[Peace-discuss] Finkelstein: reflections on Holocaust denial in the Muslim world

[Robert Naiman]

 DEC.08.2007

 Islamophobia and Holocaust Denial

 Some reflections on Holocaust denial in the Muslim world:
 Finkelstein speaks at Islamophobia conference in Istanbul

 By Norman G. Finkelstein

 Transcript
 http://tinyurl.com/3bam8v (MS Word)
 http://www.IslamophobiaConference.org

 A frequent allegation used to demonize Muslims is that Holocaust denial
 is widespread in the Muslim world. Recent remarks by President
 Ahmadinejad of Iran seem to have reinforced this prejudice against
 Muslims.

 No rational person can deny that during World War II the Nazis and their
 collaborators systematically murdered 5-6 million European Jews.

 It is correct that no truth is sacred and that in the course of time
 even what seem to be the most obvious truths have frequently been shown
 to be false. It is equally correct that human beings are fallible, none
 has a monopoly on truth, and an overwhelming majority can be wrong
 while a minority of one can be right.

 However serious persons are also very careful before rejecting an
 obvious truth that is supported by a vast amount of evidence. It
 requires more than showing that a fact here or there might be wrong to
 demolish a scholarly edifice constructed over many years and labored on
 by many competent minds.

 In the case of truths that bear on moral concerns such as human
 suffering compassionate human beings are especially cautious to
 question established truths because of the needless offense and injury
 they might cause. Japanese would rightfully be outraged if someone were
 to say, But isn't it possible that the U.S. did not drop an atomic
 bombing on Hiroshima?, just as Iranians would be rightfully outraged if
 someone were to say, But isn't it possible that the U.S. did not
 overthrow the Mossadeq regime and the SAVAK did not torture political
 prisoners.

 In addition, every culture, every religion honors the memory of the
 dead and one aspect of honoring that memory is respecting the specific
 circumstances of their deaths. It should be obvious that it is deeply
 offensive to rewrite these circumstances for the sake of political
 convenience or, worse, for amusement.

 Yet, there are many understandable reasons why Holocaust denial is to be
 found in the Muslim world. The assertion that the Nazis exterminated
 millions of Jews in an assembly-line fashion does seem hard to believe.
 I remember a very decent Palestinian in a refugee camp whispering to me
 not in malice but in wonderment, Did it really happen? In fact many
 Jewish leaders in the West did not believe it themselves when witnesses
 from the death camps managed to escape and inform them.

 Moreover, because Israel has consistently lied about the history of the
 Israel-Arab conflict, alleging that Palestine was empty before the Jews
 came and that the Arabs are responsible for all the wars Israel has
 fought, it is unsurprising that many Arabs would also conclude that
 Israel is lying about what happened to Jews during World War II.

 It is also true that the Nazi holocaust has been used as a weapon to
 legitimize Israel's crimes against the Palestinians as well as against
 its Arab neighbors. It is often said that because of the unique
 suffering of Jews during World War II it is understandable that Israel
 sometimes goes to extremes to defend itself. Because the Nazi holocaust
 has been used to deny Palestinians their rights, it was perhaps
 inevitable that some Palestinians would seek to deny the Nazi holocaust
 in order to "neutralize" this potent weapon.

 However, another approach, which also has the virtue of being consistent
 with truth and morality, is to turn this weapon against Israel's brutal
 policies. The meaning of the Nazi holocaust should not be Never Again to
 Jews but Never Again to Anyone. The lesson of the Nazi holocaust should
 not be to rank human suffering in order to diminish the horror of
 "lesser" forms of human suffering. Instead, as the epitome of human
 suffering the lesson of the Nazi holocaust should be to sensitize us to
 all forms of human suffering. Wherever there is mayhem and murder,
 wherever there is hunger and homelessness, wherever there is
 discrimination and degradation - there is the Nazi holocaust. That, at
 any rate, is the lesson my late parents, who survived the Nazi
 holocaust, taught me.

 It might also be noted that the U.S. and Israel typically invoke the
 memory of the Nazi holocaust for the purpose not of averting the
 horrors of war but to justify inflicting them. Whenever the United
 States and Israel prepare to attack Muslims it is almost always the
 case that the leaders will be compared to Hitler. In the 1950s-1960s
 Nasser was compared to Hitler, in the 1990s and again in the 2000s
 Hussein was compared to Hitler. Now Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran are being
 compared to Hitler. Those who oppose the illegal war plans of the U.S.
 and Israel are accused of being like the appeasers of Hitler. It is
 hard to conceive a more cynical exploitation of the suffering of Jews
 during World War II than its use to justify murderous wars of
 aggression.

 It should finally be said that before the so-called West deplores
 Holocaust denial in the Muslim world, it should take a closer look at
 itself.

 The U.S.-imposed economic sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s were
 responsible for the deaths of many hundreds of thousands of Iraqi
 children. Respected United Nations officials called these sanctions
 genocidal, yet U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that the
 "price is worth it." She did worse than deny genocide; she justified it.

 In the 1980s during the U.S.-backed wars in Central America, tens of
 thousands of Guatemalans, Salvadorans and Nicaraguans were killed. The
 Truth Commission of Guatemala called it a genocide. But in bestselling
 books nowadays it is said that these murderous wars are a model for how
 to defeat the insurgents in Iraq. Is this the meaning of Never Again?

 In the 1960s-1970s during the U.S. aggression against Indochina, 3-4
 million Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians were killed. But the only
 question that is asked in the U.S. is, When will the Vietnamese
 apologize for what they did to us?

 The Muslim world is demonized for denying the Nazi holocaust. And it is
 undoubtedly true that, however understandable, such denial is wrong.
 Indeed, it shames and demeans the deniers not those whose martyrdom is
 being questioned.

 It is true that the U.S. does not deny the many holocausts it has
 committed. But this is because to deny a fact you first have to
 acknowledge its existence. The U.S. has not yet even taken this first
 step of acknowledging the existence of the numberless colossal crimes
 it has committed.

 Norman Finkelstein
 1 December 2007
 New York City