Australia Urged to Bar Entry © Copyright Boston Jewish Advocate, Dec. 1992
By Jeremy Jones
SYDNEY (JTA) -- The Australian Jewish community and senators from the
Australian Democrats party are urging the government to bar British
Holocaust-denier
David Irving entry to Australia.
The federal justice minister, Sen. Michael Tate, revealed last week that
Irving applied for a visa to enter the country next March 17 and said the
application will be considered in January.
Tate told the Senate that
Irving applied in London and said the immigration
minister will now consider whether he "is likely to become involved in
activities disruptive to the Australian community or a group within the
Australian community" or whether he is "of good character."
This consideration is affected by
his deportation last month from Canada,
where he snuck in despite an official ban and gave several lectures denying
the Holocaust really happened.
He is also banned from Germany, which convicted him of spreading hate and
Holocaust denial, and unwelcome in various other countries.
The Australian government pledged "that all relevant information will be
taken into account" before a visa is issued.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has argued that
Irving's
conviction in Germany, open arrest warrant from Austria,
recent deportation
from Canada and the likelihood that he will breach state anti-racist laws
here are all relevant.
Council President Isi Leibler described
Irving as "a beer hall rabble-rouser
and hero to the German neo-Nazis."
In a letter sent to federal politicians,
Irving denied he has ever said "the
Holocaust never occurred" or has been banned from entering Italy or Austria.
He claimed the campaign to keep him out of Australia is a result of "Jewish
historians" who are "afraid" of debate.
A publishing house closely linked to Australian racists has announced that
Irving will be coming to Australia to launch "a revised and lavishly
illustrated" edition of 'Hitler's War' and a biography of Herman Goering.
In 1986,
Irving visited Australia to launch his book on the Hungarian
revolution, "Uprising", which was published by Veritas, a small publishing
firm associated with the Australia League of Rights.
Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission describes the
league as "the most influential and effective, as well as the best-organized
and most substantially financed racist organization in Australia."
"Uprising" contains gratuitous anti-Semitic comments, with the author
interrupting the narrative to comment on individuals' Jewish origins. In it,
he describes Hungarian dictator Matthias Rakosi as "the ugly Jewish dwarf
that he was" who had "the tact of a kosher butcher."
Since the 1986 visit, four of Australia's states and territories have
enacted anti-racist legislation.
=30=
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Australia Urged to Bar Entry of Holocaust-Denier