JNS.org<\/em>. \u201cWestern governments, led by the U.S., are legitimizing a genocidal anti-Semitic regime, and this is dangerous and can only lead to problems for all of us, not just for Jews.\u201d<\/p>\nOrganizers of the 11th Tehran International Cartoon Biennial recently announced that a Holocaust cartoon competition is scheduled for this June. They say that the Iranian contest is expected to draw participants from many countries. This year, the first-place prize money is $50,000, more than quadruple last year\u2019s $12,000. There will also be a separate portrait contest focusing on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnybody can see that Iran\u2019s anti-Semitic cartoon contest is meant to incite hatred, which is often the motivator of violence and terrorism. The world should condemn this appalling contest as vehemently as we do,\u201d said Consul Daniel Agranov of the Houston-based Consulate General of Israel to the Southwest United States. \u201cThis is not only a Jewish issue, this is part of world history and is an issue that should be remembered and taught to the younger generation as an example of something to prevent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ira Forman, the U.S. State Department\u2019s special envoy to combat and monitor anti-Semitism, said it\u2019s critical that the U.S. speak out against any type of government-sponsored anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really concerned this contest is used as a platform for Holocaust denial\u2026and anti-Semitic speech,\u201d Forman told JNS.org<\/em>.<\/p>\nWhile Tehran has sponsored similar contests before, this year\u2019s competition comes as world powers are lifting billions of dollars in sanctions against Iran\u2014the world\u2019s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, including its funding of Hamas and Hezbollah, two groups sworn to Israel\u2019s destruction\u2014under the nuclear deal brokered by the Obama administration and five other Western powers. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry recently admitted that some of the sanctions relief coming Iran\u2019s way will likely fund terrorism.<\/p>\n
Calling the cartoon contest \u201cblatantly ugly overt anti-Semitism,\u201d ISGAP\u2019s Small said Holocaust denial is the basis of the Iranian regime\u2019s ideology, which is seeded in radial jihadist thinking.<\/p>\n
Ken Jacobson, the Anti-Defamation League\u2019s deputy national director, told JNS.org <\/em>that Iran\u2019s Holocaust denial is \u201cnot per se about the Holocaust. It\u2019s about vicious anti-Semitism [going on] in the world. It\u2019s an attack on the Jewish people, and it\u2019s a threat.\u201d<\/p>\nLast year\u2019s Iranian Holocaust cartoon contest, organizers said, was a response to international support for such an endeavor following the Islamist terror attack on the French magazine Charlie Hebdo<\/em> over its publication of cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed, whose depiction is taboo in Islam. Iranian contest organizers said they\u2019re trying to show that those who defend cartoons depicting Mohammed can\u2019t have it both ways. Iran started the Holocaust cartoon contest in 2006 after a Danish newspaper published cartoon depictions of Mohammed.<\/p>\nWith the U.S. now more closely tied to Iran following the nuclear deal, that\u2019s all the more reason to closely monitor Iran\u2019s actions to \u201cunderstand we\u2019re dealing with a very dangerous regime, to keep tabs on them and keep pressure on them [regarding the regime\u2019s] anti-Semitism and terrorism,\u201d said Jacobson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been saying to the [Obama] administration, \u2018You\u2019ve got to be clear about their human rights violations, support of terrorism\u2026and take sanctions against them if they violate the [nuclear] agreement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
![\"Holocaust_cartoon\"](\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Holocaust_cartoon.jpg\")