Payvand, Iran
Jan 3 2007
Iranian Diaspora Intelligentsia Unite Against Islamic Republic’s
Holocaust Revisionism
This spontaneous common initiative deserves notice all the more that
it is rare to see Iranian intellectuals including political and
human rights activists to find common ground and solidarity for a
common cause. However the excesses of the current Islamic Regime in
Iran and its leaders have shed a dark shadow of suspicion and
animosity towards Iranians worldwide ever since Iran’s president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has clearly stated that he wished to see the
`State of Israel Be Wiped off the Map’ and has held an international
conference including western revisionist historians, Ku-Klux Klan
members and racist delegations to Tehran to examine the veracity of
the Holocaust that cost the lives of 6 million Jews, Gypsies,
mentally retarded or political outcasts from all over Europe’s Nazi
occupied territories during WWII. The Nazi crimes were clearly
established after the War in Europe more than 60 years ago at the
Nuremberg Trial by an international and independent court of
justice.
The Nuremberg trials initiated a movement for the prompt
establishment of a permanent international criminal court, eventually
leading over fifty years later to the adoption of the Statute of the
International Criminal Court.
The Conclusions of the Nuremberg trials served to help draft:
The Genocide Convention, 1948.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.
The Convention on the Abolition of the Statute of Limitations on War
Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, 1968.
The Geneva Convention on the Laws and Customs of War, 1949; its
supplementary protocols, 1977.
All of which were clearly recognized by World Nations including Iran
and its successive governments and regimes that were to abide to
these conclusions and participate along with all members of the
United Nations to the global awareness of these crimes and actions
that led to the advent of a Second World War.
If the Conclusions of the Nuremberg Trials and the drafts above did
not put an end to military conflicts or crimes of equally horrifying
nature during the 20th century, it did nevertheless lead to a global
awareness of the dangers of ideologies that promote genocide of a
race or people in any form or manner. Even at the height of tensions
during the Cold War, Super Powers of the time be it the United States
or the Soviet Union could not simply ignore the above drafts without
risking to threaten global security and stability. In addition the
term genocide and its characteristics were clearly defined so as to
allow recourse to international law and justice if ever a nation or
people were indeed threatened by similar crimes. Recent examples in
the aftermath of the Cold War such as Rwanda or Serbia have been
reminiscent of crimes of genocidal nature that continue to be subject
to international investigations as has been the case for
ex-Yugoslavia through the La Hague International Tribunal. Some
countries such as Turkey continue to deny any responsibility in the
massacre of the Armenians under the Ottoman rule which continues to
plague Turkeys chances in entering the European Union as a full
member and partner.
However the scale of crimes committed by Nazi Germany and the nearly
scientific procedure of eliminating the Jewish population was
supported by the ideology that was at the source of the Nazi Party’s
creation and rise to Power in the person of Adolf Hitler and
ironically through democratic elections in a country that would soon
see all its politically legitimate and democratic institutions
replaced by a totalitarian structure of government where all
opposition was eliminated either politically or physically. Before
the Nuremberg Trials the true nature and extent of crimes committed
in the Nazi Concentration Camps were not revealed in all its
horrific magnitude to the World or even to the German population.
>From this perspective the Nazi crime record remains unique in the
annals of history even if nothing can justify other crimes of a
similar nature in the decades that followed WWII or in our present
times. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict for that matter cannot either
be solved by ignoring this past reality nor can the sufferings and
unjust treatment of all concerned be put into a balance as if one
crime should justify the other.
By claiming that the Holocaust was a Myth the current President of
Iran has also spoken in the name of his compatriots on an issue that
was neither mentioned in his electoral campaign nor suggested in the
political agenda on which he campaigned in order to become president
of a nation, where 70 % of the population was not even born at the
time of the Revolution and aspires to change and Freedom. The result
however has been disastrous not only for the Iranian Jewish minority
but also for the Iranian nation as a whole in that it has created a
psychological environment where political opportunism and economic
ambitions of the regime can thrive upon the same nationalistic and
ideological arguments that in the past, in Nazi Germany in
particular, have proved determinant in the advent of racial mindsets
and bellicose behavior which far from solving issues such as
unemployment or economic and social depression have served only as
arguments to justify the current regime’s own shortcomings and
totalitarian system of government.
In this context it is all the more encouraging to see that not only
the Iranians in Iran removed their support to President Ahmadinejad
at the last elections but also to see that the Iranian Intelligentsia
in the Diaspora has become much more outspoken and unambiguous in
condemning the Holocaust Denials and historical revisionisms that
have been supported by the current regime and its henchmen.
Thanks to Human Rights Activist Ladan Boroumand and Sister Roya a
statement has circulated this month clearly underlining their
condemnation of the Tehran Holocaust Conference and expressing their
homage and empathy for the victims and survivors of the Nazi
extermination machine as well as all similar cases of crimes against
humanity. Amongst the 100 signatories many are known faces in the
community such as film directors, writers, actors, journalists or
intellectuals others being unknown activists or simple citizens
concerned by the return of dangerous ideologies that in the past have
proved fatal.
Below is the drafted statement and names of all the current
signatories:
And the recent UN resolution that condemns without reservation
denials of the Nazi Holocaust by consensus:
/ga10569.doc.htm
It should be noted that the Iranian signatories of the draft had the
credit of doing so before the UN Resolution was even voted proving if
needed of that when issues of Human Rights and dignity are concerned
the Iranian Diaspora and its best representatives can unite and
transcend political, religious or ideological differences in the name
of universal humanistic principles.
May this constructive and necessary approach continue in the future.
Author’s notes:
Recommended Reading: Iranian Intellectuals Condemn Holocaust
Conference
Recommended Reading: Esther’s Children: A Portrait of Iranian Jews by
Houman Sarshar
Recommended Reading: Signed, sealed & delivered by Fereydoun Hoveyda.
The former diplomat participated in the drafting and voting of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
About the Author: Darius KADIVAR is a Freelance Journalist, Film
Historian, and Media Consultant.
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