New Web site to combat Holocaust denial

Bill Clinton hails launch of Project Aladdin, says it can play vital role in countering denial with facts.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Nazi shoots Jewish woman 248.88 (photo credit: AP)
Nazi shoots Jewish woman 248.88
(photo credit: AP)
A new Web site aimed at curbing Holocaust denial will include a history of Muslim-Jewish relations in English, French, Arabic and Farsi, the project's organizers said before the project's launch on Friday by prominent figures from Europe and the Muslim world. The initiative, called Project Aladdin, hinges on the Internet site, which is also to carry a history of the Holocaust and offer online Arabic and Farsi translations of books including "Anne Frank's Diary," the organizers said. Among those unveiling the project include Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, former French President Jacques Chirac and Abdurrahman Wahid, former president of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. Auschwitz survivor Simone Veil, one of France's most influential woman politicians, will also speak at the event. Concerns about Holocaust denial captured headlines earlier this year when the Vatican lifted the excommunication of a Holocaust-denying bishop. Holocaust-denying comments by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have also sparked worldwide outrage in recent years. Former S President Bill Clinton hailed Project Aladdin, which he said in a letter "has the potential to play a vital role in countering denial with facts and putting a human face on something that otherwise might seem too terrible to believe." The initiative, which was to be launched at UNESCO's Paris headquarters, is partially sponsored by France's Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah. Organizers said that more than 200 people, many prominent public figures from across the Muslim world, had joined the project's so-called "conscience committee." Jordan's Prince El Hassan Ben Talal and former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder are among the project's sponsors, organizers said in a statement ahead of the launch.