Hamas condemns Holocaust lessons

[klr]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8230483.stm

Gaza's ruling Islamist movement Hamas has resisted suggestions that Palestinian children should be taught about the Holocaust in UN-run schools.

The head of its education committee in Gaza, Abdul Rahman el-Jamal, told the BBC that the Holocaust was a "big lie".

He said that to teach it would be to "grant a big favour" to Israel, which has been fighting Hamas for years.

The UN, which runs most Gazan schools, recently asked local groups whether the Holocaust should be taught.

It uses local textbooks and, in Gaza, that means using material from neighbouring Egypt, the BBC's Tim Franks reports.

But over the past seven years the UN has added its own coursework about human rights.

Mr Jamal told the BBC that the UN should, instead, teach about the Naqba, the term Palestinians use to describe the establishment of the state of Israel and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees.

A spokesman for the UN said that no final decision on this year's curriculum had yet been made. Some 200,000 children are taught in schools run through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

During the Holocaust, Nazi Germany murdered some six million Jews.

However, the event's significance is often disputed in parts of the Middle East where Israel is seen as the enemy and the Holocaust is seen as a tool used by Israel to justify its actions.

Emphasis mine.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The Mufti of Jerusalem would approve.

[Mallardz]

Silly people denying stuff.
If it was a far fetched idea such as Jews were catapulted to the moon I'd understand but this is crap.

[leo-rcc]

The saddest part is, I am not even surprised at that.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The saddest part is, I am not even surprised at that.

The Mufti of Jerusalem spent most of WWII in Berlin. One time when he was getting antsy Himmler is reported to have said, "Remember, you too are a Semite."

[Xamonas Chegwé]

If you can deny that the Earth is older than a few thousand years, you can deny anything!

[charlou]

What age are the children they're talking about?


Taught? Informed is a better word ... Either way, if the education is politically motivated it's not ideal ... (yes, I get the irony of that description).

[Sisifo]

It's nothing new. Neither the outrageous denial of the Holocaust, nor the Arab world's view of it. Saudi Arabia has issued hundreds of reports trying to deny it. And Iran government are outspoken against it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_denial

I wonder why editing it now...

[JimC]

Endless, vicious tribal hatreds, the very heart of religion itself...

Yes, it poisons everything...

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Endless, vicious tribal hatreds, the very heart of religion itself...

Yes, it poisons everything...

When you consider they invented organized warfare in this area it's hardly surprizing. (What may be the oldest city in the world, in South America, was built completely without defenses, and without religious buildings as well, so far as can be found.)

[Sisifo]

Endless, vicious tribal hatreds, the very heart of religion itself...

Yes, it poisons everything...

When you consider they invented organized warfare in this area it's hardly surprizing. (What may be the oldest city in the world, in South America, was built completely without defenses, and without religious buildings as well, so far as can be found.)

Which one is that?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Endless, vicious tribal hatreds, the very heart of religion itself...

Yes, it poisons everything...

When you consider they invented organized warfare in this area it's hardly surprizing. (What may be the oldest city in the world, in South America, was built completely without defenses, and without religious buildings as well, so far as can be found.)

Which one is that?

Ach, I knew somebody would ask me for the name. *Puts on Indy Jones hat* I'll have to dig it up again. I remember the Dawkster mentioning it as an example of a civilization without gods.

[Trolldor]

History must not be told with 'sensitivities' in mind. History must be told as it happened.