Iran's Tasteless Holocaust Denial Cartoon Competition to Become an Annual Event!

THE GLOBE AND MAIL: TEHRAN — Iran's Culture Ministry on Thursday dismissed criticism of its competition of cartoons on the Holocaust and lauded it as an expression of hatred against oppressors, while the Israeli Foreign Ministry, echoing widespread international condemnation, deplored that Tehran had joined the “obscene chorus” of denial.

Iran awarded a Moroccan artist late Wednesday the top prize in an exhibition of cartoons against the Holocaust, saying it wanted to emphasize that Palestinians were the indirect victims of the Nazi's killing of six million Jews in Europe during the Second World War.

“Palestinians have been victim of a deceptive history by Zionists,” Iran's Culture Minister Hossein Saffar Harandi was quoted as saying by the Kayhan conservative daily on Thursday.

“The cartoonists expressed their hate against oppressors and their love toward [Palestinian] victims in their works,” the Culture Minister said.

Israel, where many Holocaust survivors immigrated to, expressed its dismay at such hatred. Iran dismisses criticism of Holocaust cartoon contest by NASSER KARIMI

Mark Alexander