13 December 2006
Forty (40) diplomats will participate in tomorrow’s symposium “Holocaust Denial: Paving the Way to Genocide” at Yad Vashem. Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate will open the symposium, and Prof. David Bankier, Head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research will chair. Academic Advisor to Yad Vashem Prof. Yehuda Bauer, President of MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute)Yigal Carmon, and Holocaust survivor Rita Weiss, many of whose relatives were killed in the Holocaust, will speak. This will be followed by a discussion with the diplomatic corps. Chairman of the Council Joseph (Tommy) Lapid will offer concluding remarks.
Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate Avner Shalev said, “Every year, nearly 20,000 people from Muslim countries, including Iran, visit the Yad Vashem website. We have therefore decided to translate material on the website into Arabic and Farsi, including information on the Holocaust. In addition Yad Vashem is producing an Arabic audio guide for the Holocaust History Museum.”
Yad Vashem is following with increasing concern Iran’s continued Holocaust denial, and particularly its latest attempt to paint its extremist agenda with a scholarly brush. For this reason, the Chairman of the Directorate of Yad Vashem decided to hold this special symposium whose goal is to motivate the international community to act against this alarming campaign.
The event will take place at 10:00 in the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem. Prof. Bauer and Carmon’s remarks will be available on webcast and podcast at www.yadvashem.org following the symposium.
Journalists who wish to cover the event are requested to RSVP at: 02 644 3410.
Ambassadors and representatives from 40 countries will attend tomorrow’s event: The United States, Uzbekistan, Austria, Uruguay, Ireland, El Salvador, Ecuador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Bosnia, Belgium, Belarus, Hungary, Greece, Moldova, Norway, Czech Republic, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cameroon, Croatia, Sweden, Italy, Angola, Georgia, Germany, the EU, Ivory Coast, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Slovakia, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Panama, France, Romania and Russia.
