As Safir

April 20, 2001

Dispute Over 'Holocaust Denial' Conference In Jordan

  • Translation of a portion of a report in As Safir newspaper (Beirut, Lebanon), Friday, April 20, 2001

In Amman, Hayat Atiyeh, one of the organizers of a conference denying the Holocaust, said that "the Jews have lied to us concerning the Holocaust, and we want to expose these lies to the people."

The Jordanian government had warned the Federation of Writers Unions against holding a conference like the one that was supposed to be held in Beirut. That warning came on April 8, that is, two days before the meeting of Jordanian King Abdullah II with US President George Bush.

The Jordanian Minister of Culture Mahmoud Kayid said yesterday (April 19) that the Federation of Writers Unions had not obtained a permit to hold a Holocaust denial meeting in Amman on Sunday. He refused to disclose whether the Jordanian authorities would permit the holding of the meeting, but he said that the Federation must refrain from holding it, saying that "the time is not appropriate to dig up such issues."

Hayat Atiyeh, herself a Lebanese writer who lives in Jordan, said that "the conference will discuss the relationship between Zionism and Nazism, and also how the Jews use the Holocaust to win the sympathy of the world." She stressed the absence of any connection between the organizers of this conference and the organizers of a similar conference that was supposed to be held in Beirut last March 31.