An Iranian diplomat accused Israel of exploiting the suffering of Jews through a United Nations resolution condemning Holocaust denialism.
Iran was the only nation to dissociate from the 193-member U.N. General Assembly’s voteless adoption of the resolution Thursday, which was drafted jointly by Germany and Israel.
The diplomat, whom Iran’s office did not identify, said Israel was exploiting “the sufferings of the Jewish people in the past as a cover for the crimes it has perpetrated” and alleged that the resolution adopted “an awkward approach toward historical studies.”
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Israeli U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan made veiled references to Iran, which has supported Holocaust denialism for several years, while promoting the resolution.
“Nations with seats in this hall openly deny the Holocaust, casting doubt on its occurrence and praising its perpetrators,” he said. “In fact, those that most blatantly deny that Jews suffered a genocide are the ones now threatening Jews with another genocide.”
The resolution defines distortion or denial of the Holocaust as “intentional efforts to excuse or minimize the impact of The Holocaust or its principal elements, including collaborators and allies of Nazi Germany,” a “gross minimization of the number of the victims of The Holocaust in contradiction to reliable sources,” any “attempts to blame the Jews for causing their own genocide,” and statements that cast the Holocaust as a good thing.
The resolution was adopted on the 80th anniversary of the 1942 Wannsee Conference, where Nazi leaders devised their plans for exterminating the Jews.
Thursday marks only the second time since Israel’s 1948 founding that the U.N. approved an Israel-backed resolution, diplomats told the New York Times. The first time was in 2005 when Israel pushed for Jan. 27 to be designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The U.N. has passed 121 condemnations of Israel since 2015.
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Iran has been accused of attempting to spark a conflict with Israel. In May 2021, Iran’s Gaza-based proxies got the green light to attack Israel. It also reportedly attempted to use its contacts to smuggle weapons into Israel’s Arab communities.
A representative from Israel’s U.N. office did not respond to emails from the Washington Examiner.
