HAMAS LEADER MASHAAL: NAZI HOLOCAUST ‘EXAGGERATED’ - WIESENTHAL CENTER URGES REPUDIATION BY ARAB LEADERS

On same the day that US President George W. Bush announced a new push for Middle East Peace and directly urged Hamas to renounce violence and recognize Israel, Khaled Mashaal, the terrorist group’s Damascus-based leader, took a page from Iranian President Ahmadinejad by declaring that the Nazi Holocaust was “exaggerated” and charged “what Israel did to the Palestinians was many, many times worse than what the Nazis did to the Jews”.

“President Bush and other worlds leaders are trying to jump start the Middle East peace process and has invited the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan to take a leading role. Now, is the time for those leaders to step forward and publicly disavow Mashaal’s hatred and Holocaust revisionism,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, founder and dean and associate dean of the leading Jewish human rights group. 

Mashaal made his comments about the Holocaust before an audience of 150 people at the Qaradawi Forum in Doha, Qatar. Responding to a question from a German participant at a Seminar in Qatar, Mashaal said in part, that “Germany is being blackmailed over the Holocaust,” adding that “I do not want to deny the facts of the Holocaust,” but, “we do not want to give in to the exaggeration… [of the Holocaust] being inflated and blown out of proportion…What Israel did to the Palestinians is many, many times worse than what the Nazis did to the Jews”. 

The Forum’s sponsor, Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi, is the top authority of the Muslim Brotherhood and has issued fatwas in the past validating Palestinian suicide bombings--including by women-- as “martyrdom” operations. During his speech, Mashaal thanked Qaradawi for remaining resolute in his support for Palestinian terrorist operations even after September 11th.