Reuters | January 27, 2007
UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly adopted a US-drafted resolution today condemning denials of the Holocaust, weeks after Iran sponsored a meeting dominated by speakers questioning the Nazis’ extermination of 6 million Jews in World War 2.
The resolution, co-sponsored by more than 100 countries, including all Western nations, was approved by consensus, without a vote. Iran disassociated itself from the action, calling the resolution a political exercise that Israel would exploit against Palestinians.
The resolution “condemns without any reservation any denial of the Holocaust” and “urges all member states unreservedly to reject any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part, or any activities to this end.”
It is a follow up to a broader November 2005 assembly measure making January 27 the International Day of Commemoration for victims of the Holocaust. But at least 22 nations left their seats empty in the assembly hall, including Bolivia, Chile and Columbia, who had co-sponsored the resolution. Others not attending included Cambodia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan and Zimbabwe, according to US officials.
Iran is not mentioned by name although the resolution is clearly aimed at a Tehran conference convened in December by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Most speakers expressed doubt about the Nazis’ mass extermination of Jews.
Ahmadinejad came to power in August 2005 and caused an international outcry by terming the Holocaust a “myth” and calling Israel a “tumour” in the Middle East. Iran’s envoy Hossein Gharibi told the assembly, “In our view there is no justification for genocide of any kind, nor can there be any justification for the attempt made by some – particularly by the Israeli regime – to exploit the past crimes as a pretext to commit new genocide and crimes.”
Responded US acting ambassador, Alejandro Wolff, “Iran stands alone, in shame, isolated, against the international community.”
“Conferences like those sponsored by Iran are designed solely to polarize and incite hatred. If successful they can then use that hatred as a catalyst to justify genocide,” Wolff said. “To deny the event of the Holocaust is tantamount to the approval of genocide in all its forms.”
Said Israel’s UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman, “While the nations of the world gather here to affirm the historicity of the Holocaust with the intent of never again allowing genocide, a mmember of this assembly is acquiring the capabilities to carry out its own.”
“The president of Iran is in fact saying, ‘There really was no Holocaust, but just in case, we shall finish the job.'”
Middle East nations were not among the co-sponsors. But Egypt’s UN ambassador, Maged Abedelaziz, said while he agreed with the resolution the world should also speak out against the rising “Islamaphobia.”
Friday’s measure is timed to coincide with the January 27 commemoration, which Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin emphasized was the day the Soviet Red Army liberated the large Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.
Up to 1.5 million prisoners, most of them Jews, were killed in Auschwitz alone. A total of six million Jews and millions of others including Poles, homosexuals, Russians and Gypsies were murdered by the Nazis and their allies during the war.
Germany’s UN Ambassador Thomas Matussek, representing the European Union, said he was aware that the “unprecedented crime of the Holocaust was committed by Germans and in the name of Germany and from that stems our special responsibility.”
Comment:
The following was originally sent to former Prime Minister John Howard and now has been forwarded to the current Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
To the Prime Minister of Australia
Dear Sir,
The recent UN resolution “condemning without reservation any denial of the Holocaust” is yet another shameful political act on in which Australia has chosen a politically correct stance rather than investigating or at least allowing the investigation of the true facts and history.
Let me remind you that the kangaroo court of Nuremberg in the 1940’s declared that 6 million Jews were murdered by National Socialist Germany. 4 million of which were supposedly murdered in Auschwitz alone. In the early 1990’s the Polish President altered that number to 1.5 million dead – mainly Jews. This brings the number of Jews (supposedly) murdered to 3 million.
Subsequently: In 1996 it was reported by Australian media that the number of Jews killed in the “Holocaust” had been lowered to 3 million. It was further reported that this was the second time the official figure had been lowered from the original 6 million.
Now that the official figure has again risen to 6 million, I would like to know your intentions. Do you or do you not intend to follow through with this sham of history and enact laws making questioning of the number of deaths in the “Holocaust” a criminal offence? Such as is already the case in the leading EU nations and Canada, and is proposed for the United States.
If so, then I will here and now declare that I will not bow down to any dictatorial demands on the falsification of historical for political gain. Further more, I’d rather die as an outlaw with a metal bucket on my head and six-guns in my hands than live a lie.
Lastly: I implore – no, I demand that you make a public statement to the effect that Australians will not and can not be denied the freedom to investigate for themselves events claimed to be historical fact and make up their own minds – including the right for historians to publish their findings without fear of persecution from within or without Australia. To refuse to do so is not only a denial of freedom of expression, but also a denial of freedom of thought.
Yours Sincerely,
Cailen Cambeul