Oxford University cancels Irving Appearance, bowing to threats of violence

Jeff Bell, President of the Oxford Union, has been forced to withdraw the invitation he issued to David Irving to address the prestigious body, one of the oldest debating forums in the world, on May 3.

OXFORD Union has withdrawn its invitation to Mr Irving to speak there on May 3. Mr Irving has declined every media request for an interview on the announcement of the verdict in the Lipstadt Trial, due Tuesday April 11, regardless of the outcome.

His speech at Oxford was therefore eagerly awaited.

Negotiations for him address the Union began on March 15, the day of the closing speeches. In a series of messages, he warned the student president that the invitation was unlikely to come to fruition. On the last occasion he was invited to address the Union, over ten years ago, the University Proctor stepped in and ordered the body to cancel the invitation.

The warning proved prophetic. The students anticipated no trouble -- they had had both Yasser Arafat and Louis Farrakhan to speak on recent occasions -- but took special precautions to keep the David Irving invitation secret. Oxford Union president Bell decided to delay announcing it until just one week ahead. Half a page of the term brochure would then be devoted to the speech.

To pre-empt criticisms Mr Irving declined the suggestion that he speak on the holocaust or WW2 history. He proposed instead the theme, "Does a libel action endanger freedom of speech?" -- since this is an argument that his opponents like Alan Dershowitz were increasingly beginning to deploy.

His opponents are it seems touchy about his allegation that they are "the traditional enemies of free speech."

"Great topic, thanks for that," said Bell in one e-mail; and in another, he stated that freedom of speech issues would stimulate the audience, as would a general talk about the restrictions placed on historians when they attempted to present alternative views to the orthodox.

For several years, Jewish bodies have gone to extreme lengths to discourage universities from allowing Mr Irving to speak. At Trinity College, Dublin, the debating chamber was wrecked in a well-planned orgy of violence orchestrated by outsiders. More recent invitations to Mr Irving to address student bodies in Ireland have led to renewed demonstrations; in Cork, a thousand demonstrators, bussed in from all over southern Ireland and aided by the IRA, prevented him from reaching the university debating hall on November 14.

The enemy has won again. Jeffrey Bell, a senior student at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, sent a fax to the writer's London home on April 7 announcing that he had had to cancel the event. It had been brought home to him, he said -- without giving details -- that he was running grave risks. the locaql police authority warned the university that they would be unable to guarantee Mr Irving's personal security.

"Although we have a freedom of speech policy here," stated Bell, "there are other factors to bear in mind, principally security. We have received advice from Thames Valley Police on this issue. ... We cannot guarantee Mr. Irving's security, and therefore we will be unable to proceed."

Contacts:

President, The Oxford Union, Frewin Court, OX1 3JB

Jeffrey John Bell, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford phone +44 1865 270 000

email: [email protected]

personal phone +44 1865 241 354

Our opinion

  MEANWHILE Prof. Deborah Lipstadt, who sat tight-lipped throughout the trial and stolidly refused to accept the risk of being cross-examined under oath in the witness stand, is set to become Deblah-blah Lipstadt: she is to speak at a string of lucrative functions across the United States about her ordeal at the hands of the British justice system.