Friday, May 13th 2016

Iran: Rouhani government sponsors Holocaust denial event

STOP THE BOMB calls upon Austrian President Fischer and FM Kurz to issue a clear condemnation - STOP THE BOMB demands the freezing of academic cooperation - No cozying up to Iran's anti-Semitic regime!

Only a few weeks after the Holocaust denial event at the University of Isfahan - a partner university of the Austrian Academy of Sciences - another exhibition of Holocaust denying cartoons will be opened on Saturday, May 14th, in Tehran. Both the organizers of the competition in 2015 - the OWJ Media & Cultural Institute and the Sarsheshmeh Cultural Center - as well as the 2016 exhibitors - the Islamic Propaganda Organization - are sponsored and supported by Iranian government entities. The exhibition will be shown as part of "Iran’s Cartoon Biennale", which is funded and organized by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. The Rouhani government - falsely portrayed as "moderate" - is therefore directly involved in the Holocaust denial exhibition. Claims by Foreign Minister Zarif that the organizers were an independent NGO and had nothing to do with the government, are demonstrably false. Such an event could never take pace in Iran without the regime’s approval.

"The May 14th date of the opening was chosen on purpose to coincide with the independence day of the one country which the Iranian regime regularly threatens to wipe out: Israel. Just recently, Austrian President Heinz Fischer, Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz and the Parliament swore vigilance against anti-Semitism on occasion of the anniversary of liberation day on May 8th. If they really mean it, they must clearly and without ambiguity condemn the state-sponsored anti-Semitism in Iran and immediately stop the cooperation with this regime", said Stephan Grigat, STOP THE BOMB’s Research Director.