Simon Wiesenthal Center - Press information

ANOTHER GATHERING ON HOLOCAUST DENIAL BLOCKED IN ARAB CAPTIAL; WIESENTHAL CENTER INVITES JORDANIAN INTELLECTUALS TO 'SIT DOWN AND TALK'

Los Angeles -- Just ten days after Lebanese President Rafiq Hariri canceled a Holocaust deniers conference in Beirut, a similar gathering slated for Amman, Jordan was 'postponed', apparently over concerns that it would embarrass Jordan's King Abdullah who is in Washington for his inaugural meeting with U.S. President George Bush.

The three speakers and one moderator were informed last Saturday that the "Forum on Revisionist (Holocaust) Historians" could not proceed on April 8th, because of the potential embarrassment it could cause King Abdullah on the eve of his first summit with President Bush.

"We welcome the decision by authorities to abort this gathering which, rather than promote the free exchange of ideas and better understanding of history, would have served as an endorsement of those forces seeking to whitewash the Nazi holocaust, history's most documented genocide," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center who led the effort to cancel the deniers conclave in Beirut.

"We note that the Jordanian Writers Association is apparently planning to condemn prominent Arab intellectuals who also spoke out against the denial of the Shoah and that they plan to reschedule the Amman Forum," said Cooper. "Instead, we at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who were honored to host the late King Hussein at its Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, invites the head of the Jordanian Writers Union to send a delegation to visit our institution and to meet face-to-face with survivors of that horrific era. While we can have different attitudes towards peace in the Middle East, people of good will should work together to reject revisionism and antisemitism," he added.

Rabbi Cooper stated that there has been a rising tide of antisemitism, Holocaust denial and allusions of Israelis as Nazis by top officials in Syria, and in the official media in Egypt, Iran and the Palestinian Authority.

"The goal is clear -- the demonization of Israel and the Jewish people," Cooper concluded.

For more information, contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036.