The United Nations is urging Iran not to hold a contest for caricatures depicting the Holocaust.
The 11th Tehran International Cartoon Biennial, scheduled for June and announced last December, offers a prize of $50,000. The contest, which is sponsored by municipal authorities in the Iranian capital, is expected to draw participants from 50 countries, according to Iran’s IRNA news agency.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization sent a letter of complaint to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and other Iranian government officials, The Jerusalem Post confirmed Tuesday, the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Carmel Shama-Hacohen, Israel’s envoy to the U.N. organization, had already urged UNESCO Director General Irinia Bokava to condemn the contest as an example of Holocaust denial.
A UNESCO representative told the Post that the cartoon competition is “completely opposed to the spirit of UNESCO and to actual programs and publications that UNESCO has been putting out for decades.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon also wrote to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier this month demanding he condemn the cartoon contest.
“Holocaust denial is the most powerful expression of anti-Semitism which legitimizes the murder of six million Jews,” Danon wrote in his letter, also stating that Iran is “evil incarnate.”
Rouhani is scheduled to address UNESCO’s staff Wednesday.
