Author not anti-Semite, court told
Guardian / Observer
http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/irving/article/0,2763,131128,00.html
The David Irving libel trial: special report

Tuesday February 1, 2000

A Judaism authority yesterday told the Holocaust libel trial at the high
court in London that he did not consider historian David Irving to be
anti-Semitic.

Author Kevin MacDonald, professor of psychology at California state
university, was giving evidence on Mr Irving's behalf during his damages
action against American academic Deborah Lipstadt and Penguin Books over a
claim that he is a "Holocaust denier".

Mr Irving, 62, the author of Hitler's War, asked Prof MacDonald, who has
written books on Judaism and anti-Semitism: "Do you consider me to be an
anti-Semite?"

Prof MacDonald replied: "I do not consider you to be an anti-Semite. I have
had quite a few discussions with you and you almost never mentioned Jews,
never in the general negative way."

Mr Irving has denied an allegation by the defendants that he has made
statements "designed to feed the virulent anti-Semitism" still present
throughout the world.

The case continues


02.01.00
Electric Telegraph
Irving not anti-Semitic, libel case told
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

AN expert in Judaism told the High Court yesterday that he did not consider
David Irving, the historian who denies the mass gassing of Jews in
concentration camps, to be anti-Semitic.

Kevin MacDonald, professor of psychology at California State University, was
giving evidence on behalf of Mr Irving, who is suing the American academic
Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher, Penguin Books, for libel. Mr Irving, 62,
the author of Hitler's War, claims that his career has been sabotaged by
Prof Lipstadt's accusation that he is a "Holocaust denier" who has distorted
history in an effort to deny the systematic extermination of the Jews by the
Nazis.

In her book, Denying the Holocaust, Prof Lipstadt alleges that Irving
misused statistics and documents to serve his own ideological purposes and
reach historically untenable conclusions. Mr Irving says the book has
generated "waves of hatred" against him.

He has vehemently denied an allegation by the defendants that he has made
statements "designed to feed the virulent anti-Semitism" still alive and
kicking throughout the world today. Mr Irving, who is representing himself,
asked Prof MacDonald, the author of books on Judaism and anti-Semitism: "Do
you consider me to be an anti-Semite?"

Prof MacDonald replied: "I do not consider you to be an anti-Semite. I have
had quite a few discussions with you and you almost never mentioned Jews -
never in the general negative way." During the hearing before Mr Justice
Gray, who is sitting without a jury, Mr Irving was accused of making
"grossly anti-Semitic" statements.

Richard Rampton, QC, counsel for Miss Lipstadt and Penguin, said the
historian had made remarks designed to feed the virulent anti-Semitism still
existing in the world.

Mr Irving rejects the claim that he is a Holocaust denier. But he does
question the number of Jews killed by the Nazis and the mode of their death,
insisting that there is no evidence of the use of gas chambers for mass
killings.

The hearing continues.

==

Copyright 2000 AAP Information Services Pty. Ltd.
AAP NEWSFEED
February 1, 2000, Tuesday
Nationwide General News; Australian General News

Irving plans renewed bid for Australia visa

By Max Blenkin

     CANBERRA, Feb 1 AAP - Controversial British historian David Irving plans
to make another bid to visit Australia, saying the government can no longer
refuse him entry because his daughter is an Australian citizen.

     Mr Irving, who has been refused entry to Australia on four previous
occasions, said it would be scandalous if Immigration Minister Philip
Ruddock prevented him visiting a family member.

     He said he had legal advice saying the government could not refuse him
entry to see his youngest daughter Beatrice in Brisbane.

       But Prime Minister John Howard said Mr Irving remained an undesirable.

     "We have a view that because of his record he should not come to
Australia," he told reporters in Dubbo in central western NSW.

     Government sources said any application from Mr Irving for a visitor
visa would be considered on its merits and all relevant matters taken into
consideration.

     "An application for a visitor's visa does not give any extra rights. It
is not a rubber stamp for automatic entry," Mr Howard said.

     Mr Irving is suing American academic Deborah Lipstadt and publisher
Penguin Books in a high-profile action billed as one of the biggest cases
concerning Holocaust history since the trial of war criminal Adolf Eichmann.

     He is seeking libel damages for being called a "Holocaust denier".

     A scholar of World War Two and prolific author, Mr Irving has attracted
worldwide controversy for disputing that Nazi Germany was responsible for
the systematic murder of six million Jews and others or that Adolf Hitler
was personally culpable.

     He has been convicted under German law for denying the magnitude of the
holocaust and subsequently refused entry for speaking tours in Canada,
Australia and other countries.

     In 1996, the former Labor government refused him a business visa on
grounds of his conviction in Germany.

     Mr Irving, 62, said he had no idea Beatrice, who does not share her
father's views on the holocaust, had become an Australian citizen until late
last year.

     "She broke this dreadful news to me about three months ago when she came
to England. I realised this was most fortuitous," he said on ABC radio.

     "She became an Australian citizen because she likes Australia. She has
an extremely nice Australian boyfriend who no doubt one day she will marry
and nobody will be happier than I.

     "I haven't actually sacrificed my youngest daughter in order to be able
to get into Australia."

     Mr Irving declined to say whether he would apply for a tourist or
business visa or what his intentions would be in Australia.

     But he said he was not planning a speaking tour at this stage.

     "Let's cross that bridge when we get to it," he said. "I will wait until
I get the invitation from Philip Ruddock. When Philip writes a letter saying
'Dear Mr Irving, we would love to have you' then I shall tell you folks what
I am planning to do.

     "I have a lot of friends in Australia. I would like to shake a lot of
hands of a lot of people who have given me a lot of support over the last
few years ever since the ban was first engineered under the Keating
government.

     "We all know who was behind that. I would like to come and speak a few
blunt words to the people who opposed me at those times and shake the hands
of those who supported me."


Copyright 2000 Newspaper Publishing PLC
The Independent (London)February 1, 2000, Tuesday

LAW: BRIEFS

        DAVID IRVING, the right-wing historian who has brought a libel action
against American author Deborah Lipstadt for calling him a "holocaust
denier", has opened a website on the case.

     Mr Irving, who is a litigant in person, says he is "fighting this action
single-handed against 25 to 40 of the country's best lawyers." He says the
website, which contains 5,000 documents related to the case, is intended to
inform the public and help redress the imbalance of resources. What the
trial judge makes of the website is not known, but Mr Irving claims the
other side's lawyers are "bitterly hostile".

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