Israel's Olmert Calls Iran's Ahmadinejad An Anti-Semite

Israeli Prime Minister Olmert pictured at the Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem (file photo) (epa) 22 February 2006 -- Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today said that Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad is an anti-Semite.

Olmert also said that Iran's nuclear program must be stopped.


Olmert's remarks came after Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki on 20 February said Ahmadinejad had been misunderstood when he said recently that Israel should be "wiped off the map," a comment that sparked international outrage.


Mottaki said Ahmadinejad was not talking about destroying Israel but rather changing its government.


Ahmadinejad has also described the Holocaust as "a myth."


(Reuters)

Iranian Anti-Zionism

Iranian Anti-Zionism

President Ahmadinejad visiting the tomb of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in October (Fars)

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Each year in Iran, the last Friday of Ramadan is celebrated as Qods (Jerusalem) Day, officially a day for expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people.
"I have been notifying the Muslims of the danger posed by the usurper Israel," Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, father of Iran's Islamic Revolution, said in an August 1979 announcement. "I ask all the Muslims of the world and the Muslim governments to join together to sever the hand of this usurper and its supporters...and, through a ceremony demonstrating the solidarity of Muslims worldwide, announce their support for the legitimate rights of the Muslim people..." (more)

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INTERVIEW: On December 22, 2005, RFE/RL's Radio Farda spoke with FRED ZEIDMAN, director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Zeidman commented on Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's anti-Israeli comments.


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