Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust
Note: This text was sent to the Irish press and others on 19 November 2010Bradley R Smith
PO Box 439016
San Ysidro CA 92143
Telephone: 209 682 5327
Email: bsmith@prodigy.net.mx
Web: www.codoh.com
For Publication
THE NEW BLASPHEMY
The Holocaust Education Trust of Ireland has held what was supposedly a public conference on "Anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial" on November 18th and 19th at Trinity College, Dublin. Not only did the organizers not invite any "Deniers" to participate in the conference on "Denial," but they effectively banned Revisionists from attending the Conference. This from an assortment of individuals who claim to advocate "tolerance."
This Conference appears to have been what other such get-togethers have proven to be, platforms for advocating the blacklisting and censorship of Revisionists. Revisionist views are consistently distorted and misrepresented in objectionable ways, but not those of Revisionists alone. Arabs, Islam, and Iranians are all sermonized about without a single representative of any of those groups being invited to speak.
To understand the tenor of this "Conference," consider a couple of the speakers:
Mark Weitzman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center recently testified that "In Holland, the home of Anne Frank, a ceremony commemorating the Second World War was disrupted by students who chanted "Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas" http://tinyurl.com/2e6zy3h . Weitzman cannot demonstrate that this charge is true. The Anne Frank House denies that it is true.
Professor Meir Litvak, famous for advocating an attack on Iraq in 2003 is quoted: "Litvak said a short war with and the quick removal of Saddam Hussein could greatly improve the peace process." http://tinyurl.com/2aw4kz7 . There have been some 1,400,000 Iraqi war dead since the beginning of Litvak's "short war and peace process." Is Litvak going to advise us about a "short war" with Iran?
There were interesting and important topics to be discussed at this Conference, but an honest discussion of those topics was not invited, and one was not wanted, as the exclusion of Revisionist attendees on principle is a forthright example. This Conference appears to have been little more than a sacred Dog and Pony Show being carried out to demonize others, with Revisionism treated as a new blasphemy.
The organizers sought governmental involvement and scheduled the Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin T.D., to speak. If the Minister intended to act in good faith and in support of the ostensibly laudable purposes of the Conference, why would he cooperate with the banning of a free exchange of ideas on a historical question, rather than cooperate with those who support intellectual freedom on such matters?
Important issues were at stake at this International Conference on Anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial. Please, we all need to speak out to the Irish government to promote peace and a truthful, multi-sided discussion of these historical and political questions.
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