February 1, 1998

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Today's ZGram is very important, but before I get into it, I would like to thank my "steadies" for being so loyal with their support for the Zundelsite work, and to ask my newcomers to join me in fighting the foe.

I need all the help I can get!

If you are in a position to help with financial support, please e-mail me for instructions. Your name is confidential, and my supporter list will not be revealed to anyone.

Now to today's good news:

A ZGram reader sent me a hard copy of an English-language Arab publication called Al-Ahram Weekly, dated January 28, 1998. It looks like a substantial Arab paper, with offices in Cairo, USA, Russia, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Greece, Japan, Italy, Brazil and South Africa.

This weekly ran three articles on the Garaudy Trial in France, showing how Revisionist wildfires are breaking out all over the Arab countries and illustrating starkly the ***geopolitical significance*** of this stunning breakthrough for Revisionism.

The first article is titled "From Dreyfus to Garaudy". It discusses why the Garaudy trial has come to occupy center state in French-Arab relations. In my opinion, this is a mixed-message article that muddies several issues, but it has some important statements embedded in it, such as Garaudy's right to question

". . . whether the gas chambers did, in fact, exist. On this last charge, Garaudy's response during the trial was that, 'in the absence of a scientific and public debate on the matter, it is legitimate to doubt.'"

"What is important here," says this article, "is not to defend Garaudy but to denounce witch-hunts like the one to which he is now subjected for daring to broach a subject that is considered taboo and at deterring others from following suit."

The second Garaudy piece is what looks like an editorial statement by some Arab dignitary, Naguib Mahfouz (I do not recognize the name) that summarizes perfectly the puzzlement expressed in many Arab circles at what is going on:

"I was amazed to learn, in connection with the trial of the French Muslim thinker, Garaudy, of the existence of a French law according to which it is a crime to question facts relating to the Holocaust.

"France is a country which tolerates atheism; yet it is a crime to doubt the existence of the Holocaust, or the number of Jews killed. Historians who question the existence of monotheism's prophets were welcome to express themselves in France; but, according to this law, it is illegal to dispute the 'official' interpretation of the Holocaust.

"How did a simple historical event come to acquire such an aura of sanctity? . . . I find this law baffling - a contradiction in terms. Human disasters are historical events which must be studied again and again. The understanding of such events cannot be monopolized. No researcher can be tried and found guilty for his or her work.

"In the Arab world, many intellectuals consider France the paragon of enlightenment - a country where freedom of speech is an important value. Perhaps this law is the only exception to that rule. Whatever the case may be, we must watch closely if we are to learn the difference between reputation and reality."

Well said! Now perhaps the Arab countries will investigate why such laws exist in practically ***all Western European countries*** - and what happens to dissidents called Revisionists who state what Garaudy has said.

The third article is even more revealing. It is a lengthy expose titled "Rushdie the Second?: Roger Garaudy's trial for Holocaust denial has polarized public opinion in France."

Here I quote at length, with comments interspersed only so as not to infringe on copyright law:

"For the claims made in his most recent book, Founding Myths of Israeli Policies, (the Arabic edition is selling like hot cakes, according to certain publishers), the 84-year-old former Communist who converted first to Catholicism and more recently to Islam, went on trial in a Paris court on 8. January.

"The book first appeared in late 1995 and then again in April 1996, the writer paying for the new printing with financial help from certain Arab organizations. Backed by Arab intellectuals and writers, Garaudy, who is well-known in Arab countries for his "uncompromising" support of the Palestinian cause, has visited several countries in the region, including Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, and has been invited to Iran to participate in Islamic seminars. "Israel," he hammers out, "exploits the myths surrounding the Holocaust to bring about the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine and to gain non-stop financial support for Israel."

That is precisely the crux of the matter. It should become a mantra in both Germany and the United States: "The Holocaust exploits the myths to gain non-stop political support for Israel!"

Once that message has sunk in, the Revisionist task is, essentially, over. From then on, we can all sit back and watch how the long overdue historical debate and scholarly reassessment will take place. And won't that be a joyful day when persecution of Revisionists ends!

The article goes on to say:

"This law, {the Gayssot Law} pretends we can stop history moving. But history itself is a process of perpetual revision. My client is a victim of sheer discrimination. This is a witchcraft trial. This shameful law under which Garaudy is being tried is itself against all principles of equality and freedom of expression and opinion.", Verges {one of the four Garaudy defense attorneys} angrily charged.

"After the daily Al-Khaleej started a campaign of solidarity for Garaudy, calling on its readers to send money and letters of support to a man who was being 'persecuted by Zionist lobbies in France' to help him to 'continue his struggle against the Zionists and in support of the Palestinian people', the writer received 'hundreds of letters and faxes and messages on the Internet' (...)

"As days passed, more and more journalists, writers and intellectuals from Middle Eastern countries filled the courtroom. Lawyers from Egypt, Morocco and Lebanon came to help Mr. Verges. Letters of support were pouring in, and money, too, including a $50,000 cheque from Sheikha Fatima ibn Mubarak, the wife of Sheikh Zayed ibn Sultan Al-Nahjan of the United Arab Emirates."

I have described some of this outpouring of support for Garaudy before. We here in the Western countries cannot really assess what is happening in faraway Middle East places - but we can guess and start being jealous of the instincts in peoples of the Arab countries who have been so wronged by Israel, whereas in the Western countries the kneefalls before the 'Holocaust" are practiced with religious devotion.

By contrast:

"Rallies were organized in support of Garaudy in Arab and Muslim countries. In Tehran, students of the Hazbollah demonstrated in front of the French Embassy while an Islamic human rights association contested the right of the French court and magistrates to judge 'the great Muslim thinker and philosopher". Opposition parties in Amman issued a statement criticizing the trial, describing it as a 'theatrical farce".

"The Association of Palestinian writers expressed 'full solidarity with that great writer and thinker, Mr. Garaudy, for his courageous struggle and in support of creativity and freedom.'"

In chimes the Holocaust Promotion Lobby with the mantras of their own, as so aptly described in this article:

"Lawyers for the Jewish and anti-racist organizations say the philosopher's staunch anti-Zionism is the 'expression of his anti-Semitism'. 'Garaudy says anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. I say deep-rooted anti-Zionism is exactly anti-Semitism', said Giles William Goldnadel from 'Lawyers without Frontiers'. As for the deputy prosecutor, Francois Reygrobellet, he says he does not understand why criticism of Israeli policies must 'absolutely include the negation of crimes against humanity'. For Goldnadel, the incriminated book is 'one-sided' and does not respect the 'elementary principles and methods every historian must respect'."

What "elementary principles"? That bodies disappear by "spontaneous combustion"? That pellets of Zyklon B were thrown into non-existing shafts? That "genocide" is proved by a proliferation of "survivors"?

And what is sublimely ironic is that here, in this fellow Garaudy, we have one heck of a Squirming Revisionist who isn't even sure how to dance on the coals of this scenario:

"Throughout his trial, Mr. Garaudy insisted that everything he has said in his book is attacking the Zionist myths, the myth of the promised land, the myth of the six million Jews being exterminated, the myth of the Nuremberg Trial, the myth of the Holocaust," - is based on texts, writing and research done by specialists, including Israelis."

Yep. By having "borrowed" from the works of hardworking, noted Revisionist researchers such as Dr. Robert Faurisson, attorney Barbara Kulaszka, and all the stunning testimony forever set in cement in the amazing documents of the two Zundel Trials in Canada.

Says Garaudy:

"In the flood of insults unfurled {against me by my detractors}, no argument was produced to refute the proofs I provided in my book of each and every accusation against Israeli politics".

Right. Not now, and not then. Not ever.

Says the paper, quoting Mrs. Salma Garaudy who, it turns out, is Palestinian:

"Roger Garaudy violated the taboo and criticized Israel. 'He was absolutely aware of the consequences. He knew how the Zionists control the French media. The Zionist campaign was aimed at stopping a newly-born phenomenon that rebels against the historical conspiracy which twisted historical facts", Salma Garaudy told Al-ahram Weekly.

"Zionist accusations used excessive pressure, including death threats, to force Garaudy to give up his anti-Zionist opinions. Bookstores refused to stock and display his books. He has no access to the mainstream French media."

Violence has occurred in bookshops that are known to sell the Garaudy book. A Greek bookstore was attacked by armed hoodlums for openly selling the Greek edition of the book. Except for one television broadcast, the Greek media ignored this attack. A similar attack occurred in Paris at a bookshop. Garaudy was supposed to speak to foreign press correspondents, but the meeting was delayed. Finally, the interview was given in a hotel, but no national TV network showed any interest in it.

Argues Mrs. Garaudy - who, incidentally, has just signed a contract in Cairo to publish the controversial volume in Arabic - defending her husband:

"He is confident that he is defending a right, and he possesses proof and evidence supporting his stand. The Israelis only talk about peace but behave contrary to all peace agreements they signed themselves. This has always provided Garaudy with energy in order to arm the people with complete historical facts."

Commenting on the lack of reaction from human rights organizations, Mrs. Garaudy added:

"It is good for those organizations to exist. But one should not rely on them to regain his rights - except for those who signed the Le Monde Statement in 1982."

For your Thought of the Day, the Le Monde Statement (actually, the correct date was Febrary '79, page 23) and signed by 34 "scholars" reads as follows, to the disgrace of every living scientist on this earth:

"The question of how *technically* such a mass murder was possible should not be raised. It was technically possible since it occurred . . . This is the necessary starting point for all historical investigation of the subject. It has fallen to us to recall that point with due simplicity:
there is not nor can there be a debate over the existence of the gas
chambers."

This out of "sophisticated" France! That's where we are - with this millennium almost at an end!

The devastation to our Western culture inflicted by the Holocaust Promoters has been much deeper than we think. I say: more kudos to the Arabs for having the guts to call their enemies' bluff!

Ingrid

Comments? E-Mail: irimland@cts.com

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