In praise of Holocaust inversion

Petra Marquardt-Bigman
The Warped Mirror/JPost
16 May '10

Under the title "Arabs have a complex relationship with the Holocaust", Professor Gilbert Achcar from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, recently promoted his newly published book The Arabs and the Holocaust at The Guardian's "Comment is Free" website.

Achcar starts his article by noting - or rather, complaining - that Holocaust denial in the Arab world is widely covered in the Western media. While he acknowledges that "Holocaust denial has been on the rise in Arab countries during the last two decades," he loses no time to come up with "explanations" - or rather, excuses - for this phenomenon. On the basis of these excuses, he then blithely asserts:

Holocaust denial is not primarily an expression of antisemitism, as western Holocaust denial certainly is, but an expression of what I call the 'anti-Zionism of fools'. Yet it remains a minority phenomenon in the Arab world, fought by enlightened intellectuals and politically educated activists who explain that such attitudes are not only based on ignorance but do a disservice to the Palestinian cause. They point to the way any utterances of Holocaust denial are relayed by pro-Israeli websites, which use them in their propaganda."

In other words, Professor Achcar wants his readers to believe that Arab Holocaust deniers are just ignorant anti-Zionist fools who are a minority that is valiantly fought by intellectuals and political activists, whose most important argument seems to be that Holocaust denial is politically counter-productive.

Since I haven't yet read Professor Achcar's book, I can't say if he makes any attempt to support his claim that Holocaust denial "remains a minority phenomenon in the Arab world". However, it is a very well-documented fact that antisemitism, not to mention anti-Zionism, is anything but a "minority phenomenon" in the Arab and Muslim world. To quote just one relevant finding from the annual report of the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism in 2006:

The perception that the Jews (or "Israel," "the Mossad" or "Zionism") are behind every disaster befalling humanity and particularly those affecting Arabs and Muslims continues to dominate the Arab discourse."

(Read full article)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.