Last update - 00:00 13/12/2006
Arab media play up ultra-Orthodox, anti-Zionist Jews at Iran conference
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent
The photographs of ultra-Orthodox, anti-Zionist Jews attending the Holocaust conference in Tehran this week were given pride of place in the Arab media.
The television cameras loved the "Jewish, not Zionist" sign worn by one of them, with the Israeli flag crossed out.
Many of the media outlets, however, broadcast the message of these ultra-Orthodox Jews, which is that the Holocaust did indeed take place but does not justify the commission of crimes against the Palestinians, as a British rabbi, Aharon Cohen, said at the conference.
The secret of the conference's success lies in the confusion and blurring it has managed to create in Arab, Muslim and world public opinion between the Jewish people and the State of Israel.
Nazir Majali, Israel affairs commentator for Al-sharq Al-awsat, a daily published in Lebanon, told Haaretz on Tuesday that Iran has exploited the hate for Israel in the Arab world to prove its status as a regional power.
"They did a dangerous thing," Majali said. "They are using the built-in hatred for Israel because of the occupation of the Palestinians in order to deny the Holocaust. As an Arab and a Muslim, I am ashamed."
Majali asserts that the Arabs attending the conference do not represent the Arab intelligentsia. "They are the Neturei Karta [anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jews] of the Arab world. They should not be treated as being representative."
Some Arab media outlets are treating the conference with skepticism.
Al Jazeera broadcast a report by the network's Tehran correspondent. Its Israeli bureau was not asked to provide Israeli responses to the gathering.
The [U.S.-sponsored Arabic television station] Al-Hura took care to present Israeli reactions. The popular Arabic Web site Elaph reported Tuesday that "there was a good connection" between Hitler and the Jews.