Syria as a major source of anti-Semitic incitement: articles on holocaust denial systematically published in Syrian press during the first half of 2006

 

Overview

Bashar Assad�s regime, as that of his father�s, is riddled with anti-Semitism. This is reflected in public statements made in the past by President Bashar, anti-Semitic articles frequently published on the Syrian media, anti-Semitic television movies such as The Diaspora and The Garden of Death,1 and the publication of extensive anti-Semitic literature, including the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.2It should be noted that in Syria, the media, literature, and arts are closely monitored by the Syrian regime, and the anti-Semitic materials are published with the regime�s approval and encouragement.

• The Syrian press is an important means for the distribution of anti-Semitic incitement. In the first half of 2006, it prominently featured articles on holocaust denial and others which compared Zionism to Nazism. These articles, written by reputable journalists, make current political use of Nazi crimes, raising allegations that Zionism, the Jews, and even the US are those that perpetrate �war crimes� in Palestine and Iraq even worse than those perpetrated by the Nazis. The articles� authors complain that Western countries take measures against holocaust deniers and infringe upon the freedom of expression while yielding to Zionist pressures,

• In our assessment, the proliferation of such articles in the government-controlled Syrian press testifies that this is a propaganda policy pursued by the regime, trying not to fall behind Iran, Syria�s ally, in the sphere of holocaust denial and anti-Semitic statements.

• What follows is a review of anti-Semitic articles (with the addition of several cartoons of anti-Semitic nature) published in the Syrian press within the past several months, focusing on Holocaust denial, comparing Zionism to Nazism, and spreading hatred against Israel, the Zionist movement, the Jewish people, and the US and other Western countries.

The stereotypical Jew (right), the US (center), and Hitler (right). Above is an announcement saying �Contest of historical mistakes and crimes� (Teshreen, April 11, 2006)

 

Summary of an article by Ali Abu al-Hassan, titled �Secret German document shows coordination between Zionism and Nazism� (Al-Thawra, February 16, 2006)

• Dr. Ali Abu al-Hassan is a lecturer on the Palestinian problem in the universities of Damascus and Aleppo, and considered an expert on the Israeli-Arab conflict. He writes for Al-Thawra, grants interviews on Arab television channels (Al-Jazeera), and his articles are occasionally published on Palestinian terrorist organizations� websites (such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad website).

Dr. Ali Abu al-Hassan: �The crimes of Zionism exceed those of the Nazis��
(Photo: Al-Jazeera, April 14, 2001).

• According to the author of the article, the Zionist movement, based on the belief in the so-called Chosen People, collaborated with the Nazi regime to force Jews to immigrate to � Palestine�. The Zionists did not consider the rise of Nazism to be a national disaster but rather a one-of-a-kind historical opportunity to fulfill the goals of the Zionist movement.

• Zionism and Nazism had a lot in common since both were based on the belief in the so-called Chosen People. The Zionist movement has an inherent tendency for imperialism and expansion. The Zionist movement has an inferiority complex which is a result of being persecuted for its crimes, its corruption, and its claim [to land] to which it has no right [i.e., Israel].

• Every day, Zionism proves that it is the alternative to Nazism, and it even exceeds Nazism due to its prolonged use of a racist policy. That is what the Syrian leader [Bashar Assad] meant when he declared that �Zionism is racism whose racism exceeded Nazism.� The author concludes the article with a prophecy: Nazism collapsed, and the Zionist movement, based on corruption, will collapse sooner or later as well.

 

Summary of an article by Nasr Shimali, titled �The situation today� the difference between the Abu Ghraib camp and the Auschwitz camp� (Teshreen, March 2, 2006)

Nasr Shimali: The Auschwitz camp was not used for extermination, but was rather a forced labor camp harnessed for the German war effort�
(Photo: www.arabrenewal.com, May 23, 2006)

 

• At the beginning of the article, the author raises the following question: �Do the actions perpetrated against the Palestinians and Iraqis, at [their] detention camps and beyond, constitute war crimes or ethnic cleansing?� The author claims that there are documents and testimonies to the effect that the Israeli actions in Palestine are not mere war crimes but rather ethnic cleansing. Conversely, he claims that the American actions in Iraq are mostly war crimes, albeit at times bordering on ethnic cleansing. He notes that the crimes perpetrated by Hitler during World War II �pale in comparison to the level of crimes perpetrated by the Americans and Israelis in Palestine and Iraq��

• Shimali claims that Israel and the US do not possess any credible evidence that the Nazi regime engaged in genocide of the Jewish people during World War II. Furthermore, he argues that the entire subject of concentration camps has never been credibly documented. The documents that exist, in his view, testify that Hitler did not attempt to annihilate the Jewish people but rather considered them to be a �militant, hostile minority�.

• He argues that the Auschwitz camp was fundamentally an important detention facility, whose inmates engaged in labor for the German industry. He adds that during the war, the Germans forced the prisoners in the camp to work in order to win the war, and that professional courses were delivered to the young people at Auschwitz �so that the prisoners were a human resource for the Germans [and were] important for the [German] war effort�.

An Israeli soldier and an American character give a Nazi salute for the holiday. The caption above reads � Holiday blessings� (referring to Passover) (Teshreen, April 18, 2006)

 

Summary of an article by Khayr al-Din Abd al-Rahman, titled �The forgery of history and the Holocaust of truth� (Al-Baath, March 3, 2006)

• At the beginning of the article, the author states that on February 20 [2006], an Austrian court sentenced �important British historian� [and Holocaust denier] David Irving to three years in prison. The author claims that Irving was sentenced to a prison term for �questioning the figures that were forged by the Zionist movement about the Jewish fatalities in the Nazi prisons, what is referred to as the �crematorium��.

• The author quotes articles that appeared in the world media, saying they prove that the claim that four million (sic) Jews were murdered is false. The author complains that any person may disparage Allah and His prophets, but only those who touch upon the myth of the Holocaust are fated to be �imprisoned, fined, and slandered.�

 

Summary of an article by Dr. Ghazi Hussein, claiming that the Jews are those who perpetrate a �Holocaust� against the Palestinians (Teshreen, March 5, 2006)

Dr. Ghazi Hussein: The Zionist movement collaborated with the Nazis. The Jews are perpetrating a Holocaust against the Palestinians�
(Photo: www.awu-dam.org, September 16, 2003)

• The author of the article, Dr. Ghazi Hussein, is a reputable jurist and writer, originally from Salame, a village in the outskirts of Jaffa. He was a lecturer on international law in universities in Damascus and Germany, an advisor to the Syrian government, the PLO ambassador to Vienna, and head of the political section in the PLO office in Damascus, and often attends international conventions on the Israeli-Arab confrontation. He has written many books (riddled with hatred towards Israel) on the Israeli-Arab confrontation, and is a member of the Palestinian Association of Writers and Journalists and of the (Arab) Association against Zionism and Racism.

• In an article published in Teshreen, the author claims that there are numerous circles in Europe and the US that identify with Israel, despite the fact that it perpetrates crimes against humanity, against the Palestinian people, and against the other Arab countries. According to Hussein, the �world Jewry� took advantage of the sympathy for Israel and portrayed it as a small, peace-loving country. As a result, Israel received material assistance from Western countries�Europe and the US�that granted legitimacy to its �aggressive wars� against Arab countries.

• According to Hussein, the Zionist movement collaborated with the Nazis and the anti-Semitic and racist movements of the imperialist (i.e., Western) countries in order to bring about the establishment of the State of Israel. He claims that the Jews perpetrated a series of massacres in Palestine and in Arab countries, and that they continue to perpetrate a Holocaust against the Palestinians since Zionism has �elevated terrorism to a status of religious holiness�.

The symbols of the Jewish people and the State of Israel (the Menorah, the Star of David, the Israeli flag) decorated with skulls³ (Teshreen, February 4, 2006).

Summary of an article by Muhammad Qassem al-Khalil, titled �Ideological terrorism� (Al-Thawra, March 10, 2006)

• The author of the article complains about the campaign of �ideological terrorism� waged by the Zionists against all their critics. Examples to that effect, according to the author, are the prison sentence issued against historian David Irving �due to his scientific opinion of the Holocaust� and the suspension of London�s mayor �for describing one of the Zionists as a Nazi�.

• The author calls upon the Arab media to cover those events to expose the �ideological terrorism� waged by the Zionists in the name of the freedom of expression.

 

Summary of an article by Ali Sawaha, titled �To dare criticize the Zionists?� (Al-Thawra, March 10, 2006)

• The author lashes out against France for being the first European country to �pass a law prohibiting discussion of the so-called Holocaust�. The price paid for it by researcher Roger Garoudi was imprisonment.

• The author complains that despite all the documented evidence, the world�s conviction that the Jews underwent mass extermination by the Nazis is baffling. The West, he complains, continues to be a prisoner of this concept and is unable to rid itself of it.

 

Summary of an article by Ghaleb al-Barhoudi, titled �The crematoriums and the Zionist lobby�

• The author claims that Zionism has managed to induce guilt feelings in Europeans over what is referred to as �persecution of Jews� and �anti-Semitism�. The �myth of the crematoriums� has been turned by Zionist hands into �something sacred� that cannot be compromised or refuted despite all the facts, while offending the sanctity and prophets [of Islam] is considered to be some sort of freedom of expression.

• The author complains that things have come to the point where some European countries passed special laws that penalize questioning the Holocaust and ban anti-Semitism, while allowing to offend Islam and the Prophet Muhammad in the name of the freedom of expression.

• The author argues that anti-Semitism is a Zionist �invention� designed to maintain a feeling of fear among the Jews, and drive them to immigrate to �occupied Palestine �. He cites the PhD thesis of French publicist Henri Roques,⁴ titled �Refuting the claims on burning six million Jews in the age of Nazism� (such as raising the claim that the gas chambers� function was to disinfect the soldiers� and prisoners� clothes to prevent epidemic outbreaks).

Summary of an article by Hanan Hamad, titled �A view point� The Holocaust� A standard� (Teshreen, April 1, 2006)

• The author notes that John Bolton, the US Ambassador to the UN, made the following statement after the publication of the presidential announcement in the Security Council about the Iranian nuclear issue: �I don�t know how I can trust a president who does not acknowledge the Holocaust�, referring to Iranian President Ahmadinejad. The author complains that the Holocaust has become an international standard on the basis of which the various regimes are assessed. She notes that Israel is an entity not worthy of the West�s support, and that anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial must not be regarded as a taboo.

• The author notes that thanks to the Holocaust, Israel is gaining absolute support which allows it to �entrench its existence as a radical extremist entity based on the purity of religion and on organized terrorism,� with the pretext that the Jews, persecuted in Western Christian countries and mostly in Europe, could live in safety only in the �Jewish homeland�. The results, according to Hamad, will have a devastating effect on the entire region.

Valentine�s Day a la Israel and the Jews: A stereotypical Jew holding a flower, contemplating love and nuclear weapons, and kissing a rocket with the inscription �Israel� next to a pile of human skulls (Teshreen, February 11, 2006)

 

Summary of an article by Mahmoud Abd al-Rahman, titled �Zionism and the exploitation of memory�

• According to the author of the article, the Zionist propaganda has been able to infiltrate into the decision-making circles of the world powers and gain the sympathy of the peoples. Zionism did so by inducing guilt in the Western world over the gas chambers and the Holocaust. It exploits these feelings of guilt to convict all those who oppose its anti-Semitic tendencies.

• The author enumerates what he refers to as the �victims of Zionism�, in which he includes actor Marlon Brando, the presidents of Croatia and Austria , French lecturers, and British historian David Irving. The author complains that the Zionist movement was able to maneuver the UN General Assembly into passing a resolution according to which a Holocaust memorial day will be held annually on January 27.

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