1997 ⟶ Jean-Marie Le Pen Accuses Jacques Chirac
Jean-Marie Le Pen accused Jacques Chirac of being "on the pa...
Year
1987
1996
1997
1998
🗣️ Jean-Marie Le Pen's Holocaust Denial Statement
On 13 September 1987 Jean-Marie Le Pen said, "I ask myself several questions. I'm not saying the gas chambers didn't exist. I haven't seen them myself. I haven't particularly studied the question. But I believe it's just a detail in the history of World War II." He was condemned under the Gayssot Act and ordered to pay 1.2 million francs (183,200 euros).⟶
Holocaust DenialAntisemitismJean-Marie Le PenFrench PoliticsFar RightGayssot Act1980sPolitical Discourse
France📚 Harun Yahya's 'Holocaust Lie' Distribution
In Turkey, in 1996, the Islamic preacher Harun Yahya distributed thousands of copies of a book which was originally published the previous year, entitled Soykırım Yalanı ("The Holocaust Lie") and mailed unsolicited texts to American and European schools and colleges. The publication of Soykırım Yalanı sparked much public debate. This book claims, "what is presented as Holocaust is the death of some Jews due to the typhus plague during the war and the famine towards the end of the war caused by the defeat of the Germans." In March 1996, a Turkish painter and intellectual, Bedri Baykam, published a strongly worded critique of the book in the Ankara daily newspaper Siyah-Beyaz ("Black and White"). A legal suit for slander was brought against him. During the trial in September, Baykam exposed the real author of the book as Adnan Oktar. The suit was withdrawn in March 1997.⟶
Holocaust DenialTurkeyAdnan OktarAntisemitismIdeology1990sIslamic Antisemitism
Turkey
United States📢 Jean-Marie Le Pen Accuses Jacques Chirac
Jean-Marie Le Pen accused Jacques Chirac of being "on the payroll of Jewish organizations, and particularly of the B'nai B'rith."⟶
Jean-Marie Le PenJacques ChiracPoliticsB'nai B'rithAntisemitismFrance1990s
France🗣️ Jean-Marie Le Pen's Holocaust Minimization
This year the European Parliament, of which Jean-Marie Le Pen was then a member, removed his Parliamentary immunity so that Le Pen could be tried by a German court for comments he made at a December 1996 press conference before the German Republikaner party. Echoing his 1987 remarks in France (see above), Le Pen stated: "If you take a 1,000-page book on World War II, the concentration camps take up only two pages and the gas chambers 10 to 15 lines. This is what one calls a detail." In June 1999, a Munich court found this statement to be "minimizing the Holocaust, which caused the deaths of six million Jews," and convicted and fined Le Pen for his remarks. Le Pen retorted ironically: "I understand now that it's the Second World War which is a detail of the history of the gas chambers."⟶
Holocaust DenialJean-Marie Le PenFranceGermanyFar-RightPoliticsAntisemitism1990s
France
Germany📜 Luxembourg Outlaws Holocaust Denial
In Luxembourg, Article 457–3 of the Criminal Code, Act of 19 July 1997 outlaws Holocaust denial and denial of other genocides. The punishment is imprisonment for between 8 days and 6 months and/or a fine.⟶
Holocaust DenialLegislationLuxembourgLaw1990sAntisemitismMemory
Luxembourg🗺️ Osama bin Laden's 'Greater Israel' Conspiracy
In a May 1998 interview with ABC's John Miller, Osama bin Laden stated that the Israeli state's ultimate goal was to annex the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East into its territory and enslave its peoples, as part of what he called a "Greater Israel". He stated that Jews and Muslims could never get along and that war was "inevitable" between them, and further accused the U.S. of stirring up anti-Islamic sentiment. He claimed that the U.S. State Department and U.S. Department of Defense were controlled by Jews, for the sole purpose of serving the Israeli state's goals.⟶
Osama bin LadenConspiracy TheoryGreater IsraelAntisemitismMiddle EastTerrorism1990sUnited States
United States