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Open
letter to The German Ambassador and the International
Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 10:11 AM
Ambassador Peter Ammon
Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany
2300 M Street NW
Washington, DC 20037
Dear Ambassador Ammon:
We are writing to call attention to the worrisome activities of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (IAJLJ). It is holding a promotional event in Berlin entitled Holocaust Denial and Freedom of Speech in the Internet Era November 15-19
2011 .
The agenda of the IAJLJ is presented in a string of policy statements posted at
the tenor of which can be seen in the following quote:
"The Hamas so-called Charter is a cruder and more action-oriented version of Mein Kampf, calling explicitly for the destruction of the State of Israel and the murder of all Jews. The release of the Hamas prisoners by the Palestine Authority constitutes an invitation to these artisans of death to resume their terrorist bombing campaign in Israel's population centres, for the consequences of which the Palestinian leadership will be held directly
responsible."
IAJLJ policies include a defense of Sharon's infamous 2000 "Strut through the Mosques," a demand for the release of convicted spy Pollack, a call for the revocation of United Nations General Assembly Resolution
3379 , a denunciation of the Durban World Conference Against Racism
, and a demand that a human rights conference be canceled because it "will have prominently on its agenda allegations of violations of the human rights of the inhabitants of the Palestinian territories." No mention is made of thousands of deaths of Palestinians. In short, the IAJLJ does little more than promote the reactionary, racist, and repressive agenda of the extremist right-wing. The IAJLJ is noteworthy only for its brazen hypocrisy of masquerading as a human rights organization and its notorious stand against free speech.
Unfortunately, this group solicits governmental officials of good will to participate in its pseudo-educational promotional events by touting itself as "a membership organization whose object is to advance human rights everywhere." In fact the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists now has the sinister distinction of being the most militant anti-free speech group in the world.
We are a group of historians, scholars and concerned laymen who feel that the up-coming conference in Berlin will only serve as a propaganda tool for restricting free speech and open discussion.
The IAJLJ regularly defames Revisionists as "anti-Semites who claim the Holocaust is only Jewish propaganda." That is not what we at CODOH argue. Briefly, we believe that much of the history we are taught today has been influenced by Soviet, British and American wartime propaganda which exaggerated and exploited real tragedies for propaganda purposes. This concerns not just Jews but Slavs, Roma, Jehovah's Witnesses and, in some versions, Gays. There is considerable research that supports this point of view and it should be inconceivable that anyone be threatened with prison for stating in public that they doubt what they believe they have good reason to doubt.
The one-sided presentation of anti-Revisionist Conferences like this one have led to Draconian laws in a number of European nations against "Denial," laws that go against fundamental Western ideals of free speech and open
discussion
. We respectfully request that the government of the Federal Republic of Germany reconsider its participation in the IAJL show.
Bradley Smith
Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH)
PO Box 439016
San Ysidro, California
Telephone: 209 682 5327
Email: bsmith@prodigy.net.mx
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