Print

Paris, 23 February 2010

In a letter to Echorouk(The Dawn) of Algeria,Chief Editor Abdelkrim Alem, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations,Dr.Shimon Samuels, noted that "one of our members has brought to our attention an interview granted by your Arabic – language edition to Robert Faurisson, a Franco-British self-styled "historian", convicted on several occasions by French courts for his bigotry and distortions of history that, arguably, serve Nazi and neo-Nazi causes."

The letter continued, "by his psychotic denial of documents, photos, films, eyewitness testimony, biography, research and the continuing discovery of mass graves of Holocaust victims, Faurisson deliberately commits "memoricide" - the murder of the memory of those victims", adding, "his purpose is unmitigated political agitation, whether he is in Paris or Teheran."

Samuels pointed out that "when your newspaper, ECHOROUK, on 2 February 2010, stated that "Egyptian security services took part in the killing of Mahmoud Al Moubhouh in Dubai", this was legitimate editorial speculation".

"On the other hand, when, Faurisson's statement that "the Holocaust is a lie and the gas chambers a fabrication" is disseminated by your news service, this is an insult to Algeria."

The letter explained: "he who whitewashes the Holocaust also legitimizes the crimes of Vichy France and its officials. These would include Maurice Papon, who:

The Centre emphasized that "Faurisson and his companions, who live from their own Holocaust industry of denial, are no friends of the Arabs. Their retinue are racists, LePenists, xenophobes and Skinheads bent on new deportations of immigrants,including Algerian"

"Your embrace of Faurisson and his perverted ideology is a smear on both the Algerian and the Jewish movements for national liberation",concluded Samuels.