By: Iran ?s competition for cartoons mocking the Holocaust drew international reproach but made little impression at home Thursday, with not a single Iranian newspaper publishing the winning entries and people on the street saying it left them unmoved.
"The exhibition had no remarkable impact on public opinion," said Gohar Dashti, a professor at the Soureh Art University in Tehran. "It was neither a concern of students nor of the media."
Israel deplored the competition, which drew 204 entries from Iran and abroad.
But Iran?s minister of culture dismissed the criticism.
The cartoons, which have been on display at the Museum of Contemporary Arts for Palestine since August, have not drawn large crowds though state schools bused their students to the show.
Iranian newspapers reported the results of the competition Thursday, but gave it no significant coverage. Not one paper printed the winning cartoon.
Iran?s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad supported the exhibition. His frequent denials of Nazi Germany?s killing of 6 million Jews during World War II have made the Holocaust a feature of Iranian foreign policy.
The exhibition was condemned worldwide. The U.S. State Department criticized it and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed his displeasure during a visit to Iran in September.
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