The Anti Defamation League condemned the remarks made by a senior Hamas official on Thursday, who claimed that the Holocaust was "a lie that has crumbled," and suggested that Israel had committed "countless Holocausts" on the Palestinian people.
Mahmud Zahar, a senior leader of Hamas made the remarks during a memorial service for 43 Palestinians killed at a UN school in the Jabaliya refugee camp during an Israeli military incursion into Gaza in December 2008.
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ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman issued a statement, "once again, the abhorrent and hateful philosophy of Hamas has reared its ugly head, polluting the public square with Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism. These comments are a disturbing reminder of the virulent anti-Semitism promoted by Hamas and the ongoing threat the group poses to Israel.
"To compare the atrocities of the Holocaust to the actions of “Zionists”
is an affront to truth and history. It is an insult to the six million
Jews and millions of others who perished as a result of the Final
Solution, and to those who fought the Nazis during World War II.
We must never forget that the Holocaust was a systematic effort to rid the world of the Jewish people," he continued.
Foxman concluded by stating that, "Through its incitement against
Israel, Hamas continues to show that it is not a partner for peace and
reconciliation, nor a force of moderation. The anti-Semitic ideas
expressed by Zahar do not occur in a vacuum, but are a carbon copy of
the rhetoric of Hamas’s major supporters, Iran and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad."
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