Editing Holocaust denial (section)

===Palestine===
{{See also|Racism in the Palestinian territories}}

Individuals from the [[Palestinian Authority]], [[Hamas]], and a number of Palestinian groups have engaged in various aspects of Holocaust denial.<ref name="Karsh98">[[Efraim Karsh|Karsh, Efraim]]. ''Arafat's War: The Man and His Battle for Israeli Conquest''. New York: Grove Press, 2003. p. 98–99.</ref>

[[Hamas]] has promoted Holocaust denial;<ref>[https://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1386&context=all_fac Defending Truth: Legal and Psychological Aspects of Holocaust Denial] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190428190244/https://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1386&context=all_fac |date=April 28, 2019 }}, Kenneth Lasson, [[University of Baltimore School of Law]], 2007</ref> [[Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi]] held that the Holocaust never occurred, that [[Zionism|Zionists]] were behind the action of Nazis, and that Zionists funded Nazism.<ref name="wiesenthal"/>
A press release by Hamas in April 2000 decried "the so-called Holocaust, which is an alleged and invented story with no basis".<ref>[http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=1946 Washington Institute for Near East Policy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090110175744/http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=1946 |date=January 10, 2009 }}, 2000</ref> In August 2009, Hamas' [[Hamas–UNRWA Holocaust dispute|told UNRWA]] that it would "refuse" to allow Palestinian children to study the Holocaust, which it called "a lie invented by the Zionists" and referred to Holocaust education as a "war crime".<ref>Hadid, Diaa (September 1, 2009) [http://archive.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/09/01/hamas_leader_denies_holocaust/ "Hamas leader denies Holocaust"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190523093127/http://archive.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2009/09/01/hamas_leader_denies_holocaust/ |date=May 23, 2019 }} [[Associated Press]] via ''[[Boston Globe]]''</ref> Hamas continued to hold this position in 2011, when the organization's Ministry for Refugee Affairs said that Holocaust education was "intended to poison the minds of our children."<ref>Oster, Marcy (March 1, 2011) [https://www.jta.org/2011/03/01/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/hamas-to-u-n-dont-teach-holocaust "Hamas to U.N.: Don’t teach Holocaust"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618125959/https://www.jta.org/2011/03/01/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/hamas-to-u-n-dont-teach-holocaust |date=June 18, 2018 }} ''[[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]]''</ref>

The thesis of the 1982 doctoral dissertation of [[Mahmoud Abbas]], a co-founder of [[Fatah]] and president of the [[Palestinian National Authority]], was "The Secret Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement".<ref>[http://hnn.us/articles/1414.html Was Abu Mazen a Holocaust Denier?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331052749/http://hnn.us/articles/1414.html |date=March 31, 2019 }} By Brynn Malone (History News Network)</ref><ref>[http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Area=sr&ID=SR01503 Abu Mazen: A Political Profile. Zionism and Holocaust Denial] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310213751/http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Area=sr&ID=SR01503 |date=March 10, 2007 }} by Yael Yehoshua ([[MEMRI]]) April 29, 2003</ref><ref name="wiesenthal">{{cite web|url=http://www.wiesenthal.com/atf/cf/%7Bdfd2aac1-2ade-428a-9263-35234229d8d8%7D/denial_report.pdf|title=Holocaust Denial's Assault on Memory: Precursor to twenty first century genocide?|publisher=Simon Wiesenthal Center|year=2007 |access-date=May 2, 2012|author=Dr. Harold Brackman, Aaron Breitbart |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206142427/http://www.wiesenthal.com/atf/cf/%7BDFD2AAC1-2ADE-428A-9263-35234229D8D8%7D/DENIAL_REPORT.PDF |archive-date=February 6, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In his 1983 book ''[[The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism]]'' based on the dissertation, Abbas denied that six million Jews had died in the Holocaust; dismissing it as a "myth" and a "fantastic lie".<ref name="Abbas">{{cite web|url=http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1524/holocaust_denial_undermines_the_palestinian_cause|title=Holocaust denial undermines the Palestinian cause|publisher=The Commentator|date=August 14, 2012 |access-date=May 18, 2015|author=Jeremy Havardi |archive-date=January 30, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190130174348/http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1524/holocaust_denial_undermines_the_palestinian_cause |url-status=dead}}</ref> At most, he wrote, 890,000 Jews were murdered by the Germans. Abbas claimed that the number of deaths has been exaggerated for political purposes. "It seems that the interest of the Zionist movement, however, is to inflate this figure [of Holocaust deaths] so that their gains will be greater. This led them to emphasize this figure [six million] in order to gain the solidarity of international public opinion with Zionism. Many scholars have debated the figure of six million and reached stunning conclusions—fixing the number of Jewish victims at only a few hundred thousand."{{R|wiesenthal}}<ref name="wymaninstitute.org">[http://www.wymaninstitute.org/articles/2003-03-denier.php A Holocaust-Denier as Prime Minister of "Palestine"?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110908080728/http://www.wymaninstitute.org/articles/2003-03-denier.php |date=September 8, 2011 }} by Dr. Rafael Medoff (The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies)</ref><ref name=autogenerated1>[http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/000032.html Abu Mazen and the Holocaust] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190205035253/http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/000032.html |date=February 5, 2019 }} by Tom Gross</ref>

In his March 2006 interview with ''[[Haaretz]]'', Abbas stated, "I wrote in detail about the Holocaust and said I did not want to discuss numbers. I quoted an argument between historians in which various numbers of casualties were mentioned. One wrote there were 12&nbsp;million victims and another wrote there were 800,000. I have no desire to argue with the figures. The Holocaust was a terrible, unforgivable crime against the Jewish nation, a crime against humanity that cannot be accepted by humankind. The Holocaust was a terrible thing and nobody can claim I denied it."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/u-s-told-us-to-ignore-israeli-map-reservations-1.8840|title=U.S. told us to ignore Israeli map reservations|author=Akiva Eldar|newspaper=[[Haaretz]]|date=May 28, 2003|access-date=March 23, 2014|archive-date=January 20, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120164725/http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/u-s-told-us-to-ignore-israeli-map-reservations-1.8840|url-status=live}}</ref> While acknowledging the existence of the Holocaust in 2006 and 2014,<ref name="Heinous">{{cite news|url=https://nypost.com/2014/04/27/palestinian-leader-abbas-admits-the-holocaust-was-heinous/|title=Palestinian leader Abbas admits the Holocaust was 'heinous'|newspaper=New York Post|date=April 27, 2014|access-date=May 18, 2015|archive-date=June 22, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622164937/https://nypost.com/2014/04/27/palestinian-leader-abbas-admits-the-holocaust-was-heinous/|url-status=live}}</ref> Abbas has defended the position that Zionists collaborated with the Nazis to perpetrate it. In 2012, Abbas told [[Al Mayadeen]], a Beirut TV station affiliated with Iran and Hezbollah, that he "challenges anyone who can deny that the Zionist movement had ties with the Nazis before World War II".<ref name="Link">{{cite news|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/23/abbas-alleges-link-between-zionists-and-nazis.html|title=Abbas Alleges Link Between Zionists And Nazis|website=The Daily Beast|date=January 23, 2013|access-date=May 18, 2015|author=Myers, David N.|archive-date=May 17, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150517195933/http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/23/abbas-alleges-link-between-zionists-and-nazis.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Surveys conducted by [[Sammy Smooha]] of the [[University of Haifa]] found that the fraction of Israeli Arabs denying that millions of Jews were murdered by the Nazis increased from 28% in 2006 to 40% in 2008.<ref name=Smooha>{{cite web|author=Sammy Smooha|title=The 2008 Index of Arab-Jewish Relations in Israel: Main Findings and Trends of Change|url=http://soc.haifa.ac.il/~s.smooha/uploads/editor_uploads/files/Index2008MainFindings_TrendsChangeEng.pdf|year=2009 |access-date=June 18, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140806134653/http://soc.haifa.ac.il/~s.smooha/uploads/editor_uploads/files/Index2008MainFindings_TrendsChangeEng.pdf |archive-date=August 6, 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Smooha commented:

<blockquote>In Arab eyes disbelief in the very happening of the Shoah is not hate of Jews (embedded in the denial of the Shoah in the West) but rather a form of protest. Arabs not believing in the event of Shoah intend to express strong objection to the portrayal of the Jews as the ultimate victim and to the underrating of the Palestinians as a victim. They deny Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state that the Shoah gives legitimacy to. Arab disbelief in the Shoah is a component of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, unlike the ideological and anti-Semitic denial of the Holocaust and the desire to escape guilt in the West.{{R|Smooha}}</blockquote>

Mohammed Dajani, a Palestinian professor at [[Al-Quds University]] and founding director of its American Studies Institute, took a group of students to visit the [[Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum|Auschwitz concentration camps]] in [[Poland]]. Following the trip, he faced strong opposition and pressure from within the university, ultimately leading to his resignation. Dajani later explained that critics believed the knowledge students might gain from the visit would contradict the prevailing collective narrative, with some viewing the Holocaust as a Zionist narrative intended to garner international support for Israel.  Still, he defended Holocaust education as essential for peace, stating:

{{Blockquote|text=Holocaust denial and distortion are historically incorrect, and factually wrong, and constitute a significant threat to morality and human dignity, and to the prospects of reconciliation and peace between Palestinians and Israelis.<ref>{{cite news|work=[[The Times of Israel]]|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-professor-who-took-students-to-auschwitz-holocaust-denial-imperils-peace|title=Palestinian professor who took students to Auschwitz: Holocaust denial imperils peace|date=17 September 2023}}</ref>}}