Khaled Kasab Mahameed

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Khaled Kasab Mahameed is an Arab Israeli Muslim lawyer living in Nazareth, Israel. In March 2005 he established The Arab Institute for the Holocaust Research and Education, a Holocaust Memorial located in Nazareth. The small museum documents the horrors of the Holocaust, showcasing photographs acquired from Yad Vashem, the world-renowned Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. The Arab Institute for the Holocaust Research and Education along with its website [1] was established by Mahameed in order to educate Arabs about the Holocaust.[2] According to Mahameed the museum is the first of its kind.[3] He regards educating Arabs on the Holocaust as a contribution to promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Mahameed has been criticized from the Arab side for focusing on Israeli problems rather than the problems of the Palestinian people,[4] as well as for instance by the USA based Anti Defamation League (ADL), which accuses him of making an improper connection between the situation of the Palestinians and the Holocaust. The ADL has argued that Mahameed's museum generates the impression that Palestinians are suffering as a result of the Holocaust by having to accept an illegal Israeli state, which the ADL regards as anti-Israeli. [5][6] Since first saying this, ADL's senior associate national director Kenneth Jacobson has described the initiative as "very good", after visiting Khaled Kasab Mahameed and his museum.[7]

In 2006, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad invited Mahameed to his government's "International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust". Mahameed was to be the lone speaker arguing that the Holocaust did in fact occur, with the exception of the ultra-Orthodox anti-Israel rabbi Aharon Cohen. However, Ahmadinejad rescinded the invitation after learning that Mahameed holds an Israeli passport.

Mahameed had prepared remarks that said, in part, "Everything that happened must be internalized and the facts must not be denied . . . It is the obligation of all Arabs and all Muslims to understand the significance of the Holocaust. If their goal is to understand their adversary, they must understand the Holocaust." [8]

Khaled Kasab Mahameed, was denied permission to attend the conference "[[International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust" by Iran after it was discovered that he holds Israeli citizenship. He had been previously, repeatedly, invited to attend by the Iranian government;[17] however Iran does not grant visas to Israelis. According to Ha'aretz, Mahameed intended to tell the conference that:

the Holocaust did happen and that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's position of Holocaust revisionism is wrong. "Everything that happened must be internalized and the facts must not be denied . . . It is the obligation of all Arabs and all Muslims to understand the significance of the Holocaust. If their goal is to understand their adversary, they must understand the Holocaust." ... According to Mahameed, ... "The naqba [disaster] the Palestinians experienced in 1948 is small compared to the Holocaust, but the political implications of the Holocaust have made its terrors a burden on the Palestinian people alone." [18]}}