In the last year, a new phenomenon has emerged in the Arab media: explicit acknowledgement and endorsement of the Holocaust, instead of Holocaust denial. Implicit acknowledgement of the Holocaust has always been very common in the Arab and Muslim discourse, especially as part of the repeated accusation that the Zionists’ acts against Palestinians are similar to those of the Nazis against the Jews. The claim is that the Holocaust did happen, and was completely justified: it was a deserved punishment from Allah in retribution for the Jews’ iniquities. Moreover, since the Jews have not discarded their depraved ways, there will be another Holocaust, “and God-willing it will be at the hands of the Muslims.” This kind of endorsement is evident in TV programs on the Qatari Al-Jazeera channel, for example in statements by the prominent Sunni religious authority, Dr. Sheikh Yousef Al- Qaradhawi, head of the Europe-based International Union of Muslim Scholars. It is also evident on the Egyptian Islamist TV channel Al-Rahma.13 This new trend also takes the form of humorous references to the Holocaust. For example, a former Lebanese minister explained in an interview that, in the recent World Cup, he rooted for Germany because “the Germans hate the Jews and burned them – ha ha ha.”
