Adloyada

BBC trumpets Irving's Holocaust denial

The BBC Radio 4 Today programme at 7:50 this morning gave David Irving a sycophantic and extended interview from his jail cell, in which they invited him to expound his Holocaust denial. A very respectful interviewer asked him repeatedly to explain the extent to which he had or hadn't changed his mind about whether there was a systematic programme of extermination of the Jews.

This gave Irving the opportunity to offer preposterous arguments like saying that Anne Frank's Diary proved him right. And even more preposterous arguments like saying that the reason what he calls "conventional" historians disagree with him is because they would be otherwise locked up under Austria's laws which make Holocaust denial a criminal offence.

These were treated by the interviewer as if they were serious arguments rather than the preposterous and absurd statements they were.

From Gaza to Stockholm

Imaan, one of my absolutely favourite bloggers, has opened a new blog, which reflects her move back to Sweden from her former home in Gaza.

Her first post from Living in Stockholm City is full of her usual irrepressible sense of fun and her sharply funny take on the challenges in her life. She's obviously amused by her own seething with frustration. That's the frustration we bloggers feel when there are so many wonderful posts we'd love to do...if it weren't for the fact that they'd be read by the people they're about. And they'd most likely be upset by them.

And another dilemma many of her readers won't be familiar with: her previous blog home, Living in Gaza, was a star of Toot,  the sophisticated and well-run Jordan-based blog aggregator. As of today, her new blog is on it. But now, she tells us, Toot will only agree to her staying on board if her content stays... Arabcentric. Imaan's a Swedish Muslim. And, as you will know if you read her blog, she's not just opinionated, but her opinions are very much her own and quite often refreshingly subversive and unpredictable.

I don't know who decides what it means to be Arabcentric, and how you make a decision that someone you once decided was Arabcentric has ceased to be so. Perhaps blogging about her life as a Swedish Muslim in Stockholm could count as ceasing to be Arabcentric?  But then, as Imaan tells us, her husband, who features in her blog, and her children are Gazan and Swedish-Gazan. And so far, she continues to reflect on, and relate her current life to her previous life in Gaza. Will all this win her a continuing place on Toot? What if she doesn't mention it often enough?

Well, clearly I'm not competent to decide on who is or isn't Arabcentric. But one thing I do feel clear about. Imaan in Stockholm is the same witty, irresistible commentator on her life that she was in Gaza.

So do visit her new site, and if you've never read her Living in Gaza blog, it's still there and still unsurpassed as in my view the best take on life in Gaza City you can find. And her photos are not to be missed.

The Ilan Halimi case: issues of institutional racism?

Now that the Ilan Halimi case has gone mainstream, almost two weeks after the young Parisian Jew was found dying of the horrific injuries his kidnappers inflicted on him, the French state has gone into the level of gesture solidarity politics it does so well.

We've already had President Chirac and the French Prime Minister, Dominic de Villepin, attending the Jewish community's memorial service for him in the Rue de la Victoire synagogue last Thursday. Not that I want to deride this. After all, I doubt that Tony Blair and the Queen would show up at a memorial service for any young Jew, if one were to be similarly kidnapped and then brutally tortured to death in England.

Latest Iranian echo of Third Reich propaganda

Via Mick Hartley, a MEMRI transcription of an Iranian TV broadcast by a Professor Hasan Bolkhari, who sees a Jewish world domination plot in ...Hollywood cartoons:

There is a cartoon that children like. They like it very much, and so do adults - Tom and Jerry."

[...]

"Some say that this creation by Walt Disney [sic] will be remembered forever. The Jewish Walt Disney Company gained international fame with this cartoon. It is still shown throughout the world. This cartoon maintains its status because of the cute antics of the cat and mouse - especially the mouse.

"Some say that the main reason for making this very appealing cartoon was to erase a certain derogatory term that was prevalent in Europe."

[...]

"If you study European history, you will see who was the main power in hoarding money and wealth, in the 19th century. In most cases, it is the Jews. Perhaps that was one of the reasons which caused Hitler to begin the antisemitic trend, and then the extensive propaganda about the crematoria began... Some of this is true. We do not deny all of it.

"Watch Schindler's List. Every Jew was forced to wear yellow star on his clothing. The Jews were degraded and termed 'dirty mice.' Tom and Jerry was made in order to change the Europeans' perception of mice. One of terms used was 'dirty mice.'

"I'd like to tell you that... It should be noted that mice are very cunning...and dirty."

[...]

"No ethnic group or people operates in such a clandestine manner as the Jews."

[...]

"Read the history of the Jews in Europe. This ultimately led to Hitler's hatred and resentment. As it turns out, Hitler had behind-the-scenes connections with the Protocols [of the Elders of Zion ].

"Tom and Jerry was made in order to display the exact opposite image. If you happen to watch this cartoon tomorrow, bear in mind the points I have just raised, and watch it from this perspective. The mouse is very clever and smart. Everything he does is so cute. He kicks the poor cat's ass. Yet this cruelty does not make you despise the mouse. He looks so nice, and he is so clever... This is exactly why some say it was meant to erase this image of mice from the minds of European children, and to show that the mouse is not dirty and has these traits. Unfortunately, we have many such cases in Hollywood shows."

Perhaps it's a little churlish of me to point out that Walt Disney wasn't Jewish, and there's some circumstantial evidence that he was sympathetic to Nazism before World War II and tolerated anti-semitism in his organization.

Oh, and Tom and Jerry was an MGM cartoon series, not a Disney one, but maybe academic standards in Iran aren't what they are elsewhere.

What's most interesting is where Professor Bolkhari might have got his ideas from. First, the idea of Disney as a Jewish company. You'll find that myth being propagated on all the main US white supremacist web sites, as well as Islamist sites like Radio Islam which copy off their ravings. It's on the basis that the long-serving chief executive of the Disney Corp was a Jew, who employed fellow Jews. Case proven!

An agreement that can't be enforced?

It's being widely reported that all faith schools in England are to be required to teach pupils about other faiths than their own.

FAITH schools are to be instructed to teach pupils about other religions besides their own.

Leaders from the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist faiths have signed a joint statement backing the teaching of an awareness of the “tenets” of other faiths in schools.

The declaration, made jointly with the Department for Education and Skills, says that religious education enables pupils to “combat prejudice” and helps them to develop respect and sensitivity to others.

The agreement commits faith schools to using the National Framework for Religious Education, drawn up in 2004, which encourages the teaching of the tenets of the five major religions but which is non-statutory.

This agreement may well commit Church of England and Roman Catholic schools, who in any case already teach about other faiths through their exisiting religious education syllabuses.

But in the case of Jewish schools, the signatory was Jon Benjamin, the Director General of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Jon is a tireless and very able chief executive, who has a great deal of experience of working with some of the major Jewish charities, including the British division of ORT, which is active in promoting technology education in Jewish and non-Jewish schools. However, he is not a faith leader. He has no authority of any sort over Jewish schools, because their religious education syllabuses are determined by whichever religious authority is responsible for them. The Board of Deputies is a communal representative organization, akin to a parliament or a regional consultative council, which does not exercise any religious or other authority over Jewish schools.

And I cannot imagine any circumstances in which the dozens of strictly orthodox schools, including the three or four which are state funded would agree to teach other faiths to their pupils.

Who wants to see civil war in Iraq?

The BBC's Radio 4 Today programme at 7:15 has really excelled itself.

It features a Sheikh Yosif Al Nasari, giving his account of what's behind the bombing of the Al-Aksari Mosque at Samarra. The Sheikh is a supporter of the radical Islamist and ferociously anti-American cleric Muqtada as Sadr.

He explains the attack as being orchestrated by the Americans. He explains that all the bombings and shootings happening are organized by the Americans, because they happen in areas "occupied" by the Americans. The bombs used in the car bombings which plague some areas of Iraq are bombs designed by the CIA.

So why does the BBC choose this conspiracist, ferociously anti-American kook to comment on what's going on in Iraq?

Well, that's nice to know

According to this report in the Jerusalem Post, Khaled Mashaal is saying that

"The Ayatollah's regime will have an extensive role in Palestine,"

And just what might that extensive role be? Well, the Ayatollah himself, Khamenei has already started on the job with some "encouragement".

During the meeting Khamenei declared that Hamas's victory in the elections is a victory for all Muslims and encouraged Mashaal to continue in the armed struggle against Israel, Army Radio reported.

According to the Jerusalem Post, this was an example of the Hamas leader's current "moderate rhetoric" because he isn't actually calling for the immediate destruction of Israel.

How the Independent reports an anti-semitic murder

The Independent today is the first English-language mainstream newspaper to report the details of the Ilan Halimi murder which make it clear that anti-semitism was a factor.

Its headline "Jewish anger at "racist" murder by kidnap gang" manages both to suggest that only Jews are angry at the brutal kidnap,  long weeks of torture and ultimate murder of the young Parisian Jew, and that the racism is only suggested.

That's despite the reports they quote from the French prosecutors that one of the suspects has confessed to Halimi having been chosen because he was "a Jew and Jews are rich".

The Independent chooses not to report the condemnation of the murder as barbaric by Nicholas Sarkozy, or the growing coverage of it as a headline story in the French press.

Revelation! French admit anti-semitism could be a motive

Liberation tonight carries a story that a French minister and the investigating magistrate in charge of the case are ready to admit that anti-semitism could have been part of the reason for the kidnapping and vicious torture and murder of the young Parisian Jew Ilan Halimi.

The investigating magistrate, Corinne Goetzmann is now conducting her enquiry on the basis that the evidence so far points to "premeditated kidnap, incarceration, criminal conspiracy, and murder, on the basis of the victim's membership of a particular religious group" [my translation]

Her recommendation will be considered at a hearing tonight to remand the seven suspects currently in custody.

It's in stark contrast to the Paris prosecutor, Jean-Claude Marin who previously denied that anti-semitism was a factor.

Pascale Clement, the Justice Minister involved with the case, said at the annual dinner held by CRIF, the French Jewish communal organization, that one of the arrested suspects had admitted that Ilan Halimi had been attacked because he was a Jew, on the basis that Jews are rich.

Nicholas Sarkozy, the current favourite to succeed Chirac as President apparently condemned the murder as "an act of unimaginable barbarity."

BBC soft soaps Holocaust denier again

Tonight's Radio 4 6:00pm news broadcast reports that David Irving, "the British historian", has been given a three year sentence for denying the Holocaust, on the basis of an opinion he expressed seventeen years ago. That's the same reason as Irving gave ahead of the trial as to why it was improper for him to have been put on trial.

The inverted commas are mine, because the tone of the newsreader made it clear that BBC Radio 4 News presents him as a reputable historian. Not even a reference to him being a controversial historian or a discredited historian. But the report did quote the Austrian prosecutor who said that Irving is not an historian, he is a falsifier of history and evidence. And that's exactly what he is.

Irving did not simply express an opinion seventeen years ago. As my previous post about him shows, the judge at the libel trial Irving brought to try and silence Professor Deborah Lipstadt found that he had repeatedly falsified and distorted historical evidence. And that the purpose of his doing so was to exonerate Hitler and the Nazis, to deny the Holocaust and to vilify the Jews as a people.