Morsi aide: Holocaust a US hoax

FoxNews quotes Fathi Shihab-Eddim as saying 'The myth of the Holocaust is an industry that America invented'

Ynet|Published: 01.30.13 , 00:14

A key figure in Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's government called the Holocaust a hoax cooked up by US intelligence operatives and claimed the 6 million Jews who were killed by Nazis simply moved to the US, FoxNews reported Tuesday.

“The myth of the Holocaust is an industry that America invented,” Fathi Shihab-Eddim, a senior figure close to President Morsi was quoted as saying.

Related stories:

According to FoxNews, Shihab-Eddim is responsible for appointing the editors of all state-run Egyptian newspapers.

The Egyptian official was further quoted as saying that “US intelligence agencies in cooperation with their counterparts in allied nations during World War II created it (the Holocaust) to destroy the image of their opponents in Germany, and to justify war and massive destruction against military and civilian facilities of the Axis powers, and especially to hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the atomic bomb."

FoxNews said that Israeli experts had expressed concern at the harsh statements. Efraim Zuroff, Israel Director of the Jerusalem-based Simon Weisenthal Center told FoxNews.com the remarks show a dangerous, but common, mindset.

“Obviously, if a person in that position makes that ridiculous claim it is of concern," Zuroff said.

"The sad truth is that these views are relatively common in the Arab world and are the result of ignorance on one hand and of government-sponsored Holocaust denial on the other hand.”

The statement comes on the heels of the much-publicized comments made by President Morsi in 2010, that Jews are “the descendants of apes and pigs,” remarks that Morsi insists were taken out of context.