Posted: December 12, 2006
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views place him and the Iranian regime among the foremost threats to Jews and the state of Israel.
Ahmadinejad repeatedly demonizes the state of Israel and openly calls for its destruction at every opportunity. Most notoriously, he described Israel as a "fake regime" that "must be wiped off the map."
He termed Zionists "the most detested people in all humanity" and called the extermination of six million Jews during World War II "a myth," claiming that Jews have played up Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust in a bid to extort sympathy for Israel from European governments.
Ahmadinejad's virulently anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric and Holocaust denial are often matched by other Iranian leaders, and the Iranian regime itself has continued to sponsor anti-Zionism conferences and pseudo-academic lectures and exhibits questioning the fact of the Holocaust.
The following is a selected compilation of Ahmadinejad's statements on Jews, the Holocaust and Israel in his own words:
December 12, 2006
?Thanks to people?s wishes and God?s will the trend for the existence of the Zionist regime is downwards and this is what God has promised and what all nations want?Just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and today does not exist, so will the Zionist regime soon be wiped out?
(Comments to Iran?s Holocaust Conference)
November 29, 2006
"What have the Zionists done for the American people that the US administration considers itself obliged to blindly support these infamous aggressors? Is it not because they have imposed themselves on a substantial portion of the banking, financial, cultural and media sectors?"
(Letter from Ahmadinejad "to the American people")
November 13, 2006
"Israel is destined for destruction and will soon disappear"
Israel is "a contradiction to nature, we foresee its rapid disappearance and destruction."
October 19, 2006
"The Zionist regime is counterfeit and illegitimate and cannot survive"
(as quoted by Iranian state television)
August 6, 2006
"They (Israel) kill women and children, young and old. And, behind closed doors, they make plans for the advancement of their evil goals."
(as quoted by Khorasan Provincial TV)
August 4, 2006
"A new Middle East will prevail without the existence of Israel."
(as quoted by Malaysian news agency Bernama website)
August 2, 2006
"Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented."
(as quoted by Iranian TV)
"Are they human beings?... They (Zionists) are a group of blood-thirsty savages putting all other criminals to shame."
(as quoted by Iranian TV)
July 27, 2006
"The occupying regime of Palestine has actually pushed the button of its own destruction by launching a new round of invasion and barbaric onslaught on Lebanon"
(as quoted by Islamic Republic News Agency via the Associated Press)
July 16, 2006
"The Zionists think that they are victims of Hitler, but they act like Hitler and behave worse than Genghis Khan."
(as quoted by the Iranian News Agency)
July 13, 2006
"The Zionists and their protectors are the most detested people in all of humanity, and the hatred is increasing every day."
"The worse their crimes, the quicker they will fall."
"[Israel] has blackened the pages of history".
(as quoted by Iranian state television)
June 16, 2006
"I think we have sufficiently talked about this matter and these Holocaust events need to be further investigated by independent and impartial parties."
"An event that has influenced so many diplomatic and political equations of the world needs to investigated and researched by impartial and independent groups."
"If it is true, then the response to this question should not be solved in Palestine. The Palestinian question should be settled as soon as possible. If it is false, why should such measures be taken against the people of Palestine?"
(a news conference following a meeting with China's president)
May 28, 2006
"I believe the German people are prisoners of the Holocaust. More than 60 million were killed in World War II . . . The question is: Why is it that only the Jews are at the center of attention?"
"We say that if the Holocaust happened, then the Europeans must accept the consequences and the price should not be paid by Palestine. If it did not happen, then the Jews must return to where they came from."
(in an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine)
May 11, 2006
Israel is "a regime based on evil that cannot continue and one day will vanish."
(to a student rally in Jakarta, Indonesia)
April 24, 2006
''We say that this fake regime (Israel) cannot not logically continue to live. Open the doors (of Europe) and let the Jews go back to their own countries."
(In a news conference held on April 24, 2006)
April 14, 2006
"The Zionist regime is an injustice and by its very nature a permanent threat. Whether you like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation. The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."
"If there is serious doubt over the Holocaust, there is no doubt over the catastrophe and holocaust being faced by the Palestinians. Holocaust has been continuing in Palestine over the past 60 years."
(In a speech at the opening of the "Support for the Palestinian Intifada" conference on April 14-16 hosted in Tehran)
February 23, 2006
"These heinous acts are committed by a group of Zionists and occupiers that have failed. They have failed in the face of Islam's logic and justice . . . They invade the shrine and bomb there because they oppose God and justice . . . But be sure, you will not be saved from the wrath and power of the justice-seeking nations by resorting to such acts."
(In a speech broadcast on state television, where Ahmadinejad suggested that the bombing of a major Shiite shrine in Iraq by Sunni insurgents was plotted by Israel and the U.S. to divide Muslims.)
January 5, 2006
"Hopefully, the news that the criminal of Sabra and Chatilla has joined his ancestors is final."
(To a group of Muslim clerics in the Iranian city of Qom, as quoted in the semi-official student news agency ISNA, in a reference to the illness of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon).
"[N]o Muslim nation would put up with this entity [i.e. Israel] in Islamic lands, not for one moment ? If it's true that the [Europeans] committed a big crime in World War II, then they must take responsibility for it themselves, and not ask the Palestinian people to pay the price ? Those countries that support this regime [Israel] were terrified at the suggestion that [Israel] should be relocated to their neighborhood. So why should the Palestinians and the countries in our region accept this entity?"
(In a speech before an audience in the Iranian city of Qom, aired on television)
January 2, 2006
"[The creation of Israel after World War II] killed two birds with one stone [for Europe] ? [The objectives achieved by Europe were] [s]weeping the Jews out of Europe and at the same time creating a European appendix with a Zionist and anti-Islamic nature in the heart of the Islamic world ?Zionism is a Western ideology and a colonialist idea ... and right now it massacres Muslims with direct guidance and help from the United States and a part of Europe ... Zionism is basically a new [form of] fascism."
(In written answers to questions from the public reproduced in several Iranian newspapers)
December 14, 2005
"Today, they [Europeans] have created a myth in the name of Holocaust and consider it to be above God, religion and the prophets ? This is our proposal: give a part of your own land in Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to them [Jews] so that the Jews can establish their country."
(Speaking to thousands of people in the Iranian city of Zahedan)
December 13, 2005
"If the killing of Jews in Europe is true and the Zionists are being supported because of this excuse, why should the Palestinian nation pay the price?"
(Comments published on Iranian state television's Web site)
December 8, 2005
"Some European countries insist on saying that Hitler killed millions of innocent Jews in furnaces.... Although we don't accept this claim, if we suppose it is true, our question for the Europeans is: Is the killing of innocent Jewish people by Hitler the reason for their support to the occupiers of Jerusalem? If the Europeans are honest they should give some of their provinces in Europe -- like in Germany, Austria or other countries -- to the Zionists and the Zionists can establish their state in Europe."
(While speaking to reporters at an Islamic summit in Mecca)
November 27, 2005
"You [the United States], who have used nuclear weapons against innocent people, who have used uranium ordnance in Iraq, should be tried as war criminals in courts."
(During a nationally televised ceremony of the establishment of Iran's volunteer Basij paramilitary)
October 29, 2005
"They [the United States] think they are the absolute rulers of the world."
(Marching in a demonstration alongside a crowd of students in Tehran)
October 28, 2005
"They [International Zionist and Expansionist Policies of the World Arrogance, i.e. United States and Israel] are cheeky humans, and they think that the entire world should obey them. They destroy Palestinian families and expect nobody to object to them."
(Defending his earlier comments)
October 26, 2005
"Israel must be wiped off the map ? The establishment of a Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world . . . The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of the war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land."
(In an address to 4,000 students at a program titled, 'The World Without Zionism')
June 19, 2005
"It is not just for a few states to sit and veto global approvals. Should such a privilege continue to exist, the Muslim world with a population of nearly 1.5 billion should be extended the same privilege."
(In an interview with state television shortly before his election)
June 8, 2005
The UN structure is one-sided, stacked against the world of Islam.
(In an interview on state television)
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