20071005

Iranian Celebrates Jerusalem Day with Chants of "Death to America, Death to Israel"

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president accused Israel on Friday of using the Holocaust as a pretext for "genocide" against Palestinians.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who outraged the West in 2005 by calling Israel a "tumor" to be wiped off the map, said the truth should be told about World War Two and the Holocaust.
Six million Jews were killed in the Nazi genocide.
"Iran condemns fabricating such a pretext (the Holocaust) for the Zionist regime to commit genocide against the Palestinian nation and occupy Palestine," Ahmadinejad said in a live broadcast to mark the annual Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day in the Islamic Republic.
Iranians burn an effigy representing America and Israel during "Jerusalem Day" celebration
"The Iranian nation and countries in the region will not rest until Palestine is free and criminals punished," he said in the speech before Friday prayers.
Ahmadinejad has questioned the Holocaust but denied during a visit last month to the United States he was saying it never happened, only that the Palestinian issue was entirely separate.
Opposition to Israel is one of the cornerstones of belief of Shi'ite Iran, which backs Palestinian and Lebanese Islamic militant groups opposed to peace with the Jewish state.
Ahmadinejad repeated calls for Canada to accept Jews.
"Europeans cannot tolerate the Zionist regime's presence in their own region but want to impose it on the Middle East. Give them (the Jews) this vast land of Canada and Alaska to build themselves a home and resettle there," he said.
Al-Quds Day was inaugurated by Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. It is held on the last Friday of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.
Tens of thousands marched in a rally to mark the day, including soldiers, students and clerics. Black-clad women with small children clutching balloons emblazoned "Death to Israel" were among those flocking the streets of central Tehran.
"Death to America, Death to Israel," chanted the marchers, many carrying portraits of Khomeini and his successor Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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