May 30, 1996
"Brittan opposes Euro-law against Holocaust denial.
European commissioner Sir Leon Brittan has lined up with the British government in opposing moves to make Holocaust denial a criminal offense throughout Europe.
Addressing an audience of Jewish communal leaders, european diplomats and MPs in London last week, Mr. Brittan warned that such legislation would endanger freedom of expression.
"If we have a law to stop people saying things, even though they are palpably untrue, then God help us," he said. . .
"It is one thing to incite hatred and another to express views, however disagreeable, on historical events."
The comments of the former Home Secretary were in keeping with those of Prime Minister John Major and Home Secretary Michael Howard following the government's refusal to join in EU counterparts in declaring Holocaust denial a criminal offense.
In a letter to Board president Eldred Tabachnik, Mr. Major had argued that such a move would be tantamount to 'suppression of opinion.'
And, even further down:
Asked about the need to protect Jewish interests in Europe, the commissioner (Britton) said his impression was that "the issues on Jewish representation is needed are important, but limited."
The article then goes on to say:
"If the freedom of speech means anything at all, it includes the right to be wrong and tendentious, and the right even to cause offense. And if we, as Jews, now live in comparative security, it is largely because we have the good fortune to live in societies where such freedom is taken for granted.
The whole process of historiography is one of revision, not only because new facts and documents come to light, but also because even established facts can be reassessed and reinterpreted, for one generation rarely sees events through the perspective of another.
To demand laws that the received wisdom surrounding the Holocaust should forever be insulated from the process goes against every dictate of reason.
Such laws are wrong in principle and are ineffective and possibly harmful in practice ."
And, commenting on Revisionist work, the article writer opines-listen
to this:
"Any attempt to stifle their work, however, will always lay one open to the suspicion that one has something to hide. And nothing such people can say is quite as damaging as the suppression of their right to say it."
I have often thought that we ought to promote an experiment:
Pick 100 of the brightest, most articulate people from all nationalities,
their only criteria being that they have a public record of respect for
science and reason, put them in a glass bubble for two weeks, and give
them our finest writings with all access possible to double-check the facts-and
let them do nothing but read.
And then take a poll and see how many of them would come out as Revisionists.
I'd take my chance. Would you?
Ingrid
Thought for the Day:
"Anyone who has begun to think places some portion of the world in jeopardy."
(John Dewey)