Posted Saturday, January 2, 1999

Nigel Jackson: The Case for David Irving

From an address delivered by Australian writer Nigel Jackson on August 8, 1998 at the Adelaide's Institute International Revisionist Symposium in Adelaide, Australia, entitled, "The Truth and The Taboo - Some Reflections in the Australian Context." Nigel Jackson: Finally, I want to refer briefly to a third extraordinary debate - or non-debate that I am involved in with another of Australia's leading Jewish intellectuals, Robert Manne. Manne [right] is an associate-professor of politics at La Trobe University, Melbourne. A former editor of Australia's most prestigious literary and cultural journal of opinion, Quadrant, Professor Manne has also been a prolific columnist and article-writer in major Australian newspapers and a regular commentator on ABC radio. He is probably one of the most influential intellectuals in Australia at the present time and was very close to that eminent Catholic writer and political activist, B.A. Santamaria, whose National Civic Council invited him to be a guest speaker at one of its major anniversary celebrations. Professor Manne has long been a virulent critic of British historian David Irving, something I documented extensively in my 1994 book The Case for David Irving. As I showed there, in my ninth chapter, Professor Manne grossly misrepresented, in an article in The Age (Melbourne's more intellectual daily newspaper) on July 7, 1993, Irving's videotape The Search for Truth in History. (So did Sam Lipski, editor of The Australian Jewish News, in an article in The Australian, Australia's national daily newspaper, on May 21, 1993.) I tore Professor Manne's misrepresentations to shreds on pages 85 to 89 of my book. To the best of my knowledge, not a single Australian newspaper or journal of opinion reviewed that book. It has been given the silent treatment for four years. Is it just coincidence that, since my exposure of unfair treatment of Irving by The Australian in its pages, I have never been able to get even a letter published in that newspaper, in contrast to earlier years?

It shocked me to find Professor Manne repeating his misrepresentations of Irving's video in an article in The Australian ('Why we should ban Irving') on October 2, 1996. I submitted an article to The Australian in reply to this article and other unjust treatment of Irving by that newspaper, titled 'Let's End This Irving Scandal', but The Australian declined to accept it, even despite my appeal to its editor, Paul Kelly, and I had to be content to see it published for the record by the Australian League of Rights. Now, quite coolly, Professor Manne has published his misrepresentations a third time in his recent book, The Way We Live Now (The Text Publishing Company, Melbourne, 1998). There they all are on pages 190-191. Again this might merely be called chutzpah by some - cheek, daring and clever impudence. To me it seems intellectually scandalous and I invite him to respond to my criticisms in my book or to apologise to Irving for such sustained misrepresentation of his views in defiance of my analysis. And I invite The Australian to give full and fair coverage of our disagreement and its significance. Indeed, it is time that the Australian media, Australian intellectuals and the Australian people as a whole rethink their whole approach to this question of the threat to intellectual freedom in our country and the subversive role being played in that context by a notable number of Jewish individuals and organizations. I have merely analysed a handful of examples; but a huge book could be compiled documenting similar cases. The evidence is utterly clear and is overwhelming. Why will people not study it?

Examples of Robert Manne's hate-filled writings: | |

Our opinion A few copies of the video The Search for Truth in History are available from Focal Point at £20 or equivalent.

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