Union may face legal action

By Marc Shoffman - Thursday 29th November 2007


Campaigners are looking into the legality of allowing British National Party leader Nick Griffin and convicted Holocaust denier David Irving appear at the Oxford Union, TJ has learned.

Activists are investigating whether rules were broken by allowing people with extremist views speak at a charitable trust or if incitement laws were breached during the talks.

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Jewish groups have condemned protestors who stormed the building on Monday night amid peaceful demonstrations against the controversial appearances.

Hundreds of Jews from across the country joined thousands of protestors from the National Union of Students and Unite Against Fascism outside the Oxford Union this week after members voted to allow Irving and Griffin to appear at a Free Speech Forum.

But while the Oxford University Jewish Society and Union of Jewish Students condemned the event, they distanced themselves from around 30 demonstrators who forced their way through security and chained themselves to chairs inside the debating chamber. Members attending the debate were pushed and jeered as they entered the building and the forum was postponed by an hour and half while rowdy protestors were removed.

Yair Zivan, Union of Jewish Students Campaigns Organisers told the Jewish News: “We protested vociferously but peacefully. None of our people ran inside or were involved in any violence. We will keep opposing Griffin and Irving wherever they appear.

“Passions were running high but we would never condone violence.”

Activist Jonathan Hoffman, a former Oxford University JSoc member, was at the protest, he said: “It was a wonderful demonstration of the breadth of opposition to the Union’s invitations.

“Maybe 3000 people demonstrated, including Jews, Muslims, gays and lesbians, Hindus and many other minorities and indeed many who were not from any minority.”
He read a statement from Deborah Lipstadt who successfully defended a libel case against Irving, she said: “Some of those who have defended the Oxford Union have called for open minds. The problem with people with open minds is that sometimes their minds are so open their brains fall out. And that is the best that can be said of the organizers of this evening’s debate. “
Griffin and Irving were given police escorts in and out of the building and addressed separate audiences. Griffin described the protestors as “a mob which would kill.”

Oxford Jewish Society member Micah Smith was in the audience for the Irving speech. He said the protestors inside the building did not help matters and described a feeling of “intense physical revulsion” when Irving entered the room. “Irving spoke about his experience in Austria, where he was imprisoned. He stated that he was not a holocaust denier and that he was not anti-Semitic.

“I hoped that someone would take him to task. The other two speakers, MP Evan Harris and Anne Atkins, barely did that at all. The audience wasn’t much better,” he told the Jewish News.

The event was condemned by Trevor Phillips, chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission and saw many public figures boycott the union and shadow defence minister Julian Lewis resign his life membership.

Board of Deputies Chief Executive, Jon Benjamin, described it as an “immature student stunt.”


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