U.K. media is reporting that a Hamas spokesman has criticized a visit by a Palestinian official to the Auschwitz death camp calling the Holocaust against the Jews an “alleged tragedy.” According to a BC report:
A spokesman for the Palestinian militant movement Hamas has criticized a visit by a Palestinian official to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, media reports say. Fawzi Barhoum was quoted as saying the visit by Ziad al-Bandak, adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, was ‘unjustified and unhelpful’. He also called the Holocaust an ‘alleged tragedy’, media reports say. Hamas spokesmen have previously described the Holocaust as fabricated. More than a million people, mainly Jews, were murdered at Auschwitz, part of some six million Jews killed in the Nazi genocide during World War II. Mr Bandak visited the camp late last month and paid his respects there to the dead. Mr Barhoum is quoted in media reports as saying the visit is at ‘the expense of the true Palestinian tragedy’. A comment piece published by the Hamas-run Filastin newspaper also criticized Mr Bandak’s visit. ‘What is the wisdom in such a simple step that supports the Jews and their crimes?… Neither the Jews nor we believe that Hitler killed six millions Jews,’ the article read.In 2009 the Hamas-led administration in the Gaza Strip resisted attempts to introduce lessons about the Holocaust in UN-run schools.
The Hamas charter states that it “is one of the wings of the Muslim Brothers in Palestine” and in July 2011, Egyptian Brotherhood leader Dr. Essam al-Arian acknowledged the relationship between the Brotherhood and Hamas stating “The Muslim Brotherhood Group as a public Islamic organization is the umbrella for many Islamist movements, including Hamas” In June 2007, a Hamas journalist acknowledged the role that the “international Muslim Brotherhood” has played in providing funds for the purchase of weapons for the organization.The Global Muslim Brotherhood supports Hamas through the Union of Good, a worldwide coalition of charities headed by Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi.