EU race hate law should exclude holocaust denial

10.34.52am GMT Tue 16th Jan 2007

Liberal Democrat European Justice Spokeswoman, Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, has warned the incoming German Presidency of the EU that including Holocaust denial in a pan-European law against race hate crime will just keep a wider race hate law on the back burner where it has been for the last 5 years.

"Instead of seeking to project onto the European level the national laws of some EU countries which criminalise Holocaust denial and arguably make martyrs of David Irving and his ilk, Germany should ensure the EU cracks down on those who make the daily lives of Jewish, black, Asian and Roma Europeans a misery through harassment and violence."

"I understand and respect the reason why countries like Germany and Austria felt they needed Holocaust denial laws after 1945, and it is up to them whether to perpetuate those laws. But I believe that the mad fringe of Holocaust deniers, who have no historical leg to stand on, are best fought through the war of words based on incontrovertible fact."

"If criminalisation of Holocaust denial is made the priority, the sufferings of those who frequently endure violent hate crime such as vicious verbal abuse, beatings or desecration of synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, risk not getting the urgent attention they deserve at EU level."