Speaking to thousands of people in the southeastern city of Zahedan, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said: "Today, they have created a myth in the name of Holocaust and consider it to be above God, religion and the prophets." -- Holocaust a myth, says Iran president
The head of the Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition force in Egypt's parliament, has echoed Iran's president in describing the Holocaust as a myth:
"Western democracy has attacked everyone who does not share the vision of the sons of Zion as far as the myth of the Holocaust is concerned," Mohamed Akef said in a statement on Thursday. -- Brotherhood chief: Holocaust a myth
"Some western governments, in particular the US, approve of the sacrilege on the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), while denial of the `Myth of Holocaust', -based on which the Zionists have been exerting pressure upon other countries for the past 60 years and kill the innocent Palestinians-, is considered as a crime," added the president. -- President: Real holocaust to be sought in Palestine, Iraq
They don't say the Holocaust didn't happen; they are suggesting something more complex than that.
That last quote in particular suggests that Ahmadinejad is using the word “myth”in its correct,technical sense.
Remember: myths are stories...
that groups of people tell to express and justify their most fundamental beliefs about themselves, their origins, their essential nature, etc.
Ahmadinejad is saying that Zionism tells the story of the Holocaust in
exactly this way, i.e. as a vehicle to explain and justify what Zionists believe about themselves.
When he “denies” the “myth” of the Holocaust, he is not denying
the Holocaust, he’s not even discussing the Holocaust as a historical event at all.
He is denying thevalidity of the use to which the story of the Holocaust
is being put.He is saying that instead of being a story that expresses an
underlying truth,“the myth of the Holocaust” expresses a “truth” that simply isn’t true, and that denial of that myth is such a big deal in the West because you are not meant to question whether the underlying claim is really true.
So what exactly is the “myth of the Holocaust” that Akef and Ahmadinejad reject?
Well, do you remember Wissam Tayem, the Palestinian man forced by Israeli soldiers to play his violin for them at a checkpoint in the Occupied Territories?
As Chris McGreal pointed out at the time, the sight of a Palestinian being forced to play the violin for his occupiers caused quite a stir in Israel. But the main reason it made Israelis (specifically Jewish-Israelis) uncomfortable was not because they recognized that it's simply wrong to treat a human being the way Wissam Tayem was treated.
Instead, it made them uncomfortable because it challenged their image of the kind of people they are, and the kind of country they have created. In other words, it undermined the Israelis' myth of themselves.
After the incident was videotaped by Jewish women peace activists, it prompted revulsion among Israelis not normally perturbed about the treatment of Arabs.
The critics were not drawing a parallel between an Israeli roadblock and a Nazi camp.
Their concern was that Jewish suffering had been diminished by the humiliation of Mr Tayem.
-Lawrence of Cyberia
http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2006/07/everything_you_.html
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And I will add that Mr Tayem playing his violin is just one speck of dust in the air when it comes to the onslaught of humiliations and degradations the I"D"F subjects Palestinians to, young and old, whether at the check points, or making rounds -invading the territories as usual in their tanks.
Mr. Tayem belongs to the legion of Palestinians who have suffered miserably, yesterday and today.