UN Condemns Holocaust Denial As Iran Seeks Israel’s Destruction
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
NEW YORK (Worthy News) – The United Nations adopted a resolution Thursday to combat the denial of the Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, despite opposition from Iran, which seeks the destruction of Israel.
The resolution, which passed without a vote by the 193-member U.N. General Assembly, sends “a strong… message against the denial or the distortion of these historical facts”, the U.N. stressed.
Some six million Jewish people died in the Holocaust – Nazi Germany’s campaign to eradicate Europe’s Jewish population during World War Two.
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they had already prepared for the ensuing mass murders by stripping Jewish people of all property, freedoms, and rights. By 1939 they began to deport Jews to newly invaded Poland, and by 1941 Nazi forces were being ordered to murder the Jews of Europe systematically.
On Thursday, the U.N. General Assembly said it “rejects and condemns without any reservation any denial of the Holocaust as a historical event, either in full or in part.”
U.N.-member Iran said it was “disassociating” itself from the text of the resolution, which Germany and Israel put forward.
SEEKING ISRAEL’S DESTRUCTION
Iran’s Islamic Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei previously called Israel a “cancerous tumor” that “will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed.”
However, “Ignoring historical facts increases the risk that they will be repeated,” Germany’s U.N. Ambassador Antje Leendertse said, referring to rising antisemitism.
The text praises nations preserving sites that once served as Nazi death camps and concentration camps and urges member states to provide educational programs on Holocaust.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and her Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid, said they were concerned by a recent dramatic increase in Holocaust denial.
The resolution lists distortion or denial of the Holocaust as “Intentional efforts to excuse or minimize the impact of the Holocaust or its principal elements, including collaborators and allies of Nazi Germany.”
Other examples of denial include the “Gross minimization of the number of the victims of the Holocaust in contradiction to reliable sources” and “Attempts to blame the Jews for causing their own genocide,” the resolution said.
‘POSITIVE HISTORICAL EVENT’
Additionally, “Statements that cast the Holocaust as a positive historical event” were mentioned as part of attempts to deny the Holocaust.
The resolution also expressed concern about efforts to “blur the responsibility for the establishment of concentration and death camps devised and operated by Nazi Germany by blaming other nations or ethnic groups.”
Poland, for instance, has opposed describing death camps run by Nazi Germany on its territory as “Polish” camps.
The eventual (re) establishment of modern-day Israel in 1948 allowed many Holocaust survivors to escape to the Jewish state, but many also remained in Europe.
Thursday’s resolution was also another attempt to combat the targeting of Jews outside Israel.
If you are interested in articles produced by Worthy News, please check out our FREE sydication service available to churches or online Christian ministries. To find out more, visit Worthy Plugins.