Michael Ramirez on David Duke and the Iran Holocaust Conference

Philadelphia Inquirer: Among those at Iran’s Holocaust conference: David Duke

Iran yesterday hosted a conference gathering prominent Holocaust deniers that it said would examine whether the World War II genocide of Jews took place, drawing condemnation from Israel and Germany.

The conference was initiated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an apparent attempt to burnish his status at home and abroad as a tough opponent of Israel. The hard-line president has described the Holocaust as a myth and called for Israel to be wiped off the map.

Organizers touted the conference as a scholarly gathering aimed at discussing the Holocaust away from Western taboos, but the 67 participants from 30 countries were predominantly Holocaust deniers. They included David Duke – the former Louisiana state representative and Ku Klux Klan leader.

Also at the conference were two rabbis and four other members of the group Jews United Against Zionism, dressed in the traditional long black coats and black hats of ultra-Orthodox Jews. The group, which says the creation of the state of Israel violated Jewish law, does not deny the Holocaust occurred but argues that it should not have been a reason for Israel’s founding.

German Parliament President Norbert Lammert protested the conference in a letter to Ahmadinejad.

“I condemn any attempt to offer anti-Semitic propaganda a public forum,” Lammert wrote.

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