The Holocaust is a lie and any visit to a Nazi concentration camp serves the
Zionists, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum was quoted Wednesday as
saying.
Barhoum’s comments came in response to a visit to the Auschwitz
death camp in Poland by Ziad Bandak, an adviser to Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas.
Bandak’s visit to the former concentration camp
was the first of its kind by a PA official.
It was initiated by a group
advocating tolerance between groups of people in Poland.
Barhoum was the
only Hamas representative to condemn the visit to Auschwitz.
He said that
the visit was “unjustified and unhelpful.”
The visit, he added, has only
served “Zionist occupation.”
Barhoum said that the trip to Auschwitz was
aimed at “marketing a false and ostensible tragedy” – a reference to the
Holocaust.
The Holocaust, he added, “came at the expense of a real
Palestinian tragedy.”
Barhoum said that the visit to Auschwitz reflected
the PA’s state of “bankruptcy.”
The PA is looking for anything to rid
itself of the crisis it is facing, he charged.
The Hamas spokesman also
accused Israel of “exaggeration” regarding the number of Holocaust victims in a
bid to win the sympathy of the world.