Institute for Historical Review

Second Vérité et Justice Statement on the Lebanese Government Ban of the 'Revisionism and Zionism' Conference

After choosing the Lebanese capital as the site of the planned international conference on Revisionism and Zionism, Vérité et Justice entrusted a well-known and experienced agency in Beirut with the practical organizational tasks. This agency had already helped to organize many successful international conferences. It was extensively briefed about the strictly academic and peaceful nature of the planned meeting. Only well-known personalities with proven academic records were chosen as speakers. Their lectures would have covered an impressive variety of subjects, reflecting the most recent state of knowledge about the respective issues.

In addition, a considerable number of guests from numerous countries were planning to attend the four-day conference. All of them are devoted to free and scholarly historical research. Not one of them has ever advocated, much less used violence.

Having been thoroughly briefed about all aspects of the planned meeting, the agency assured us that no problems whatsoever were likely to arise. International conferences take place in Beirut on an almost weekly basis, as Lebanon is renowned for its tolerance and respect for freedom of speech.

Some well-known Jewish organizations, which hypocritically claim to fight "racism" and "bigotry" while defending the racist and bigoted Israeli regime, urged the US government to exert pressure on Lebanon to ban the conference. To its discredit, Washington acceded to this impertinent demand and threatened Lebanon with economic sanctions if it allowed the meeting to take place. This crude blackmail is all the more revolting given that many revisionist conferences have been held in the United States over the years with no government interference, and as Holocaust revisionism is not subject to any legal repression in America. Why does the American government, which pretends to defend freedom of speech around the world, apply such a double standard?

Shortly after the announcement of the Beirut conference on the Internet, Zionist bigots unleashed a hateful and hysterical smear campaign against the organizers. Their reaction showed once again their mortal fear of revisionist arguments. If these arguments are refutable, the Zionists and their stooges could easily expose their defects in public debate. Over the years revisionists have often proposed such a public discussion -- but in vain.

Thus, the Beirut conference was prevented from taking place by brute force, which is evidently the only weapon of our adversaries. At the beginning of the third millennium, which is generally expected to bring an even broader exchange of and access to information, some people are still trying to suppress information about vital issues and stifle free debate on problems that concern us all. Their methods and mentality cannot but remind us of the darkest periods of history.

Events such as the cancellation of the Beirut conference dramatically demonstrate how a small group of people manipulates public opinion, thereby depriving the public of its legitimate right to know. Who are these people? The answer is obvious: They are the Zionists who, thanks to their iron grip on the media of the West, have succeeded for more than five decades in imposing their distortions of history on the world. They control, to a large extent, newspapers, books, films, theater and even universities. This control has enabled them to brainwash the broad public, which unknowingly accepts many Zionist legends and downright lies as undisputable historical facts. The so-called "Holocaust" is but the most extreme example.

While we were by no means astonished by the Zionist smear campaign against revisionism in general and the Beirut conference in particular, we were frankly surprised that 14 Arab intellectuals, who claim to oppose Zionism, have issued a statement against the scheduled meeting, accusing the organizers of "racism" and "falsification of history." What do they really know about revisionism? Which revisionist books have they read? Have they, for example, read Dissecting the Holocaust (Alabama, USA: Theses and Dissertations Press, 2000), a very important work that treats in detail all major aspects of the "Holocaust" story? Are they familiar with the historical, demographic and, above all, technical arguments of the revisionists? Are they aware of the fact that no revisionist has ever denied the persecution and the sufferings of the Jews during the Second World War, nor the fact that large numbers of Jews and non-Jews died in wartime German concentration camps?

If the answer to all these questions is yes, and if those who signed the statement against us think that our arguments are wrong, we wonder why they have not pointed out our mistakes. After all, anyone who accuses another of "falsifying history" should be ready to prove his accusation. But if the answer is no, and if they are not familiar with revisionism, we can only conclude that these Arabs are simply parroting the Zionist party line for opportunistic reasons. In this case, their vociferous opposition to Zionism is just not credible. Anyone who claims to be anti-Zionist while at the same time condoning Zionist falsification of history, such as the "six million" and "gas chambers" tales, is simply a hypocrite.

The Arab intellectuals who signed the statement against the Beirut conference have done an appallingly bad service to the Palestinian people, which is oppressed by the Zionist occupiers. Victims of Zionist racism should be the last ones to use the ritual accusation of "anti-Semitism" or "racism" against people who are subject to all kind of persecutions -- prison terms, fines, social ostracism, the ruin of their professional careers -- for exposing Zionist lies. Anyone who reads serious revisionist books and articles readily realizes that they deal seriously with important technical, chemical, documentary and demographic issues. What do such arguments have to do with "racism"? The "racism" smear simply masks the inability of our opponents to respond to our arguments.

We hereby urge those who signed the statement to reconsider their position. If they are seriously interested in historical revisionism, we offer them a constructive debate about revisionist arguments.

Vérité et Justice sincerely thanks its friends and sponsors for their support. Despite the Beirut setback, we are confident that truth will prevail. Truth will liberate whole nations, among them the Palestinians who had their land stolen by Zionist usurpers, and millions of whom were turned into refugees under the pretext of the alleged Holocaust.