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David Irving and the ADL
by Jamie McCarthy
The Holocaust-denier David Irving slings around the ADL like a cook peppering a stew. When he warns of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith being involved with someone, or being behind something, he is generally not to be taken too seriously.
Boldface emphasis has been added to the quotes below.
1. SurfWatch
http://www.fpp.co.uk/docs/Surfwatch/Review.html
Mr. Irving writes:
Surfwatch, going hand-in-glove with the New-York based ADL, is producing software to enable schools to block access for curious minds to "bad sites". PEOPLE ARE always fascinated by any evidence of the ADL's so far unsuccessful search for objectivity.
No; that would be Cyber Patrol, a totally unrelated product from a competing company. As I commented to Mr. Irving - a comment which he put up on his webpage apparently without reading carefully:
SurfWatch might want to clarify for Mr. Irving that their company in fact has nothing to do with the ADL. Cyber Patrol, not SurfWatch, has the ill-conceived filter that directs surfers to the ADL website.
SurfWatch later did confirm for me in email that they have no relationship with the ADL.
A personal note: as an online free-speech activist, I oppose the use of censorware in the public sector and on adults generally. I work with a group called The Censorware Project to educate on the insidious nature of these products. (Mr. Irving quotes me without realizing it, as I was one of the authors for our report "Blacklisted by Cyber Patrol: From Ada to Yoyo.")
2. The Nizkor Project
http://www.fpp.co.uk/IrvingIndex.html
Mr. Irving writes
It is here again fair to draw the attention of researchers to the voluminous "Nizkor" Website created in Canada by Webmaster Ken McVay, and substantially funded by the New York based Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
Nizkor Webmaster Kenneth McVay denies receiving funding from the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai Brith, which has headquarters in New York and Washington; Nizkor maintains a base address at No. 462, 1150 North Terminal Avenue, Nanaimo, British Columbia, on the Pacific coast of Canada. The funding details on the actual site make plain that it is in fact partially funded by the ADL.
Speaking as a former Director of Operations for The Nizkor Project, it is not funded by the ADL: "substantially," "partially," or "in fact."
What is "plain" on Nizkor's funding page is that donations given to the Project can be sent care of a group called B'nai Brith Canada:
Please make your donations payable to "The League for Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada," and add the words "Nizkor Trust Fund"...
Mr. Irving illustrates how diligently he researches. In the first place, accepting private donations earmarked for a particular cause in no way constitutes "funding" that cause. Also, apart from having the same two words in their names, B'nai Brith Canada has nothing to do with the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith. (Presumably Mr. Irving believes the smaller Canadian organization to be some sort of local chapter of the larger American group: no, the former was founded in 1875, and the latter in 1913.)
(The quote above was removed from Mr. Irving's webpage on May 13, 1999, after being posted for more than a year. The claim is still made elsewhere on his site; e.g. references to "the ADL-funded Nizkor Website," "the ADL-controlled Nizkor Project Website.")
3. The Holocaust History Project
http://www.fpp.co.uk/ActionReport/AR14/RadDi2.html
The Holocaust History Project is the organization which has put together the website you are now reading. At a talk he gave in 1998, Mr. Irving describes how:
...one tall, doleful man who identifies himself as a Jew takes over the floor microphone and tries to berate me using a handbill issued by an ADL-front organisation.
The words "handbill issued by an ADL-front organisation" are linked to Mr. Irving's reprint of our pamphlet Who is David Irving?. I am the sole author of that pamphlet; it is identified on the webpage as being issued by our group, The Holocaust History Project.
Not only is The Holocaust History Project not a "front" for the ADL, but we have no relationship with them whatsoever. To my knowledge, our Project has had no contact with the ADL until I emailed them to please fact-check this very webpage. (And the fact that I did not even receive the courtesy of a reply should indicate how closely we are working together!)
There are many cases where Irving jumps to conclusions about this one organization ("I suspect the hand of the ADL" etc.) but these three are examples which I have personal knowledge of, and know to be utterly without merit. It is hoped that when the reader of Mr. Irving's website encounters this sort of paranoid accusation, his pepper will be taken with a grain of salt.
Last modified: July 25, 2003
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