OXFORD STUDENT UNION INVITES HOLOCAUST DENIERS TO SPEAK

BNP to speak to Oxford students (BBC)
Nick Griffin and David Irving are due to speak at the Oxford Union

The Oxford Union has voted to allow the British National Party (BNP) leader and a controversial historian to speak at a free speech event on Monday.  Despite opposition, the Oxford Union Debating Society members voted by a margin of 2 to 1 to continue to extend an invite to the BNP's Nick Griffin. David Irving, who was jailed for Holocaust denial, will also be invited.

The move was opposed by the Oxford Student Union and the university's Muslim and Jewish societies.

Luke Tryl, president of the Oxford Union Debating Society, said "the men were not being given a platform to extol their views, but were coming to talk about the limits for free speech".

"They will be speaking in the context of a forum in which there will be other speakers to challenge and attack their views in a head to head manner," he said.

Mr Griffin, the leader of the far-right party, has repeatedly insisted the BNP is not a racist group.  He was convicted in 1998 for incitement to racial hatred for material denying the Holocaust.

Mr Irving was imprisoned for three years after pleading guilty to Holocaust denial in Austria.  But he denied being a Holocaust denier as he said he had no alternative but to plead guilty to the charge.

The union said all tickets for the event, which were only available to its members - who are mainly students - had gone.  A rally in protest at the invitation was held on Tuesday and among those speaking there were Holocaust survivors.  Stephen Altmann-Richer, co-president of the Oxford University Jewish Society, said that while freedom of speech was important it was "overshadowed in this instance".  "I don't think these people should be invited to the Oxford Union, by having them speak, it legitimises their views," he said.

OXFORD UNION INVITES HOLOCAUST DENIER IRVING TO SPEAK

Outrage after Holocaust denier David Irving invited to Oxford Union (National Review)
Oxford University’s world famous Oxford Union debating society has sparked outrage after it was revealed that they have invited Holocaust denier David Irving, who was recently released from an Austrian jail, to address students at the end of November. The Oxford Union has also asked British fascist leader Nick Griffin to join him, reports The Guardian.

“If Columbia can invite Ahmadinejad, then why shouldn’t we invite Irving?” one Oxford Union committee member asked.

HOLOCUAST DENIER PLANS COMEBACK

UK Holocaust denier plans comeback (JPost)
David Irving, the discredited British historian and Holocaust denier, has announced that he is to launch a comeback with a publicity tour of UK cities and a series of new books.

Described by a high court judge as a Holocaust denier and a racist, Irving was imprisoned in Austria for three years in February 2006 on Holocaust denial charges after a judge ruled that two speeches he made in 1989 breached Austrian law. He questioned the existence of extermination camps in his speeches and dismissed the gas chambers at Auschwitz as a "fairy tale".

"I have kept a low profile for several months because I have had to sort out where to live and to address my financial situation, but now I am ready to start again" Irving told The Guardian newspaper on Saturday.

Irving was released last December following a successful appeal, less than halfway through his sentence, with a judge saying his crime was committed a long time ago and that Irving had since undergone an "impeccable conversion."

However, Irving says his views on the Holocaust have crystallized rather than changed. He says that the Jews were responsible for what happened to them during the Second World War and that the "Jewish problem" was responsible for nearly all the wars of the past 100 years.

"The Jews are the architects of their own misfortune, but that is the short version A-Z," he said in the Guardian article.

AUSSIE TV SORRY FOR AIRING HITLER SHOW BY HOLOCAUST DENIER

Aussie TV sorry about Hitler program (JTA)
Australia’s major pay TV company has apologized for broadcasting a documentary about Adolf Hitler written by Holocaust denier David Irving.

Foxtel CEO Kim Williams said this week he was “acutely embarrassed” that his company screened “The War Files” last Saturday on the History Channel. The documentary, which is based on Irving’s book “Hitler’s War,” paints a revisionist picture of Hitler.

Williams was apprised of Irving’s role in the documentary by a former Jewish member of Parliament, Barry Cohen, who served in the Cabinet in the 1980s. In response, Williams said he canceled the rest of the series and ordered an investigation. "There can be no excuse for such an offensive program seeing the light of day,” Williams wrote to Cohen.

In a separate letter to Williams, Michael Danby, the only Jewish member of federal Parliament, said he was “very impressed” by the Foxtel chief’s prompt response to pull the series.

Irving, who lost a libel suit he filed against Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books in 2000, is banned from entering Australia. Last year he served a 10-month prison sentence in Austria for associating with neo-Nazis.

HOLOCAUST DENIER IRVING: NO GAS CHAMBERS AT AUSCHWITZ

Irving denies gas chambers (JTA)
Holocaust denier David Irving said there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz. “At Auschwitz they did not have gas chambers, or at least there is no proof that I am satisfied with,” the British revisionist said in an interview with Italy’s Sky TG24 News.

Irving was convicted and jailed in February 2006 by Austrian authorities for Holocaust denial. His three-year sentence was reduced in an appeal and he was released last month on probation.