US Green Party VP nominee disavows Holocaust denier

The vice presidential candidate for the Green Party, Ajamu Baraka, disavows Holocaust denial after contributing an article to a writer whom Baraka says he did not know was a Holocaust denier.

“There has never been any question in [my] mind about the genocidal madness of the Nazi Holocaust throughout Europe during the second world war,” Ajamu Baraka tells Gawker on Aug. 12. “I abhor and reject any individual or group that fails to understand the tremendous suffering of Jewish people during that dark period.”

Baraka agreed to allow Kevin Barrett, who has said the “Holocaust controversy was a legitimate topic of historical debate,” to include his essay in a book Barrett compiled this year on theories of “false flags,” attacks organized by hidden conspirators to create pretexts for counterattacks.

The book includes essays by anti-Semites and 9-11 “truthers,” who propagate discredited theories that the US government and others are protecting the true perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Barrett’s essay did not allege a “false flag” attack, but suggested that last November’s mass shooting attack in Paris was blowback for Europeans who devalued non-European lives.

In his statement to Gawker, Baraka says he tends to freely allow others to publish his essays, and he was not aware of the theories propagated by some of the other writers included.

Stein has come under fire from the pro-Israel community for backing the boycott Israel movement, and for deleting social media posts that mourn the passing of Elie Wiesel, following complaints from critics of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s pro-Israel views.

— JTA