Amnesty International will not defend Holocaust denial advocate

SYDNEY, Aug. 5 (JTA) — The human rights organization Amnesty International has rejected an appeal by a Melbourne-based Holocaust revisionist to come to the aid of Fred Toben, a German-born Australian citizen jailed in Germany for promoting Holocaust denial and making anti-Semitic slurs. John Bennett, who for many years was Australia’s most prominent proponent of Holocaust denial and a member of the editorial board of the Californian-based Institute of Historical Review, received a letter from the International Secretariat of Amnesty International turning down the appeal. Holocaust revisionists based in Australia and North America are circulating the letter as “evidence” to support their claim that organization is biased in favor of Jews. The letter from Matthew Pringle, on behalf of Amnesty International, noted that “in 1995 the organization decided at a meeting of its International Council — the highest decision-making body of Amnesty International — that it would exclude from prisoner of conscience status not only people who have used or advocated violence, but also people who are imprisoned ‘for having advocated national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence.’ “There is compelling evidence that Dr. Gerald Fredrick Toben, through the Adelaide Institute’s Web site, has been advocating, at time euphemistically, at times crudely, that the Holocaust is a myth,” Pringle wrote. “As a result, Amnesty International regards his activities as characterized by a clear intent to publicly advocate the denial of the Holocaust.”