust actually happened — and he intends to tell the Iranians it cannot be denied.

Khaled Kasab Mahameed, a Muslim lawyer from Nazareth, said he had been invited to the conference, slated to begin December 11 in Iran's capital, Tehran. It was initiated by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, who has called the Holocaust a "myth," and is supposed to encourage research into whether or not millions of Jews were murdered by the Nazi regime during World War II.

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Mahameed said he planned to openly contradict Ahmedinejad's statements at the conference.

"Instead of trying to understand the Holocaust and learn something from it, they choose to deny it," Mahameed said. "I'm going to tell them that there is no argument about the facts, and that they must try to understand how the Holocaust has shaped the positions of the Jews, of Europe, of America. I will tell them they must internalize its meaning and not say it didn't happen."

Mahameed opened a modest museum in his home last year, holding lectures, running a web site and displaying photographs he obtained from Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust museum. He also penned a book in Arabic, "The Palestinians and the Sovereignty of the Holocaust."

"The dimensions of the Holocaust were never internalized by the Arab discourse on Israel, and many people don't believe it happened," Mahameed said. Teaching Arabs about the Holocaust, he believes, can help them understand Israelis better and aid progress towards a resolution of the Mideast conflict.


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