Copyright (c) 2001 - Ingrid A. Rimland

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

March 16, 2001

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Word has come that registration for the controversial Beirut
Revisionist Conference is proceeding briskly, with many media
inquiries. We at the Zundelsite also understand that both
the governments of Switzerland and Sweden have been lobbied
to run interference for the Zionist Bully - apparently with
little success.

If Revisionists can manage to get this conference off the
ground against such powerful and vengeful opposition, that
would indeed be a major feather in our proud but tattered
free speech cap. Nizkor, where is thy sting?

Anyone who can afford to go should go. This promises to be a
major, major milestone!

For further information:

http://www.ihr.org/conference/conferencetoc.html

I also thought you might enjoy reading the language of an
Arabic-language paper, as-Safir (Beirut, Lebanon):

[start]

Saturday, March 3, 2001, page one.

WASHINGTON DEMANDS OF LEBANON ... AND WARNS IT AGAINST
HOSTING THE "HOLOCAUST DENIAL" CONFERENCE.

By Hisham Milhem

The American government desires of Lebanon that it prohibit
the convening of a conference in Beirut of groups and
organizations that deny that the Nazi "holocaust" against the
Jews occurred. It expressed its concern over the negative
effects such a conference would have not only on the
reputation of Lebanon abroad, but also over the effects it
might have on the attitude of Congress towards Lebanon and
the aid it will grant it.

This has appeared at the same time that several American
Jewish organizations demanded that the Lebanese government
prohibit the convening of the conference whose sponsors these
organizations accused of being racist and anti-Semitic.

Informed American sources have told "as-Safir" that
Washington informed Lebanon of this position that America has
taken via its ambassador, David Satterfield in Beirut and in
communication with the Lebanese ambassador in Washington,
Farid Abboud. Sources in Congress have also conveyed their
reservations about the conference to the Lebanese government.

The organization Verite et Justice that is headquartered in
Switzerland is organizing the conference in cooperation with
the Institute for Historical Review which has its
headquarters in the state of California and is considered one
of the foremost American organizations that deny that the
"holocaust" occurred. This is the first time in which a
conference of this type will be held in an Arab state. Until
now the organizers of the conference have not announced the
place where the conference will be held in Beirut, though
they have declared that it will begin on the 31st of this
month and end on the 3rd of April. The title of the
conference is Revisionism and Zionism.

American officials say that Iran and "Hizb Allah" in Lebanon
are behind the organization of the conference although they
say that they have no firm proof of that. They add that if
Lebanon cannot prohibit the conference on the grounds of
freedom of expression -- particularly since similar
conferences have been held in America and the authorities
could not ban them -- then Lebanon must at least declare that
it has no connection with the conference. American uneasiness
over the conference stems from the content of the conference
as well as from its timing -- coinciding as it does with an
explosion of the situation between the Palestinians and
Israelis and the tension that the region as a whole is
experiencing. The Americans question whether it is
appropriate to hold such a conference in Lebanon and say that
Lebanon, which faces many problems and threats, is not in
need of an additional problem, particularly since the
conference is inexcusable morally and politically and because
it can only create problems and distress for Lebanon.

According to a registration questionnaire distributed by the
Institute for Historical Review, prior registration is
required for those attending the conference for security
reasons. Every conference participant will be given his own
telephone number in Beirut and he must call that number upon
arrival at Beirut airport "to obtain information on the
location of the conference."

Some days ago Rabbi Abraham Cooper, an official of the
Jewish Simon Wisenthal center in California, sent a letter to
the Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri demanding that he
prohibit the conference. The letter read in part, "there are
many opinions concerning the possibility of attaining peace
in your region, but definitely introducing the topic of
denial of the "holocaust" into the political discourse in
Lebanon and the Arab world is not one of those opnions. This
will only lead to poisoning the hearts and minds of the
uninformed and will further inflame the fires of hatred and
lack of trust in the region." The letter indicated the
director of the organization Verite et Justice in
Switzerland, Juergen Graf, had fled from Switzerland in 1998
to avoid a prison sentence and took refuge in Iran.

The director of the Jewish Anti Defamation League, Rabbi
Abraham Foxman said that those who deny the occurrance of the
"holocaust" and who hitherto have focused their activities on
Europe and America "are now trying to spread anti-Semitism in
the Muslim states where there is an evil record of using
denial of the holocaust against Israel." In Foxman's opinion
the tense situation in the Middle East now provides fertile
ground for those who deny the occurance of the holocaust.
Jewish organizations have informed the State Department and
Congress of their position in opposition to the conference in
Beirut and demanded that they put pressure on the American
administration in turn to put pressure on Lebanon to ban the
convening of the conference.

[END]

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Thought for the Day:

"To promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world
to make a body want to go and do that very thing."

(Mark Twain)

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