Zionist Groups Denounce Beirut Meeting
Interest Mounts for 'Revisionism and Zionism' Conference
Preparations are continuing according to plan for the landmark international conference on “Revisionism and Zionism” in Beirut, Lebanon, March 31-April 3, 2001. The event’s importance is reflected in the eager inquiries from journalists in several countries, in the steady stream of guest registrations, and in the anxious denunciations recently issued by leading Jewish-Zionist groups.
The Anti-Defamation League, one of the world’s most powerful Zionist organizations, issued a special news release, February 11, bitterly complaining about the Beirut conference. It specifically denounced the Institute for Historical Review, which is helping to organize the event. Apart from numerous errors of fact, blatant bias, and childish accusations of the allegedly evil motives of the “deniers,” nearly all the factual information in the ADL release is simply taken from the IHR web site. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, another ardent apologist for Israel, the next day issued its own strident condemnation of the Beirut conference. It similarly took a swipe at the “so-called Institute for Historical Review.”
Prominent revisionist 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.
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 is currently in Tehran as a guest of Iranian scholars.
Guests are welcome to attend the Beirut conference, but they must cover their own travel and hotel expenses. There is no registration or attendance fee. United States citizens traveling to Lebanon require a valid U.S. passport and a visa issued by the Lebanese embassy or a Lebanese consulate.
Further details about the Beirut conference are posted on the "Beirut 2001” section of the IHR web site: http://ihr.org.
See also:
- Reuters article of February 22
- Canadian Jewish News article of February 22