'False Zionist alleged tragedy': Hamas slams Palestinian official for visiting Holocaust site

Bartek Wrzesniowsk / AFP - Getty Images

Ziad Al-Bandak, the Palestinian president's adviser for religious affairs, places flowers at the Auschwitz death camp in Oswiecim, Poland, on July 27.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- The Hamas Islamist group in charge of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday denounced a Palestinian official's visit to the site of a Nazi death camp in Poland, and called the Holocaust in which 6 million European Jews perished an "alleged tragedy."

Ziad al-Bandak, an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who governs in the occupied West Bank, had made a rare visit by a Palestinian official to the site of the Auschwitz death camp late last month.


"It was an unjustified and unhelpful visit that served only the Zionist occupation," said Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas. Hamas rejects Israel's existence and interim peace accords reached by Abbas' more moderate Fatah group with Israel.

Barhoum further called Bandak's visit to Auschwitz, a camp where the Nazis killed 1.5 million people, most of them Jews but also other Polish citizens, during World War Two, as "a marketing of a false Zionist alleged tragedy."

'Hitler, thank you': Anti-Zionist slogans daubed in Hebrew at Holocaust memorial

He said he saw this as coming "at the expense of a real Palestinian tragedy," alluding to Israel's control over territory where Palestinians live and seek to establish a state.

PhotoBlog: Israelis stand in silent remembrance of Holocaust victims

Israel was founded as a Jewish state in 1948, several years after the wartime genocide occurred.

Islamist extremists have taken to denying the Holocaust happened as part of a narrative rejecting Israel's existence, often at the encouragement of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called the genocide "a myth."

Fears grow of Israel-Iran missile shootout

Israel and Iran have been locked in a dispute over an Iranian nuclear program the West fears is intended to produce atomic weapons. The West has imposed sanctions on Tehran to try and force it to rein in the project. Iran insists its atomic work is intended solely for peaceful purposes.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Iran is an ally of Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007 from Abbas' Fatah group. Gaza, home to some 1.5 million Palestinians, many refugees or descendants of those who fled or were driven away when Israel was founded, is separate and isolated from the other Palestinian territory of the West Bank.

In Poland, unburying a nation's Jewish past

Israel tightly monitors Gaza's frontiers, and cross-border violence is frequent with militants often firing rockets at Israel and Israel staging deadly bombing raids against militant targets in the coastal territory.

Bandak's visit to Auschwitz, where he laid a wreath at the invitation of a group working for tolerance in Poland, was a rare one by a Palestinian to the death camp site. Muslim officials from other countries have also paid respects there.

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says, "all options," including military force, are on the table to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons. Watch his entire speech in Israel.

More world stories from NBC News:

 

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Discuss this post

Jump to discussion page: 1 ... 3 4 5

Anyone who believes anything a muslim says is inviting disaster. According to the book they reverence it is permitted to lie to infidels since they are less than human. If you are an Israeli, a Christian, a Buhddist, or anyone that is not a muslim then you're an infidel.I wouldn't believe a muslim if they told me the sun rises in the east. muslim = satan's people.

  • 1 vote
Reply#106 - Sat Aug 4, 2012 2:02 AM EDT

WOW sounds just like you repeated what was in the jew books of faith . lie gods chosen people huh ? all religeon is the same ' do as i say and you'll get your reward when you die . dont follow me and not only will we kill you but you'll also go to hell '. all religeon is bad news.

  • 1 vote
#106.1 - Sat Aug 4, 2012 2:33 PM EDT

Yeah I read this "They can lie to you" about Muslims on the net before and, unlike other morons, did followup research. Turns out this sh-t is just an urban legend.

  • 1 vote
#106.2 - Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:57 AM EDT
Reply

The holohoax is five percent truth and ninety five percent bullsh*t propaganda. The owned or controlled "Jewsmedia" cranks out and markets this journalistic sewage non-stop in a never ending attempt to brainwash as many gullible Goyem as possible.

Belly up to the bar "Sheeple" and guzzle your fill of the swill. You never want to get in between a greedy Jew and their money.

  • 1 vote
Reply#107 - Sat Aug 4, 2012 9:28 AM EDT

how true it is . better watch out the commies will get ya ( adl , aclu ,splc ,ara , anti-fa , al sharpton ,or some commie enemy of the people who created this nation govt. group )?

    #107.1 - Sat Aug 4, 2012 2:28 PM EDT
    Reply

    funny stuff . i live in the usa but 98% of all media comes from ZOG anti-white sources , and when i say anti-white it really is " they hate white people and want to kill us all " media. hey idiots that believe the whole HOLO-LIE if its so true why do all white countries have laws throwing white people in jail for just telling the facts about it , also who made these laws ??? i didn't , niether did my parents . a hostile group that wants to kill of the white species did . so block me . and if you dont MSNBC probably will do it ( they are part of the 98% club ) . PROVE ME WRONG . ha ha ha ha you can not!

      Reply#108 - Sat Aug 4, 2012 2:25 PM EDT

      People that spout hatred and deny the holocaust don't deserve comment. They are obviously filled with hatred which obscures any reality whatsoever.

      I applaud the courage of this Palestinian! At least he is trying to find some kind of middle ground. The Israelis, must show some accommodation with their neighbors. As an outsider looking in, Israel, is way to intransigent in their position regarding the Palestinians. For one thing, Jerusalem, needs to be an international city, completely open for both Jews and Palestinians. Not until this happens and some accommodations from both sides has taken place, will there be any hope of piece. I have witnessed myself, utter total intransigence by many Israelis, and because of this attitude, they are not winning many hearts in the US.

      The Palestinians, must also get rid of all Hamas influence and show the Israelis, that they can be trusted in keeping agreements once made. Without this happening, there will be no hope of any kind of piece for either side....

      • 2 votes
      Reply#109 - Sat Aug 4, 2012 2:54 PM EDT

      What an interesting day on the internet. Rape and massacre of Jewish women by Polish men during WWII dredged up. Man's inhumanity to man. So a Palestinian visits a Nazi death camp in Poland and it is turned into a media circus. What a crazy world we live in.

        Reply#110 - Sat Aug 4, 2012 11:02 PM EDT

        To all of the posts that swear by 6 million jews dead by Hitler's hand. You are mentally void. How can you wholly agree on one event and not consider the disagreement? There wasn't even 6 million in Europe. How could 6 million perish? The one, sure, thing we know is the people of the M.E. hasn't been indoctrined by our public school system. The "Jews" of today are NOT the "Jews" of the bible. The people occupying Palestine are of European desent. That means NO Arab blood in them. I'm not saying that there wasn't casualties but, it is WELL documented that 58 million civillians and 2 million enlisted lost their lives. Should be more outraged about those numbers!

          Reply#111 - Mon Aug 6, 2012 12:26 PM EDT

          I predict that before this date in 2013 Israel will have attacked and partially destroyed Iran's nuclear facilities. This is only if the GOP captures both houses of congress and Romney wins the presidency. We will be backing Israel with attacks on Iran's Navy and their missile installations. The GOP is very interested in continuing our wars in that area in order to provide profits to their weapons manufacturing election contributors. You heard it here first.

            Reply#112 - Mon Aug 6, 2012 12:50 PM EDT

            One cant argue with fanatics. They have their own self serving agenda and will continue to spew their rhetoric because someone out there will believe it.

            "A lie told often enough becomes the truth" - Lenin

            To all those Holocaust deniers, I often tell them: "Hey! My family was in the Holocaust.....not really, but they were there". There is some truth in that.

              Reply#113 - Mon Aug 6, 2012 4:01 PM EDT

              Why are people taking all this so literally? It could be that Hamas denies the Holocaust as a symbolic rejoinder to the many zealots on the other side who deny the existence of "Palestinian" as a legitimate category of nationality. This appears to be gamesmanship.

              • 3 votes
              Reply#114 - Wed Aug 8, 2012 2:16 PM EDT

              That's a good point, they could be

              • 1 vote
              #114.1 - Wed Aug 8, 2012 5:50 PM EDT
              Reply

              Yep the Muslims call it a myth, yet never explain recorded history so we can all see what their real complain is—one thing for sure is the Muslims have always been good at killing each other and that is recorded history we can all see and believe..

                Reply#115 - Wed Aug 8, 2012 11:25 PM EDT

                emilymdare and the others who are so offended by this being described as a false tragedy miss the point that in spite of 6 million jews being killed the Holocaust is a false tragedy. Half the victims of Auschwitz where non jews and their deaths are so less important, Just like the additional 18 million non jews murdered by Nazi troops, if the Holocuast remembers these victims only as a footnote then those 6 million Jewish deaths are a false tragedy. All out of proportion to the historical facts. One group acting as if their dead are so more important than the dead of others. 1/4 of the dead memorialized forever, and the other 3/4's forgotten. The simple fact that "WE" know that 6 million Jews died and are not allowed to forget that, while we ignore those 18 million makes the death of those 6 million a false tragedy. and if you can not tell me off the top of your head, right now, how Stalin Killed 6-11 million in less than 6 months then your part of that problem. Why do you place so much importance on these 6 million dead, and care so little for the fate of the others? They are all people. What is worse, to deny that the deaths of 6 million is a special tragedy, any worse that the deaths of the other 20 plus million. Or to act as if the other 20 million didn't exist or die? Until the lives and deaths of Catholics, Orthodox, Roma, and Muslims are as important as the lives and deaths of Jews the Holocaust will remain a false tragedy.

                  Reply#116 - Fri Aug 10, 2012 6:03 AM EDT

                  Letter from SS-Sturmbannf�hrer Bischoff, March 6
                  1943.
                  Auschwitz: Technique and operation of the gas chambers - J.C Pressac,
                  the Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, NY, 1989, p. 434:

                  ... order of 6/3/1943 concerning the delivery of a gas tight door
                  100 x 192 cm for cellar I of Krematorium III, to be produced to the identical
                  pattern and dimensions as the cellar door of Krematorium II which is situated
                  opposite, with peephole of double 8 mm glass, with rubber sealing strip and
                  frame.

                  • 1 vote
                  Reply#117 - Mon Aug 13, 2012 2:04 AM EDT

                  here's the difference between the jews and the muslim extremists

                  it's in the headline directly below this column

                  17 villagers beheaded in southern afghanistan after " music party "

                  any other questions ?

                    Reply#118 - Tue Aug 28, 2012 5:46 PM EDT

                    Thats true levrman, Baruch Goldstein didn't bother checking for music when he gunned down scores at a mosque.

                      #118.1 - Wed Aug 29, 2012 10:15 AM EDT
                      Reply
                      Jump to discussion page: 1 ... 3 4 5
                      You're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead.
                      As a new user, you may notice a few temporary content restrictions. Click here for more info.