[wvns] Dracula in Teramo
Dracula in Teramo
Our friend, the Italian professor Claudio Moffa, made a daring attempt
to bring the well-known French revisionist Robert Faurisson to give a
lecture in the Teramo University. He was attacked in media, and
eventually the university rector locked out the university to save the
students from this lecture. Here are two materials pertaining this
visit: a piece in the Guardian, and a text written for us by a
participant of the event, Daniele Scalea.
A step too far?
John Hooper
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/john_hooper/2007/05/a_step_too_far.html
Should Holocaust deniers be prevented from airing their views? And, if
so, how far is it right to go in stopping them? The questions arise
because of what happened over here on Thursday night in the central
Italian university city of Teramo.
Robert Faurisson, a retired academic who has been convicted five times
in his native France for denying crimes against humanity, had been
invited by a member of the staff to give a lecture. His host is one
Claudio Moffa, a professor who run the university's master's programme
in Middle Eastern studies.
Moffa was asked by the university authorities to think again. He
refused. So the rector, Mauro Mattioli, decided the only thing left
was to temporarily shut down the university, which he did.
He said his decision was forced on him by security considerations. In
a statement, the university authorities spoke of a "climate of tension
that could endanger the safety of students".
Indeed, when Faurisson tried earlier today to speak at a hotel, there
were scuffles with protesters and the event was cancelled. However, it
is also worth noting that the rector had been given a clear indication
by Italy's centre-left government of what was expected of him.
In a letter quoted by La Repubblica, the higher education minister,
Fabio Mussi, said "inviting to an Italian campus a figure ... who
denies the gravity of the Shoah has no academic merit, but merely
bears witness to a mediocre provocation".
For professor Moffa, on the other hand, it is a question of academic
and intellectual freedom. His website vaunts a declaration of support
for his initiative, signed by more than 20 other Italian academics.
The professor claims that he is not himself a Holocaust denier. But
his most recent relevant posting to the site is entitled "Why
Faurisson and the 'deniers' convince me more and more".
Picking up on the prison sentence given to David Irving and the
various penalties inflicted on his guest, he poses the following
question: "Why is ... judicial harassment that smacks of manic
obsession necessary if the arguments of Faurisson and Co are indeed
'unfounded'?"
Answers anyone?
Faurisson attacked by Zionist paramilitaries in Italy
By Daniele Scalea
Claudio Moffa, the professor of Afro-Asian history at the Università
degli Studi of Teramo (Italy) organizes a master's degree named after
former ENI's manager Enrico Mattei and dedicated to the Middle East.
This year master's lessons took also a taboo theme in European
countries: mythologization of the Holocaust and its exploitation by US
and Israeli ruling classes for political and financial purposes. Level
of master's lecturers and participants is high and their cultural
background really various: among others, we could cite Moffa himself,
Franco Cardini (famous historian), Massimo Fini (well-known journalist
and philosopher), Tiberio Graziani (University of Perugia), Maurizio
Blondet (journalist and essayist), Fabio Alberti (manager of a
humanitarian NGO working in Iraq and Palestine), Vittorio Dan Segre
(professor and former Israeli diplomat), Domenico Losurdo (philosophy
professor), Israel Shamir (world-wide well-known reporter and
essayist), Giulio Andreotti (former Italian premier), Samir al-Kassir
(Syrian ambassador) and Abolfazl Zohrevand (Iranian ambassador). On
the wave of master's great success and considering students' interest,
Claudio Moffa also decided to invite Robert Faurisson, a controversial
French professor who denied that Nazi persecution of Jews during the
Second World War reached the quantitative and qualitative levels
described by mainstream historiography. According to him, German
leaders never ordered a genocide, homicidal gas chamber didn't exist
and the number of Jewish victims is very much lower than six millions.
Because of his theories Faurisson was removed from his chair, deprived
of pension, criminally prosecuted and subjected to some physical
aggressions: nevertheless 78 years-old professor is still fighting for
freedom of research in Europe. It's important to say that neither
Faurisson nor Moffa have neo-Nazi affections: on the contrary, Claudio
Moffa during his youth was active in a far leftist organization.
Invitation of Faurisson caused a lot of complains by Zionist movements
and individuals, which yet had seen the Enrico Mattei master's program
as "unfriendly" towards Israel. A number of Jewish personalities have
signed a petition against freedom of speech, writing that nobody
researching the Holocaust could go beyond some "unquestionable facts"
(which obviously must be decided by the same petitioners!) and asking
academic and political authorities to ban the event. Professor Moffa
defended his initiative promoting a counter-petition in favour of
freedom of speech, opinion and research (undersigned by hundreds of
academicians, students, journalists and common people) and publicly
inviting some of the critics to a cross-examination of Faurisson's
lecture - but they all have refused.
Italian mainstream media, especially two Italian newspapers
(post-communist "L'Unità" and " la Repubblica", the latter owned by a
Jewish billionaire), began an aggressive campaign against professors
Moffa and Faurisson; moreover, some extremist Zionist organizations,
such as the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, publicly asked the University of
Teramo to forbid Faurisson's lecture. Just a few days before the
event, in face of Moffa's refusal of cancel the lecture, University's
Chancellor decided to close all buildings and rooms connected to
Political Science Department. Even the Italian minister of university
and research Fabio Mussi took side against Faurisson's lecture, but
Claudio Moffa courageously didn't surrender and moved the event into a
hotel in Teramo.
May 18th, professor Faurisson arrived at Teramo and, before the
lecture, he gave a press conference in front of the hotel. But, just a
few minutes after the end of the press conference, a small group of
Zionist hooligans tried to attack the elderly French researcher. He
was saved by the promptly reaction of professor Moffa and other
onlookers. After that, Zionist riff-raff engaged in a brawl with some
onlookers and policemen, injuring vice-chief constable Gennaro Capasso
(a clavicle's fracture for him). Teramo's Chief Constable, rather than
defend some quiet citizens from just 50 criminals, obliged Moffa and
Faurisson to cancel the lecture and leave the county under escort.
But who were the attackers? They are some middle-aged Jews from Rome,
members of the LED, (Lega Ebraica di Difesa), Italian branch of the
J.D.L. ("Jewish Defense League") founded by the late Rabbi Meir
Kahane. That organization supply paramilitary training to his members
(some even volunteer in Tsahal, the Israeli army) and "guard" Jewish
areas in Rome. LED actions are not only "defensive": often they
physically attacked persons whose only "fault" is to have criticized
Israeli politics. For example, in 1992 LED paramilitaries (armed with
iron bars and revolvers) assaulted the office of a small right-wing
political party, the Movimento Politico, literally destroying both
office and party. In 1995 LED members attacked supporters of a Jesi
basketball team who had insulted a Jewish player. In 1996, after
absolution of an elderly former SS officer, Jewish paramilitaries
surrounded the Military Tribunal of Rome, taking in hostage judges and
attorneys until Italian Minister of Justice, with an unconstitutional
decision, cancelled tribunal's sentence and ordered to re-arrest the
accused. From 2002, LED has being responsible for a number of
aggressions against leftist pro-Palestine militants. All those crimes
remained unpunished. LED is not isolated among Italian Jews: Riccardo
Pacifici, alleged leader of LED, is vice-president of Rome's Jewish
community. The day after aggression, interviewed by an Italian
newspaper, he not only refused to condemn the violence but also asked
for removal of professor Moffa from his chair. In response, Claudio
Moffa has started to organize the next year master's program.
Moreover, it has been constituted a "Committee Against Repression of
Freedom of Speech and Thinking" which is promoting a new appeal (see
appendix).
Daniele Scalea
References:
http://www.mastermatteimedioriente.it/
Site of the Master "Enrico
Mattei per il Medio Oriente"
Dagoberto Husayn Bellucci, La Jewish Defense League, "Rinascita", 28
giugno 2006
Maurizio Blondet, C'è uno squadrismo kosher, "Effedieffe Giornale
Online", 21 maggio 2007
Giuseppe Caporale, Proteste e schiaffi per Faurisson, "la Repubblica
", 19 maggio 2007
(Editorial), Il giorno di Faurisson: scontri, disordini, insulti,
feriti, " PrimaDaNoi.it", 19 maggio 2007
Ellezeta, Faurisson e Moffa aggrediti da ebrei venuti da Roma, "
viaroma100.net", 19 maggio 2007
Appendix:
Appeal "The Denied Speech"
Friday 18th May in Teramo professor Robert Faurisson, who had been
prevented to give a lecture inside University where he had been
invited by professor Claudio Moffa, has been attacked in the
city-centre by a group of thugs. Whatever are the views of professor
Faurisson, it's inconceivable that a group of people, using aggression
and threat, can prevent someone else to enjoy the right of speech
sanctioned by Constitution and Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
as inconceivable are pressures exerted on University Minister to
obtain the "expulsion" of professor Claudio Moffa from Teramo University.
If, even without knowing or sharing views of the so-called
"negationists", you think that anyone mustn't be prosecuted or put in
jail or violently prevented from speech for his or her opinions -
regardless of what they are - if you still believe to article 21 and
article 33 of Italian Constitution and to the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, if you think that it's unfair to demand for expulsion
from University of a professor who was not even involved in the
"negationist" controversy; please sign this declaration.
Consider it a sign of courage, a gesture of courtesy and political
intelligence: let us drop political purity, the demand to avoid
"contamination" by others' thought. The imminent risk for every
Italian and European citizens of any political belief is a general
gagging and the creation of a horrific totalitarian system which, for
its dimension and its hypocritical image of "democracy", is without
precedent in history. Let's sign against the integrated and
single-minded mass-media, against the gagging laws that destroy Europe
of bourgeois and socialist liberties, against gagging of teaching (at
any level), against fundamentalism, against idiocy and seedy
opportunism spreading both on the Right and the Left among political
and intellectual classes.
Viva la liberte!
Italian Committee against Repression of Freedom of Speech and Thinking
In order to sign please write to pepperosci @ alice.it .
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