Gideon Polya,“Pro-Zionist Western Genocide Denial. US, UK & Australian Holocaust Denial”, MWC News, 11 April 2009.
Pro-Zionist Western Genocide Denial. US, UK & Australian Holocaust Denial.
Holocaust denial, holocaust minimizing, genocide denial and genocide minimizing (often loosely and incorrectly lumped under the term “holocaust denial”) are wrong and utterly repugnant for 3 major reasons - such “holocaust ignoring” (1) is falsehood; (2) it is profoundly offensive to the memory of the victims, survivors of such atrocities, their loved ones and indeed to all of decent humanity; and (3) it increases the probability of repetition of such awful crimes because history ignored and history denied yields history repeated.
Accordingly, for various reasons, “holocaust denial” or “holocaust minimizing” of the World War 2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million killed, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation; see Martin Gilbert, “Jewish History Atlas”, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1969 and Martin Gilbert, “Atlas of the Holocaust”, Michael Joseph, London, 1982) has been criminalized in the State of Israel and variously in Western Europe (the maximum penalty in Austria is 10 years in prison). Indeed, denial of the Armenian Genocide (1.5 million killed, 1915-1923) is also illegal in France and Belgium.
However criminalization of “holocaust denial” is antithetical to historical scholarship, rational risk management and avoidance of recurrence of such atrocities. Thus in Italy nearly 200 historians have signed a manifesto against criminalising Holocaust denial (for excellent discussion see Clare Murphy, “Banning the freedom to deny”, BBC News, 7 February 2007: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6336513.stm ).
Indeed, criminalization of the specific offence of minimizing of the WW2 Jewish Holocaust has been associated with an immense, continuing and counterproductive “holocaust denial” offence, specifically the general, pro-Zionist Western ignoring of the concurrent WW2 Western Theatre holocaust in general (30 million Slav, Jewish and Roma dead) and the WW2 Eastern Theatre holocaust involving 35 million Chinese casualties under Japanese occupation (see Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Xinhua News Agency December 13, 2005 : http://www.china.org.cn/archive/2005-12/13/content_1151697.htm ; about 35 million Chinese actively and passively killed in WW2) and the deliberate starving to death of 6-7 million Indians in the man-made, British-imposed Bengal Famine (see Bengal Famine”, BBC Radio 4, January 2008: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/bengalfamine_programme.html ).
Furthermore, a recent book entitled “Denial. History betrayed” by Monash University (Melbourne) historian Professor Tony Taylor (Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2008), is a very well written, well annotated and well referenced book that deals with the phenomenon of “holocaust denial” and, in general, the denial of horrendous abuses of humanity. This is an important book that should certainly be read by everyone and should be in every library. However inevitably “Denial. History betrayed” can be criticized and the most fundamental criticism is that this otherwise excellent Mainstream Anglo book, published by a prestigious Mainstream Anglo publisher, itself ignores major 20th century and ongoing 21st century holocausts and genocides due to Anglo-American imperialism, specifically the 6-7 million Indians killed in the 1934-1945 Bengali Holocaust in British India and the 9-11 million people actively and passively murdered so far in the ongoing Anglo-American Bush wars, 1990-2009 (see BBC: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/bengalfamine_programme.html ; Gideon Polya, “9-11 excuse for US global genocide. The real 9-11 atrocity: millions dead (9-11 million) in Bush Wars”, MWC News, 6 November 2008: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/25184/42/ ; Gideon Polya, “Denial. History betrayed” by Tony Taylor. “Denial” book ignores UK & US genocide crimes”, MWC News, 6 November 2008: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/26450/26/ ).
However there is an intermediate option, that of “no-penalty criminalization of Holocaust Denial” which exposes, arraigns, tries and convicts Holocaust Deniers but preserves free speech by applying no penalty other than the public disgrace of conviction for the crime of Holocaust Denial (see Gideon Polya, “Genocide denial. No-penalty genocide denial criminalization required now”, MWC News, 10 February 2007: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12483/26/ ).
With that background, it is useful to compare current examples of “holocaust minimizing” and the differential responses of lying, racist, holocaust-ignoring Mainstream media, academics and politicians of the Western Murdochracies.
A. Minimizing of the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million killed, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation).
As outlined above, the WW2 Jewish Holocaust involved 5-6 million Jews killed with 1 in 6 dying from deprivation (see Martin Gilbert, “Jewish History Atlas” , Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1969 and Martin Gilbert, “Atlas of the Holocaust”, Michael Joseph, London, 1982).
However various people have minimized the magnitude and actualities of the Jewish Holocaust (see Tony Taylor, “Denial, History betrayed” Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2008), notably UK Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson and British historian David Irving. This “holocaust minimizing” has led to vociferous demands for penalties. Many have demanded the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson from the Catholic Church (see: http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2009/02/vatican-benedict-pius-catholic ) and David Irving was sentenced to 3 years in prison in Austria for holocaust denial (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Irving ). Below are some statements from these “holocaust minimizers”.
British Catholic bishop, Richard Williamson: “"I believe there were no gas chambers ... I think that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps but none of them by gas chambers … There was not one Jew killed by the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies!" (see UK Telegraph, 23 January 2009: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/4317996/Pope-to-cancel-excommunication-of-rebel-bishops.html ).
Historian expert on the Nazi German Third Reich, David Irving, in interview with Eric Silver (see Action Report, 28 February 2000: http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/00/05/Silver.html ): Silver: Israeli and German researchers tried independently to estimate how many Jews died. They came to similar conclusions, between 5.6 million and 6.1 million. If you don't accept such figures, how many Jews do you think did die? Irving: “I'm quite satisfied that the shootings on the Eastern Front happened, that these probably reached a total victim figure of one million”. Silver: What about the people who died in concentration camps? Irving: We have to ask two infuriating questions. Who is a Jew? And what do you mean by died? I appreciate the criminality of being taken out of your home in Vienna or Budapest and sent to Auschwitz, where you died of typhus. But is that being killed, or is it dying?”
B. Minimizing of the WW2 Bengali Holocaust (6-7 million dead).
The WW2 Bengali Holocaust involved the deliberate starving to death of 6-7 million British Indian subjects in Bengal and in the adjacent provinces of Assam, Bihar and Orissa (see Gideon Polya “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History. Colonial rapacity, holocaust denial and the crisis in biological sustainability”, G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2008: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ; P.R. Greenough, “Prosperity and Misery in Modern Bengal: the Famine of 1943-1944”, Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York, 1982; Colin Mason, “A Short History of Asia. Stone Age to 2000AD” , Macmillan, London, 2000; BBC Radio 4, January 2008: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/bengalfamine_programme.html ).
However, apart from a few rare historians (see the above examples), there is typically “total holocaust ignoring” over the WW2 Bengali Holocaust - the silence is deafening. Thus the following eminent and highly-honoured Anglo historians simply failed to even mention the WW2 Bengali Holocaust (6-7 million dead) in the following selection of relevant books (just imagine not finding any mention of the Jewish Holocaust in a top historian’s book about the 20th century, Germany or WW2).
Blainey, G. (2000), A Short History of the World (Viking, Melbourne).
Blainey, G. (2004), A Very Short History of the World (Viking, Melbourne).
Blainey, G. (2005), A Short History of the 20th Century (Penguin, Melbourne).
Carter, E.H. and Mears, R.A.F. (1962), A History of Britain (Clarendon Press, Oxford).
Churchill, W.S. (1954), The Second World War. Volumes I-VI (Cassell, London).
Gilbert, M. (1991), Churchill. A Life (Heinemann, London).
Trevelyan, G.M. (1952), History of England (Longmans, London, 1960).
Schama, S. (2002), A History of Britain (BBC, London).
C. Minimizing the ongoing Iraqi Holocaust and Iraqi Genocide (post-invasion excess deaths 2.3 million).
As of April 2009, in the Occupied Palestinian, Iraqi and Afghan Territories post-invasion non-violent excess deaths total 0.3 million, 1.0 million and 3.2 million, respectively; post-invasion violent deaths total about 10,000, 1.3 million and 2-4 million, respectively; post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.2 million, 0.6 million and 2.3 million, respectively; and refugees total 7 million, 6 million and 4 million, respectively. This constitutes a Palestinian Holocaust, an Iraqi Holocaust and an Afghan Holocaust; a Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide and Afghan Genocide as defined by Article 2 of the UN Genocide Convention; and egregious war crimes due in part to Occupier war criminal non-supply of life-sustaining food and medical requisites demanded unequivocally by Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War – thus the Gaza Concentration Camp has been under US-backed Israeli blockade for 2 years and according to WHO the “total annual per capita medical expenditure” permitted by the Occupiers in Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan is US$124 and US$29, respectively, as compared to US$6,714 for the US. About 100,000 Occupied Afghans have died non-violent avoidable deaths in the first 80 days of the Obama Administration (see Gideon Polya, “The forgotten Iraqi genocide. Iraqi cardiologist’s Speech to European Parliament”, MWC News, 4 April 2009: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/29682/42/ and “Iraqi invasion 6th anniversary. 2.3 million Iraqi excess deaths”, MWC News, March 2009: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/29360/42/ ).
Yet the carnage of the Palestinian Genocide, the Iraqi Genocide and the Afghan Genocide is overwhelmingly ignored by pro-Zionist, anti-Arab anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, Western Mainstream media, academics and politicians (see Gideon Polya, “Iraqi Massacre Ignored by Media. Lying over Iraqi Genocide”, MWC News, March 2009 “: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/28982/42/ ). Below are some quotes showing how the magnitude of the Iraqi Holocaust (violent and non-violent excess deaths 4.1 million, 1990-2009, and 2.3 million, 2003-2009) is grossly minimized by pro-Zionist Mainstream media, academics and politicians.
Kevin Rudd, (extreme right-wing, religious right, pro-US, pro-war, elected PM of Australia in November 2007; Australia still has 1,000 troops in Occupied Iraq and another 1,000 in Occupied Afghanistan; ABC TV Lateline, 27 February 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2007/s1853647.htm ): “61,000 Iraqi civilians, at a minimum, depending on who you believe in the count, now lie dead in the four years since the invasion occurred”.
Australian ABC Radio National (Saturday AM, “The end in sight for American forces in Iraq”, Saturday 28 February 2009: http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2008/s2503934.htm ): “tens of thousands of Iraqis have died”.
Sydney Morning Herald (leading Australian newspaper; “No regrets from Howard but top staff count the cost”, 2 June 2008: http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/no-regrets-from-howard-but-top-staff-count-the-cost/2008/06/01/1212258648244.html ) “more than 91,000 Iraqis have been killed”.
Iraq Body Count (that totals grossly-underestimating media reports of violent Iraq deaths; April 2009, see: http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ ): “Documented civilian deaths from violence 91,385-99,774”.
The UK BBC News (“Iraq facts and figures”, January 2009: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7856618.stm ) simply refers to the grossly-underestimating Iraq Body Count estimate of “media reported” violent deaths without giving any estimate of total deaths due to the US Alliance invasion.
In assessing the above sample of quotes, just consider that UN Population Division data (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/ ) indicate 1.0 million non-violent post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Iraq and according to Just Foreign Policy (eminent US organization; April 2009: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html ): “[violent] Iraqi deaths due to US invasion 1,320,110. The number is shocking and sobering. It is at least 10 times greater than most estimates cited in the US media, yet it is based on a scientific study of violent Iraqi deaths caused by the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003”.
You be the judge - and respond by Word (informing others) and Deed (by boycotting and opposing those involved in holocaust commission and holocaust denial).