Israel condemned the Al Jazeera news network after it published a clip making light of the Holocaust and denying aspects of it, while comparing Israel to the Nazis and even claiming that Israel was the “biggest winner” from the Holocaust.
The clip claims that Israel is the top beneficiary from the Holocaust, and uses it as an excuse for ethnic cleansing and the extermination of the Palestinians. It also claimed that the world focused on the six million Jewish victims, out of 20 million victims of the Nazis, because of the influence of Jewish organizations.
Al Jazeera further claimed that the number of Holocaust victims is debatable, that some deny the extermination while some say it is exaggerated, and some blame the Zionist movement for playing up the Holocaust.
Israeli journalist Shimrit Meir, who exposed the story, noted that the video was posted on a Friday night, after Iftar that breaks the Ramadan fast, because Al Jazeera “wanted all the traction they could get.” Nighttime watching during Ramadan is considered primetime in the Muslim world.
“Needless to say, with 750,000 views on Facebook in just a few hours, this is not your usual anti-Semite preacher on a Friday sermon. This is a huge propaganda machine that shapes the worldview of millions in the region, and in the Al Jazeera case, millennials,” she added.
Al Jazeera Media Network stated Friday that it deleted the video, produced by Al Jazeera Arabic, because “it violated the editorial standards of the Network.”
“This Holocaust denying video should not have been produced at all. Good that you deleted it,” stated Israel’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon. “Reason prevailed and an insane anti-Semitic Holocaust denying ‘educational video’ and meant to fuel hatred of Israel and the Jews in the Arab world, was removed.”
“This ‘explanation’ of the Holocaust is the worst kind of pernicious evil. That’s how Al Jazeera brainwashes young people in the Arab world and perpetuates hatred of Israel and the Jews. Lies and evil propagated by the ideological descendants of ‘Der Stürmer’,” he added.
Israel announced in August 2017 that it planned to ban Qatar’s flagship Al-Jazeera network from operating in the country over allegations it incites violence and supports terrorism, joining Arab nations that have shut down the broadcaster amid a separate political dispute.
Israeli officials have long accused Al-Jazeera, a pan-Arab satellite network funded by the Qatari government, of bias against the Jewish state. Then-Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has likened its coverage to “Nazi Germany-style” propaganda.