Institute for Historical Review
|
Institute for Historical Review |
|
|
Press Release: March 7, 2001
Three major Jewish organizations -- the World Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation League, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center -- are demanding that Lebanese authorities ban the forthcoming "Revisionism and Zionism" conference in Beirut, March 31 to April 3, which the Institute for Historical Review is helping to organize. Responding to these demands, the American government and some members of Congress have asked Lebanon to prohibit the four-day meeting, according to the Washington correspondent of the Lebanese daily paper As-Safir (March 3).
Conference organizers report that preparations for the landmark meeting are continuing according to plan, and that Jewish efforts to ban it have little chance of success. Journalists from the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan, Lebanon, Egypt and Iran have already registered with the IHR to cover the event.
"In demanding that Lebanon ban this peaceful, privately-organized meeting, these Zionist groups betray an arrogant double standard," says IHR Director Mark Weber, who points out that similar meetings hosted by the IHR have been held peacefully in the United States for more than 20 years. "That these Jewish groups, ardent supporters of Israel's oppressive and criminal policies, should demand anything of Lebanon, a country that has repeatedly been a victim of Zionist aggression, is an expression of brazen arrogance," adds Weber.
"These Zionist organizations seek to deprive Lebanon of a right that is entirely normal in most of the civilized world, including the USA. It is hypocritical and bullying for American officials to try to prohibit a meeting in Lebanon that would be perfectly legal if held in the United States," says Weber.
"This outrageous effort to suppress freedom of speech and expression further points up the need for just such a conference. We trust that Lebanese authorities will treat this Zionist demand with the contempt that it deserves," says Weber.
Scholars, researchers and activists from a range of countries are scheduled to address the Beirut conference, which will both reflect and further strengthen the growing cooperation between independent scholars in Europe, the United States and Middle East countries. Conference addresses will be given in Arabic, French and English.
Among the speakers will be:
Around the world, and notably in Arab and Muslim countries, awareness has been steadily growing of the way that Israel and Zionist groups exploit "the Holocaust" to blackmail European countries and corporations for billions of dollars for Israel, and to excuse otherwise inexcusable policies of the Jewish state.
The four-day event is being organized by the Swiss revisionist organization Vérité et Justice, in cooperation with the IHR. Vérité et Justice director Jürgen Graf, who was sentenced by a Swiss court in July 1998 to 15 months imprisonment for "Holocaust denial," has fled his homeland to live in political exile rather than serve the politically-motivated sentence. The 49-year-old educator has recently been in Tehran as a guest of Iranian scholars.
The Institute for Historical Review, founded in 1978 and based in southern California, is a leading independent history research center, well known for publishing serious scholarship disputing "Holocaust" claims. The IHR has tax-exempt, not-for-profit status with the US Internal Revenue Service.
Further information about the Beirut conference, including details about registration, are posted on the "Beirut 2001" section of the IHR web site: https://ihr.org
Institute for Historical Review
P.O. Box 2739
Newport Beach, CA 92659
USA
weber@ihr.org
Tel. 949 - 631 1490
Main | Leaflets | Journal | Books | Contact us | Search | Support IHR | Subscribe |