ZGram - 7/8/2003 - "Holocaust Lobby failed in its attempt to
stop the screening of a film by Holocaust revisionist David Irving"
zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org
Tue Jul 8 16:11:12 EDT 2003
ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny: Now more than ever!
July 8, 2003
Good Morning from the Zundelsite:
David Irving calls this a "modest victory". We think that it is quite a smash!
[START]
Australian Associated Press - July 7 2003
Film festival wins reprieve to screen Irving film
VICTORIA'S Jewish community has failed in its attempt to stop the
screening of a film by Holocaust revisionist David Irving but may
appeal the decision in the Supreme Court.
An application for an interim injunction preventing the screening of
The Search for the Truth in History at the Melbourne Underground film
Festival (MUFF) on Thursday night was today dismissed by the
Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
Festival director Richard Wolstencroft said the decision was a
victory for the freedom to express unpopular beliefs.
"We don't support David Irving's ideas but we do support his right to
freedom of speech," he told reporters.
"Australians do have the right to hear his perspective."
The Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) claims that the film
and a planned live phone link from United States with the historian,
promoted his assertion that the Holocaust is a 50-year myth
perpetrated by Jews.
The council's president, Michael Lipshutz, said he would fight
"anti-Semitism wherever it is found" and would decide tomorrow
morning whether to appeal.
"It's incomprehensible that anyone can say that the denial of the
Holocaust and the fact six million died isn't offensive and doesn't
vilify Jews," Mr Lipshutz said outside the tribunal.
An application before the Equal Opportunity Commission alleging the
film - made in response to the refusal to allow the British historian
entry to Australia in 1993 - breached the Racial and Religious
Tolerance Act remains.
Judge Michael Higgins said while some parts of the film were
offensive to Jewish people, he did not find any grounds that would
justify a breach of the Act.
The film is generally available for sale or hire but Mr Lipshutz said
the issue concerned was its public display.
Counsel for the festival, PeterClarke, told the tribunal there was
"no evidence MUFF was a stalking horse for David Irving" and had
printed in its program that it did not support his views.
He said the festival attracted film aficionados "who were
tertiary-educated and keen to be challenged" and urged the Jewish
community to attend the link-up and put forth their side.
Mr Lipshutz said such a suggestion was offensive.
"The issue of the Holocaust is not for debate, one can't say it never
happened," he told reporters.
[END]
David Irving comments:
[START]
YES, I was awakened in a muggy, overcast Key West by this email
coming round the globe this morning from an understandably jubilant
festival chief, Richard Wolstencroft:
"We just won our case. The screening and live phone hook up will go ahead.
"We didn't turn up on Friday as we needed the weekend to prepare our
case as the opposing lobby tried to railroad this through on Thurs -
the day our fest opened (we received notice the day before that the
case was even happening). Peter Clarke was our barrister and did a
sterling job.
"We 'went over the top' as you might say and we achieved Victory."
I WONDER what went wrong. It is not usual for the Traditional Enemies
of Free Speech to start a battle where they are not already sure of
the outcome. I expect there are urgent investigations going on in
Melbourne at this very moment, and some people are being asked to
repay, the, ahem, considerations that had been advanced to them.
It is incidentally nearly ten years to the day since I made the film,
in a drawing room in George, South Africa. It is less well engineered
than the German film I made a year later, Ich komme wieder, which I
will post on the Internet next week. Search for Truth is filmed in
one slice, with the camera rolling: I was standing next to a grand
piano in a wealthy American supporter's Dutch-style ranch, orating
into the camera.
I do not recall having said anything offensive about the Jews --
although as a court-designated "anti-Semite" there is no reason why I
should not. Maybe it is the title these ludicrous people found
outrageous: The Search for Truth in History.
The very idea of it.
[END ]
(Source: http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/03/07/AAP0707003.html )
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