Garaudy visits Beirut

Date: Tue, 9 Jul 1996 9:20:40 PDT

BEIRUT, July 9 (UPI)—A French writer critical of what he calls Holocaust myths has been invited to visit by the Syrian government and a Lebanese anti-Israel club, a Beirut newspaper said Tuesday.

Roger Garaudy has agreed to participate in a July 21 Beirut conference organized by the Arab Cultural Club for the Resistance against the Zionist Cultural Invasion, the daily As Safir said.

Syrian Minister of Information Mohammed Salman on Monday welcomed Garaudy's plans to visit Damascus, the Syrian capital, after his Lebanon activities. Syria is the main power broker in Lebanon, where it bases more than 35,000 troops over two-thirds of the country's territory.

The Lebanese club is made up of Lebanese writers and intellectuals opposed to Zionism and the normalization of relations with Israel.

In a book titled Founding Myths of Israeli Politics, Garaudy contested many points commonly held by historians about the Holocaust. His views caused an uproar, particularly among Jews in Israel, in France and abroad.

Garaudy is expected to lecture in cultural clubs in the port city of Tyre in southern Lebanon and in Byblos, a city north of Beirut, As Safir said.

He is also scheduled to visit a grave in the southern city of Qana where more than 100 Lebanese civilians killed by Israeli artillery shells were buried after Israel's 17-day offensive into Lebanon in April.

Israel's peace talks are stalled with Syria and therefore Lebanon.