Cartoonists worldwide have been called by Iran to send works denying and satirizing the Holocaust.

The cartoon contest was announced by Tehran ahead of the annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day to be marked on January 27.

This is not the first time such a contest is organized in Iran but this one is especially significant due the fact that the organizers are the Iranian capital authorities. The prize money is also several times what it was before.

So far there has been little condemnation from world leaders.

Cartoonists from at least 50 countries are expected to participate. In June, the winner will receive a cash prize of US$ 50,000 (45,900 euros), with the top three runners up to receive US$ 12,000, 8,000, and 5,000 each for their work mocking the extermination of six million Jews by the Nazis.

Organizers of the event claim it is not aimed at denying the Shoah. “The main question is that why is there no permission to talk about the Holocaust despite their belief in freedom of speech,” contest organizer Masud Shojai-Tabatabai said. He claimed that Israel was using the Holocaust as a pretext in the conflict with Palestinians.

Yuli Edelstein, Speaker of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, rote to all 120 Knesset members asking them to join a coordinated social media campaign on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, to express their disgust at Holocaust denial.

He said that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon must publicly condemn and directly address Iran’s Holocaust denial.

He expressed his outrage about the contest, writing: “There are no words strong enough to describe the contempt and profound disdain of the State of Israel, the Israeli people and many others the world over, to Iran’s insistent Holocaust denial... despite its false facade of tolerance toward Iranian as well as world Jewry.

“The current president of Iran does not differ from his notorious predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and, like him, does not even attempt to conceal Iran’s intent to eliminate the State of Israel,” he wrote.

Edelstein also pointed out that Iran sponsors acts of terrorism across the world.

“As head of an organization that in 2005 adopted the brave resolution to establish January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I ask that you exert your moral authority through public condemnation of the Iranian policy and by addressing this matter directly with Iran, as well,” Edelstein wrote to Ban.

Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, also wrote to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling on him to condemn the cartoon competition. “Holocaust denial is the most powerful expression of anti-Semitism which legitimizes the murder of six million Jews,” Danon wrote.

He pointed out that on 27 January, the United Nations will mark the annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day, “while a UN member state is organizing an international competition with the sole purpose of denying the Holocaust. [...] The Iranians are trying to desecrate the memory of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, and the United Nations must stand by Israel and condemn this heinous act.” Danon wrote. by Yossi Lempkowicz