Last update - 00:00 18/10/2007
EU pushing legislation to outlaw denial of Holocaust across Europe
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini on Thursday told Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog that he was spearheading an expedited legislative process aiming to outlaw Holocaust denial in all nations belonging to the European Union.
Herzog, who also holds the diaspora affairs portfolio, met with Frattini in Brussels to discuss anti-Semitism in the EU. Frattini told Herzog that the legislation he was promoting would assign severe legal penalties to the crime of Holocaust denial.
Frattini has declared that the fight against anti-Semitism tops his list of professional priorities. He updated Herzog on a report according to which the number of anti-Semitic incidents - largely attributed to Islamic extremists - rose last year in the European Union.
The two agreed that the European Union would hold a conference in Brussels on the Holocaust in early 2008 with the cooperation of Yad Vashem. Herzog asked Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev to present him and Frattini in the coming weeks with an outline for the conference.
Herzog raised the issue of Iran in the meeting, expressing concern over Tehran's nuclear program and what he said is its backing of Islamic extremists and dissemination of anti-Israel propaganda and incitement.
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