Open Letter to German Parliamentarians: Condemn the Iranian Holocaust-Cartoon Contest!

Iranian Holocaust denial, violations of human rights and terror support should be publicly and explicitly condemned by the German Bundestag

Berlin, May 12, 2016

Dear Members of the German Parliament,

On May 14, the national day of Israel, a Holocaust cartoon competition will take place in Iran. The cartoon contest, which takes place for the third time, awards antisemitic caricatures which deny the Holocaust. We call upon you as Members of the German Parliament to condemn Iranian antisemitism and threats against Israel openly and explicitly in an open debate in the Bundestag.

Addressing the cartoon contest, the CDU/CSU faction explained in a press release of April 26: “There is no place for antisemites in the international community of free people.” We call upon you to enforce this demand and officially condemn the Iranian Holocaust caricature contest as representatives of all parties in the German Bundestag.

The denial of the Shoah is no minor whim of the Iranian governance. It is in fact an expression of the centrality of antisemitism in the ideology of the Iranian regime.

Denying the Holocaust is a political weapon against Israel. In his opening speech at the Holocaust denial conference in 2006, the then Iranian Foreign Minister pointed out the real intentions: If "the official version of the Holocaust is called into question", also "the nature and identity of Israel" had to be questioned.
The Iranian leadership repeatedly declared their aim of destroying Israel. The Iranian government has just recently tested middle-range missiles with the inscription “Israel must be wiped out”.
On November 9, 2014, supreme leader Khamenei has published a plan to destroy Israel. The plan comprised the arming of Palestinians in the West Bank. Khamenei celebrated the nuclear deal with Iran with the words that there “will be no Zionist regime in 25 years” in September 2015. He also declared that, “during this period, the spirit of fighting, heroism and jihad will keep you worried every moment.”
The Iranian regime finances Islamic terror organisations worldwide and particularly at Israel’s borders, among them Hezbollah and Hamas. In Iran’s war for the Syrian dictator Assad, hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions are displaced.
Since the revolution in 1979, the Iranian regime brutally represses its own people. Women are being brutally repressed and homosexuality is being punished with death penalty. Labour unions, human rights groups, members of religious minorities are threatened, political prisoners remain in confinement, house arrest for reformist politicians remains in place, torture is a daily routine.
President Hassan Rohani is not a „moderate beacon of hope“ but the friendly face of terror. During his presidency there were considerably more people executed than under his predecessor Ahmadinejad. According to Amnesty International, Iran’s regime executed 1000 people last year, among them 73 minors. Iran has the highest rates of executions worldwide, together with China.

In spite of this, German politicians use every opportunity to expand political and economic relations with the antisemitic Iranian regime. After the lifting of the sanctions due to the nuclear deal with Iran in July 2015, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) was the first high-ranking Western politician who travelled to Iran with a huge delegation of German top business managers. Delegations from Bavaria, Lower Saxony and Bremen followed.

The condemnation of Iranian antisemitism must not be hollow words. We call upon you to control the policy of the German government. If the Federal Government accepts Islamic antisemitism or acts indifferently toward it, this is not only a threat towards Israel and the whole region, but retroacts on the European societies.

Yours sincerely

Ulrike Becker

Spokesperson of the STOP THE BOMB Campaign