Hezballah Leader Doubts Holocaust

Date: Thu, 08 May 1997 21:03:31 +0100
From: Leiah and Jason Elbaum <elbaum@dircon.co.uk>

The British weekly The Spectator reports (3 May) on an interview with Mr. Mousawe, a leading intellectual of the Lebanese Hezballah movement, the "Party of God," in which Mousawe asserted that Jews ceremonially spit on the cross and questioned whether the Holocaust took place.

Asked whether Islam is similar to Judaism, Mousawe responded, "Ah, but we respect Jesus Christ (peace and the blessings of God be upon him). The Jews have the practice of spitting on the cross."

The interviewer, John Casey, writes that he thought he "had misheard." "I beg your pardon?" he asked. "What did you say?"

"They spit on the cross," insisted Mousawe, who has a talk show on Hezballah television.

"No, I am sure you are wrong," replied Casey. "I have never even heard that suggested."

"I tell you -- it is a well-known ceremony."

Disturbed by what he called "this mixture of respect for Judaism and a belief in what sounds like medieval anti-Semitic legends," Casey asked Mousawe about Hitler.

"I do not know what is the truth about what Hitler did," said Mousawe. "There could be many problems in killing so many people."

"Are you saying that the Holocaust did not take place?" asked Casey.

"No, I say that I am not an expert. I do not know," responded Mousawe.

Casey pressed him further: "May I say two things? Even just from the point of view of propaganda, I think that it would be most unwise for you to deny the Holocaust. You would look like admirers of Hitler. More to the point, the evidence is overwhelming that it did take place."

"All I am saying is that I do not know," repeated Mousawe.

Hezballah, funded by Iran and assisted by Syria, supports the destruction of the State of Israel and fights a war of attrition against Israeli soldiers and their Lebanese allies in southern Lebanon.

Israel Radio reports (0700 GMT, 8 May, Reshet Bet) that shots were fired at an Israeli vehicle Thursday evening near the Arab town of Beit Jala, just south of Bethlehem. The passengers were young women on their way from Jerusalem to the Jewish community of Maon south of Hebron. No injuries were reported.

Leiah and Jason Elbaum

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