Iran leader's remarks shadow Shoah event

Emotions were high at Monday night's commemoration of the Holocaust in Geneva coming on the heels of anti-Jewish comments made by Iran's leader at a nearby United Nations racism conference. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked a walkout of diplomats from European countries at the Durban II conference when he accused Israel's government of being a "totally racist regime." His comments hung over the Holocaust ceremony, which attracted 3,000 people to the Place des Nations. A roster of speakers spoke to the crowd, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel and French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy. Wiesel, a survivor of the Holocaust, called the Iranian leader's comments "vulgar" and "insolent." Joel Herzog, president of an organizing committee for the event, said the "scandalous example" coming out of the UN meeting only reinforces the relevance of the ceremony, which aims to ensure that people never forget what anti-Semitism can lead to. The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, refers to the genocide of an estimated six million Jews by German Nazis during the Second World War. Mohammed-Reza Djalili, an expert on Iran at Geneva's Graduate Institute of International and development Studies, said Ahmadinejad was using the UN racism conference to boost his profile at home, as he seeks re-election in June. Djalili told the Tribune de Genève that identifying with the Palestinian cause is popular in Arabic countries, even if Iran is not directly involved in the conflict with Israel.