Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the UN General Assembly (photo: AP/Jason DeCrow)
The Times of Israel carries an Associated Press report that the leader of the Iranian Jewish community has condemned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial. It's not the first time that Haroun Yashaei has spoken out against him. Sadly, this is what the outgoing Iranian president is most likely to be remembered for.
In rare public outrage by an Iranian Jewish leader, Haroun Yashaei was quoted Wednesday by the pro-reform Shragh newspaper as calling Ahmadinejad’s recent comments “smug” and highly political.
On Sunday, Ahmadinejad boasted that he rattled Western taboos by calling for more historical research into the Nazi atrocities.
Yashaei, who heads the Tehran Jewish
community, described Ahmadinejad’s comments as offensive and said Jews
were not sent to concentration camps for a “stroll.”
There are about 30,000 Jews in Iran (according to a recent census, less than 10,000 - ed), which sets aside one parliament seat for a Jewish lawmaker.
Ahmadinejad, who leaves office in August, has
often denounced Israel and says more non-Western research is needed into
the Holocaust.
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