Muslim states to remember kristallnacht

Jerusalem Post
10.11.2008
Haviv Rettig

Dramatic Muslim representation is expected at Monday's "Special Event Promoting Tolerance Throughout the European Continent" at the European Parliament in Brussels.

Representatives of Libya, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, Morocco, Turkey and Malaysia, among others, are to attend an event publicized as part of the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht.

The event is organized jointly by the European Jewish Congress and the presidency of the European Parliament. It is the first event of this scope in Europe to include such significant Muslim participation.

The Muslim world representatives almost certainly had "clearance from home," said World Jewish Congress vice president Maram Stern, "so this is a great success."

The anniversary of Kristallnacht is an appropriate occasion for discussing tolerance, EJC president Moshe Kantor said Sunday, because it commemorates another kind of tolerance, the world's tolerance for evil.

This tolerance is today extended to Iran's nuclear ambitions, he said.

"Today, a leader of a very problematic country goes to the United Nations General Assembly and pronounces a criminal formula - the destruction of Israel, the death of Jews," explained Kantor.

"Yet nobody walked out of that room. We are in the same situation" as at the time of Kristallnacht, when the world rebuffed Jewish refugees and ignored the dangers, he said.

While fighting intolerance, the world cannot be "criminally tolerant to what's going on in Iran," said Kantor.

Asked if European states share his view on the link between the Iranian nuclear program and the lessons of Kristallnacht, Kantor said he would "concentrate their attention myself" at the event, "even though humanitarian values often seem to be undervalued when they are pit against economic values."

He noted that 5,000 European companies openly do business with Iran, "with some helping in the creation of nuclear warheads through [the sale of] dual-use technologies."

At Monday's event, a "convention of tolerance" will be presented to the European Parliament by former Polish president Alexander Kwasniewski, who chairs the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation.

The council will also present a first draft of a "white paper on tolerance" for Europe, which would chronicle European states' achievements in developing "technologies of tolerance."

According to Kantor, it will be a record of successful policies and programs in fighting intolerance throughout Europe.