[images added
by this website] GayNZ.comComment: David
Irving, a gay perspective by Craig Young
Right:
"I agree with the New Zealand Jewish
community, immigration authorities and
Prime Minister on this issue,"
says homosexual Craig Young.  HOLOCAUST
denial "historian" and
anti-Semite David
Irving has been denied access to New Zealand,
but is trying to attract attention through a cheap
immigration stunt. Should the New Zealand LGBT
[Website
note: presumably
Lesbian-Gay-Bugger-Transvestite]
community be concerned about this creep?
Irving belongs to a subspecies of anti-Semite
that is all too familiar to us. Like Paul
Cameron and other antigay junk scientists,
Irving is a junk 'historian.' In a fit of hubris,
he brought a defamation
case against Deborah Lipstadt, a
prominent Jewish Holocaust historian, and Penguin
Books, her publishers. Lipstadt argued that Irving
distorted the historial record with ulterior
ideological motives related to his neofascist
political views. Lipstadt and Penguin were ably
assisted by many
eminent Second World
War and Holocaust historians. Not only did Irving
lose his case, Lipstadt and Penguin were awarded
two and a half million pounds damages against him
[no they
weren't]. Unfortunately, New Zealand
media didn't cover the case in sufficient
depth. Sound familiar? It's what those of us who
monitor the Christian Right's antigay contingent
have done to them in numerous regulatory fora,
parliamentary submissions and our own media. Is
this debate really about 'free speech,' or is that
a brown herring? Consulting Index New Zealand and EBSCO, I found
little evidence that New Zealand journalists have
paid adequate attention to New Zealand's extreme
right. North and South's David McLoughlin
wrote an excellent detailed piece eleven years ago
on New Zealand's largest neofascist group, the
League of Rights. It should be noted this
organisation also distributes the work of Paul
Cameron and (oddly) Judith Reisman (an
antigay US Orthodox Jewish 'social scientist' and
anti-Kinsey obsessive), as well as David Irving.
However, since then, there has been almost complete
silence, even at the time of the Irving/Lipstadt
case noted above in Spring 2000. Why? Penguin Books has had a transcript
of the trial available in book form for the
last four years. [No they
haven't. It is the Judgment] Why haven't
New Zealand journalists bothered to consult this
relevant source to the current debate? This is an
appalling dereliction of professional
responsibility. I agree with the New
Zealand Jewish community, immigration
authorities and Prime Minister on this issue.
David Irving has been exposed as a charlatan,
neofascist activist and apologist whose work is
held in low regard by serious historians within the
field of Holocaust studies. However, the New
Zealand Jewish community needs to explain to the
rest of the country why they oppose this odious
individual's presence in New Zealand. Irving's exclusion is not a 'free speech' issue,
nor is it an uncomplicated instance of 'hate
speech'. Irving is a junk historian. He distorted
the grisly record of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust
to promote a neofascist agenda through mitigation
of its atrocities and devastation. The New Zealand Jewish Council should expose
this sorry specimen's absence of professional
ethics, academic standards and professional
credibility after the Lipstadt/Irving case. New
Zealand journalists need to ask themselves some
serious questions about the glaring absence of
investigative journalism related to this issue.
There is no excuse for this laziness within the
fourth estate, which is supposed to promote
political transparency and balanced, informed
debate within a democratic society. For the New Zealand lesbian and gay community,
there's an interesting aside to all this. You see,
David Irving and Paul Cameron were both guests of
the Canadian League of Rights in the early
nineties. Neofascist anti-Semitic junk 'history,'
meet homophobic junk 'science.' It is worth
wondering whether Cameron shares certain other
views of his hosts than homophobia alone. - "Recommended Reading
- David McLoughlin "Veiled Voices: What's
Wrong With the
- League of Rights?" North and South (December
1993):
- 120-132.
- The
Irving Judgement: David Irving versus
Penguin
- Books
and Deborah Lipstadt: Penguin Books:
London:
- 2000.
- Deborah Lipstadt: Denying the Holocaust:
The Growing
- Assault on Truth and Memory: Penguin:
London: 1994.
- Michael Scherner and Alex Grobman:
Denying History:
- Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and
Why Do They
- Say It? Berkeley: University of
California Press: 2000.
- Gill Seidel: Holocaust Denial:
Antisemitism, Racism
- and the New Right: Leeds: Beyond the
Pale Collective:
- 1986.
-
- "Definitely Not Recommended
- League
of Rights: New Zealand's oldest anti-Semitic
and neofascist organisation, with a long history
of association with the New Zealand Christian
Right."
Dossier:
attempts by New Zealand Jews to stop David
Irving's 2004 visit
FAQ:
Answers to frequently asked questions about Mr
Irving's visit-
NZ
Parliament's stance on Irving, anti-Semitism
eases strains with Israel
 -
Prof
Christopher Browning interviewed by The
Atlantic Monthly, Feb 2004: he
now seems to say that there was no Hitler order
to kill the Jews, no document exists, there were
no plans. The so-called "final solution" just
sort of happened. (He is probably right.)
-
Dossier:
The Books of David Irving: Free
downloads
| 
write to David
Irving