Dutch to prosecute Arabs over Holocaust cartoon

AMSTERDAM — Dutch prosecutors said Wednesday they will charge an Arab cultural group under hate speech laws for publishing a cartoon that suggests the death of 6 million Jews during World War II is a fabrication.

The public prosecutor's office in the city of Utrecht said the cartoon insults Jews as a group and is therefore an illegal form of discrimination.

Prosecutors plan to press charges for "insulting a group and distributing an insulting image."

Spokeswoman Mary Hallebeek said the maximum punishment is a year in jail, but a fine of up to euro4,700 ($6,700) is more likely, given that the charges are against the group.

The Dutch arm of the Arab European League said it doesn't deny the reality of the Holocaust, but published the cartoon on its Web site as an "act of civil disobedience" to highlight a double standard.

AEL chairman Abdoulmouthalib Bouzerda argued that prosecutors had not pressed charges against Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders for his film that included cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Charges against Wilders, who campaigns on an anti-Islam and anti-immigration platform, were dismissed after prosecutors said his insults were aimed at Muhammad, not all Muslims, and were not systematic.

The charges against the AEL "illustrates what Muslims have been saying for decades," Bouzerda said in a response published on the league's Web site. "Freedom of expression is only a pretext to make life bitter for Muslims ... and if (they) try to bring this hypocrisy to light, that right is denied them."

Bouzerda said anyone should be allowed to publish insulting material in the interest of public debate.

The cartoon shows two apparently Jewish men standing near a pile of skeletons with a sign that says "Auswitch," presumably representing the largest Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz.

One pokes a bone with a stick and says "I don't think they're Jews" and the other answers, "We have to get to the six million somehow."

Ronny Naftaniel of the Center for Documentation on Israel, which filed a complaint against the cartoon, said Jews had nothing to do with the Muhammad cartoons, so it didn't make sense for the league to retaliate in this way.

"Imagine if Dutch Jews insulted Muslims every time they heard an anti-Semitic remark. What kind of perverse world would we be living in?" he said.

After a strong immigration wave in the 1990s, Muslims make up around 6 percent of the 16.5 million Dutch population. continues here

Holocaust still an issue as Pope Benedict prepares to visit the Holy Land

• Many Israelis still angry over Vatican's war record
• Palestinians hoping for support for independence

Israel's Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, is housed within an angular concrete corridor that leads visitors through appalling stories of persecution, suffering and death and out eventually to a calming view over the Jerusalem forests.

Halfway down the corridor in a room on the left are two black and white ­photographs of the wartime pope, Pius XII, with a few lines of text in English and Hebrew. It is one of hundreds of displays in the museum and easily overlooked, but it runs to the heart of Israel's often troubled relationship with the Vatican.

Pope Benedict XVI makes an official visit to the Holy Land next week and will attend Yad Vashem on Monday to lay a wreath, but he will not visit the museum or see the caption. The wording set off a diplomatic spat two years ago when the papal envoy to Jerusalem threatened to skip Israel's Holocaust day service and it remains contentious, symbolic of the troubled history between the Catholic church and the Jewish people.

For some, Pius XII was little more than "Hitler's pope" and the caption at Yad Vashem is accusatory. It claims Pius "shelved" a letter against racism and antisemitism prepared by his predecessor and says that when the Vatican received news of the murder of Jews "the pope did not protest either verbally or in writing".

In December 1942 he "abstained" from signing an allied declaration against the extermination of Jews, and when Jews were deported from Rome to Auschwitz "he did not intervene". "His silence and the absence of guidelines obliged churchmen throughout Europe to decide on their own how to react," it says.

Israeli academics, including researchers at Yad Vashem itself, have pressed the Vatican to open its wartime archives and shed light on documents that might explain in more detail how the Catholic church acted. Workshops and discussions on the Holocaust have been held between Yad Vashem staff and Catholic clergy.

Vatican officials have tried to smooth over the differences, although Pius remains on track for canonisation. Monsignor Antonio Franco, the papal envoy who threatened to stay away from the Holocaust service two years ago, said this week that the Vatican was making a "huge effort" to accelerate the opening of the archives. Perhaps within four or five years they might be revealed, he said. "It really demands a lot of work, a lot of investigation and things must be done in a very professional way," he said.

Pope Benedict was not coming to Israel to quarrel, Franco said, but at 82 he was an elderly man with a busy schedule and a visit to the museum had "never been on the agenda". This despite the fact that in 2000 his more charismatic predecessor, John Paul II, spent several hours at Yad Vashem listening to Holocaust survivors.

Vatican officials have also been at pains to describe the papal tour as a pilgrimage, not a political visit. But in reality it holds much more significance. It will be only the third visit of a pope to the Holy Land and comes at a time when hope of a genuine peace between Israel and the Palestinians is ever more illusory.

More and more Christians are leaving the area, particularly the Palestinian territories, for several reasons, among them friction with the surrounding Muslim community and the suffocating and often deadly effect of Israel's four-decade military occupation.Only in 1993 did the Vatican sign an accord recognising the state of Israel, but the "fundamental agreement" between the two sides, with its 15 articles about property rights and hugely valuable tax exemptions, has still not been implemented. Negotiations continue.

There are other issues of dispute, some theological, others practical. Many Israelis were angered by the pope's decision in January to revoke the excommunication of the British bishop Richard Williamson, who denied the existence of the Nazi gas chambers. Senior Jewish leaders said that decision threatened the reconciliation between the Catholic church and the Jewish people. In February, an Israeli TV show was forced to apologise after airing a sketch that ridiculed Jesus and Mary.

Some opinion polls have suggested these differences run deep. A poll of Jewish Israelis by the Jerusalem Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations last year found that 41% regarded Christianity as an idolatrous religion, and 46% did not believe Jerusalem was a central city for the Christian world. Some 40% believed the Catholic church had a very or largely negative attitude towards Judaism and Jews.

Hardliners have played on this, and on Benedict's own background growing up in wartime Germany. Michael Ben Ari, a far-right Israeli MP, said on Tuesday that the pope's visit would be an insult to the memory of Holocaust victims.

"A state welcome for the pope would be turning our backs on the millions of Jews who were killed in the shadow of the Christian religion of grace and mercy," he told a session of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. "This pope was a member of the Hitler Youth."

Among Palestinians, political expectations are high. They hope Benedict will speak out in support of Palestinian independence. After he says mass in Bethlehem on Wednesday he will visit Aida, a Palestinian refugee camp, where a stone stage has been built for him next to Israel's vast concrete West Bank barrier. Fouad Twal, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, said the camp itself symbolised the "right of return" for Palestinian refugees who were forced out or fled from what is now Israel in the 1948 war.

However, it is far from clear whether Benedict will speak out on these political issues, and it now seems doubtful that he will even reach the stage in Aida camp.

Elsewhere there are more careful voices. Father William Shomali, rector of the Latin seminary in Beit Jala, next to Bethlehem, said there was little point hoping that the pope's visit might alter the reality of the conflict. "After hundreds of meetings between committees and sub-committees we are still negotiating how and with whom to negotiate," he said. "I don't want it to be a political visit or it will continue the frustration."

Instead, he hoped the pope would emphasise prayer, acknowledgement of the suffering of others, reconciliation and religious dialogue. "If everyone recognises his own guilt, reconciliation becomes easier," he said.

As for Pius XII and his wartime conduct, although it is true the Vatican has been slow to study the issue in detail, it also appears that Yad Vashem's verdict is not the last word.

Some historians, among them Sir Martin Gilbert, Churchill's biographer, have come out in support of Pius as in fact an unsung hero of the war. He points out that the pope's 1942 Christmas message infuriated the Nazis because it defended the Jews, and notes that the pope organised rescues of Jews in Hungary and intervened to stop deportations in Slovakia. In 1943, Pius tried to disrupt implementation of the Final Solution throughout occupied Italy. continues here

Schindler's List found in Sydney

A list compiled by the German industrialist Oskar Schindler has been discovered by a researcher at a library in Australia. 

Schindler's list helped hundreds of Jewish workers escape death in the Holocaust during World War II. 

It was found in research notes which belonged to the Australian author of Schindler's Ark - the basis for the Oscar-winning film, Schindler's List. 

The document was found at the New South Wales Library in Sydney. There are 13 pages of fragile, yellowing paper, upon which are typed the names and nationalities of 801 Jewish people. They are being described as some of the most powerful documents of the 20th Century. 
Gas chambers 

The list was hurriedly typed on 18 April 1945, in the closing days of World War II, and compiled by Oskar Schindler, a card-carrying Nazi. 

Schindler ran a factory in Krakow, Poland, during the war, where he used Jewish labour. 

Appalled by the conduct of the Nazis, he sought to persuade officials that his workers were vital to the war effort and should be spared from the death camps. 

"It saved 801 men from the gas chambers... It's an incredibly moving piece of history," library co-curator Olwen Pryke said. 

This Schindler's list was found sandwiched between research notes and German newspaper clippings gathered by Australian author Thomas Keneally. 

Ms Pryke said neither the library nor the book dealer, from whom it bought the six boxes of material in 1996, realised the list was hidden among the documents.  continues here

Well thank goodness for that, just when you think the purported holocaust is not newsworthy up it pops ever buoyant, its handy though isn’t it, handy in these times when the holocaust appears to be losing its hold, losing its appeal, so it must be promoted, they’ll be teaching it in schools next, oh… It seems as if no other people ever suffered, as if there were no others in the camps, as if there is a hierarchy of victims, it matters little I suppose the millions of non-Jews who died, although I won't make the easy mistake and say for freedom, those millions that fought each other in an unnecessary war, a pointless war an orchestrated debacle, if anything should come from that, from what they made us do, it is this, we must never march for them again, never stand as opposing forces upon any field.

Oh there was a holocaust alright but it wasn’t Jewish and I’m sick of hearing them declare it was, such rubbish is an affront to all of our people, who died needlessly, died so that a new and terrible empire could rise, died so that the elites could live, could exploit and finally kill us off. I cannot stop them of course, cannot control the life of my children but I beg them, beseech them and pray to any god, that my children will not fall for their well-made adverts, their propaganda, their abject lies, I pray that my children will find satisfaction in other ways and not simply rush to the flag as many of us have in my family, I would hope that none of us will ever fight for you again.

Oh should parachutists fall from the sky or forces rush ashore then we will be there, we always have been, yet now for us, for we, not for you, they know this I think, realise it and so they push for automation, for mindless far-away killing for destruction en-masse. I have to say I hate them, will always hate them, for lying to us, for exploiting us, for destroying our birthright and creating this new so terrible world, the sham of remembrance day, the shame of knowing politicians standing before cenotaphs, acting their act, whilst those who fought have nothing. Remembrance day, such rubbish, such stupidity, such nonsense, one day a year, one day and neglect them the rest, turn society on its head and make their sacrifice worthless.

No it is the Jews, the Jews, always them, always they, how they suffered, how they endured, why lets make films of it, countless, countless films, propaganda more like, eye-candy for the stupefied, food for the thoughtless. I hear it, distant at first, the screeching in the wind, as if a thousands banshees fly to war, the heavens swirl and darkness descends and the voices of condemnation rise, you see we simply mustn’t question this thing, mustn’t use brain and senses, we must simply believe, believe and believe again, we must drink lies as wine and live in a stupor created. The new breed of nationalist will recoil, anger surface and face discolour, what is this heresy, what is this stubbornness in the face of the new order, why they are as us, they are the same it is the Mohammedan I tell you, fight them, tally ho and away and all the while evil grows.

There has never been an official inquiry into the Holocaust(sic), never been debate in fact the reverse, question any aspect and expect upheaval, expect oppression, expect retaliation, yet there are so many aspects to this event that require questioning, rather than imprisoning individuals lets have some light, lets see finally for once and end this thing. Certainly Jews died, this there is no doubt however they were not the principle players and in fact many fought against German forces, making them legitimate targets, I’m sorry officialdom, I’m sorry new nationalism but I question it all, each and every sorry aspect, it doesn’t add up, doesn’t ring true.
Yet does it matter, after all to most on the street it has little meaning, for most, it is a subject one is forced to study in school, giving one position I must add and no counter, so does it matter.

Well yes it matters quite a lot, the Holocaust(sic) is used to inhibit nationalism, it is used to sway the general public to a counter position, for instance each of us has grown up surrounded by anti-Nazi propaganda, tales of their evil in just the cinematic genre, runs into the millions and in each film the Germans are portrayed as inherently evil and even sadistic. Tie that into nationalism generally and it is easy to see why it matters, because in the public mind nationalism equates to murder, to bullying to psychosis, to a mass campaign of evil purpose. Now I ask you all you nationalists of any stripe, of any party or none, do any of us wish to create camps, wish to instigate mass slaughter or are we human in the extreme, beset by a humanitarian streak that wishes only to preserve ,to preserve and prevent conflict.

Let me put my cards upon the table, make my position clear, I question the holocaust(sic), I believe that all alien influence should leave our land, I believe that it is in the interests of the elites to portray German forces as innately evil and I believe that it is all a lie, all a fiction. Oh it sells books, makes for an enjoyable movie but it is rubbish, created entertainment of a certain political bent, I’m afraid war brings out the beast in man and why not, is not war of that level. Atrocities happen in any conflict, it is par for the course but saying therefore that a conceived genocidal campaign took place well that is a different matter that requires investigation, public exposure, for it is evil in the extreme. You see I can look to communism and find a systematic campaign, I can see the targeting of religious leaders, intellectuals and pheasants, I can see the annihilation of all pockets of resistance and a organized campaign of slaughter, yet the holocaust has never been proved to me, a film is not enough.

What I can see, other than the inconsistencies, is a systematic campaign against patriotism, against nationalism, against people, in this campaign the holocaust(sic) is used as a tool, for who can continue if such evil is thrown into the pot, what nationalist party has answer, some succumb they hurriedly declare their pro-semitic credentials, forgetting that many Muslims are semites to. Some have the affront to invite Jews to membership, not considering they to are alien to western culture, how can it be okay to accept Jews as ourselves and not Muslims, both have similar belief systems, both slaughter in similar way and both are ethnocentric in the extreme, of course many Muslims stand out, they look different, so lets simply all look white but change anyway, that’s rather like saying lets embrace the new order, the malevolent concept now taking place, lets become a rainbow nation for convenience, after all, quite soon we will all look the same, brown in this hypothesise, it will only be a cultural change, what about us.

What about whites, both culturally and genetically, must we retreat from reason, flee the field in fear, lets be clear, we have the right to exist, the right to exist as any other people and forces seek to change that, many of them forces Jewish, lets not run from this, take flight in terror, to do so both admits defeat and also declares we are wrong. Nationalism isn’t about the targeting of individuals, about the destruction of their creed or type far from it, it is simply about preservation, Jews for good or bad have their land, their culture and their genotype we must have ours. Yet what do I see on many nationalist sites and weblogs I see. “I support Israel” or “support Israel now more than ever”, such stupidity such nonsense, Israel is a stolen country, a country rogue, it kills with the support of all world-powers and it acts malignly, nationalists have a duty, a duty to condemn this state ,to stand with those disposed and to speak truth.

What is nationalism if it quakes when truth is spoken, if it withers internally and turns to other routes, what use the ballot if when power is gained truth must be spoken, many tell me this, oh we must present image, appeal, tell them what they want to hear, work with the system and once we achieve power then… So in effect we lie, we gain power crookedly and then we throw away manifesto and show another face, sorry its rubbish, its fallacy and its wrong, such action places you in the same camp as current orthodoxy, they to lie, cheat, exploit and destroy, they to throw away the manifesto, needing it only for office, they have their intent and the peoples wishes are not part of it.

Oh but we will never gain office then, never revert situation, do greens seek office on a expand airport platform, do conservatives profess socialism, do socialists declare a capitalist bent or are we special, do we have an unwritten right to lie to the public, exploit the body-politic and con our way into office and how long in office will we be, that’s assuming that politics is not a dirty game, that the game works in certain favour. Will the people who we have lied to take it, will they be forced to, will we declare that we have lied so face it, we are here now, better to tell the truth, better in the long run, better to appeal to the people as decent patriots than lying hyenas. Its quite easy you know, we are here for you, to preserver and protect you, is that hard or must we always run, always be cowed by the holocaust industry and all it represents.