Madam, - Hikmat Ajjuri's letter of January 12th demonstrates a curious paradox.
In referring to the Holocaust as a "shameful chapter in the history of Europe", he flatly contradicts the official position of the Palestinian leadership on the subject. Hamas has denied the Holocaust as "an alleged and invented story with no basis" and strongly praised Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's similar denials as "courageous".
Hamas's general attitude to Jews can be deduced from its covenant, which endorses the Tsarist forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zionand blames Jews for all of history's ills, including the French Revolution, Communism and both world wars.
As if this wasn't enough, Mahmoud Abbas once wrote a doctoral dissertation in which he described Zionist leaders and Nazi Germany as "partners in crime" during the first World War, disputed the existence of the gas chambers and dismissed the millions of deaths as "inflated". That this man is so often described as the face of "moderation" in the Palestinian Authority puts things in sharp perspective.
- Yours, etc,
STEVEN CORCORAN, Laurence Grove, Clontarf, Dublin 3.