Britain - Oxford Invites Holocaust Denier To Free Speech Forum

The Oxford University has invited Holocaust denier David Irving to speak at an upcoming event. Details were published on Saturday in the British newspaper The Guardian. Luke Tryl president of the Oxford University debating society told the newspaper that aside from Irving, British National party chairman Nick Griffin and Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukoshenko had also been invited to speak. Tryl added that no formal decision had been made on who would be invited to appear. “The Oxford University is famous for its commitment to free speech and although I think these people have awful and abhorrent views, I do think Oxford students are intelligent enough to challenge and ridicule these people,”he told the newspaper. A joint statement issued by Oxford Jewish Society presidents Daniel Bloch and Steven Altman-Richer said ”it will be a disgrace if these discredited speakers are allowed a platform at a forum on free speech. They have an embarrassing history for disregard of legal restrictions. It will certainly go down as a black mark on the reputation of the Oxford Union.”

In 1998, a British court ruled that Irving is, ”an active Holocaust denier, antisemitic, racist and he associates with right wing extremists who promote neo Nazism.” Irving served a prison service in Austria in 2006 for glorifying and identifying with the National Socialist Workers Party, considered a crime in Austria.

Source: www.infolive.tv

Date: October 13, 2007

By Margot Dudkevitch

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