Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Israel

In an interview on Iran's Arabic channel 'Al-Alam' on 8 December 2005, Ahmadinejad said that if Germany and Austria feel responsible for the massacre of Jews during World War II, they should host a state of Israel on their own soil.

"[24] EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said that she "strongly condemns the outrageous and hateful remarks threatening Israel's existence by the Supreme Leader and the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Challenging one of the most obvious and saddening events of 20th-century humanity has created astonishment among the people of the world and spread fear and anxiety among the small Jewish community of Iran.

[38][39] In August 2006, Deutsche Welle, citing AFP, reported that Ahmadinejad had written a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggesting that the victorious Allied powers in World War II may have invented the Holocaust to embarrass Germany.

[40][41] "Is it not a reasonable possibility that some countries that had won the war made up this excuse to constantly embarrass the defeated people ... to bar their progress," Ahmadinejad reportedly wrote in the letter.

[47] At the September 2009 Quds Day ceremonies in Tehran, he stated Israel was created on "a lie and a mythical claim,"[48] that the Western powers "launched the myth of the Holocaust.

They lied, they put on a show and then they support the Jews"[49] – what the New York Times considered "among his harshest statements on the topic,"[50] and one immediately condemned by the U.S., UK, French and German governments.

In an address to the United Nations General Assembly on 23 September 2008, Ahmadinejad stated that Zionists are criminals and murderers, are "acquisitive" and "deceitful", and dominate global finance despite their "minuscule" number.

He further stated that "It is deeply disastrous to witness that some presidential nominees have to visit these people [Zionists], take part in their gatherings and swear their allegiance and commitment to their interests in order to win financial or media support.

[63]At a Holocaust conference at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran on 27 January 2009, Ahmadinejad stated: "Today the Zionists dominate many of the world's centers of power, wealth, and media.

Unfortunately, they have ensnared many politicians and parties, and they are plundering the wealth and assets of nations in this way, depriving peoples of their freedoms and destroying their cultures and human values by spreading their nexus of corruption.

His comments were condemned by the United States as "disgusting, offensive, and outrageous," and by Israel as proving that Ahmadinejad "not only threatens the future of the Jewish people, he seeks to erase our past.

Three thousand years of Jewish history illustrate the clear danger of ignoring fanatics like Iran's president, especially as he inches closer to acquiring nuclear weapons.

"[2] In a speech to the United Nations on 26 September 2012, which some media said was notable for having "none of the usual dishevelled extremism" or "sabre rattling" that he is known for, Ahmadinejad called for a new world order not dominated by Western powers and condemned the continual threats of military action against Iran by "uncivilized Zionists.

[78] Ahmadinejad was the subject of controversy in 2005 when one of his statements, given during "The World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran, was translated by the Iranian state-controlled media[79] as suggesting that Israel should be "wiped off the map".

[82] On 30 October, The New York Times published a full transcript of the speech in which Ahmadinejad was translated as having stated: Our dear Imam (referring to Ayatollah Khomeini) said that the occupying regime must be wiped off the map and this was a very wise statement.

[85] Joshua Teitelbaum of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs discovered pictures of Iranian propaganda banners that clearly say in English: "Israel should be wiped out of the face of the world.

[94] Arash Norouzi, artist and co-founder of The Mossadegh Project, said that the statement "wiped off the map" did not exist in the original speech and that Ahmadinejad directed his comment toward the "regime occupying Jerusalem".

[103] In an 11 June 2006 analysis of the translation controversy, New York Times editor Ethan Bronner stated: [T]ranslators in Tehran who work for the president's office and the foreign ministry disagree with them.

[108] At a gathering of foreign guests marking the 19th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 2008, Ahmadinejad said: "You should know that the criminal and terrorist Zionist regime which has 60 years of plundering, aggression and crimes in its file has reached the end of its work and will soon disappear off the geographical scene.

Australian-born British human rights activist Peter Tatchell asked whether the statement reflected opportunism on Ahmadinejad's part, or an openness by Iran "to options more moderate than his reported remarks about wiping the Israeli state off the map.

Canada's then Prime Minister Paul Martin said, "this threat to Israel's existence, this call for genocide coupled with Iran's obvious nuclear ambitions is a matter that the world cannot ignore.

[119] Ahmedinejad's call to "wipe Israel off the map" is cited in Irwin Cotler's petition "The Danger of a Nuclear, Genocidal and Rights-Violating Iran: The Responsibility to Prevent", which was signed by Elie Wiesel, Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, and the former Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Per Ahlmark.

[123] Gawdat Bahgat, a professor of political science at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, said: "The fiery calls to destroy Israel are meant to mobilize domestic and regional constituencies.

Ahmadinejad: [...] Our suggestion is that the 5 million Palestinian refugees come back to their homes, and then the entire people on those lands hold a referendum and choose their own system of government.

We have said the solution is that the Palestinian people should decide in a free election for their own country, their own land,"[131]The White House stated that Ahmadinejad's rhetoric showed that it was correct in trying to halt Iran's nuclear program.

EU leaders issued a strong condemnation of these remarks: "[c]alls for violence, and for the destruction of any state, are manifestly inconsistent with any claim to be a mature and responsible member of the international community."

On 17 November, the European Parliament adopted a resolution condemning Ahmadinejad's remarks[132] and called on him to retract his bellicose comments in their entirety and to recognise the state of Israel and its right to live in peace and safety.

In July 2008, British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, told the Knesset: "To those who believe that threatening statements fall upon indifferent ears we say in one voice – it is totally abhorrent for the president of Iran to call for Israel to be wiped from the map of the world.

[141] Hassan Hanizadeh, an editorialist for the Tehran Times, claimed that the criticism of Ahmadinejad's statement by the United States and other Western countries is an attempt to divert attention from "the ever-increasing crimes the Zionists are committing against the innocent Palestinians.