The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs (AIJAC) today strongly condemned the publication by Melbourne's Herald Sun of a reader's poll asking reader to phone in to register whether or not they "agree with historian David Irving's views on the Holocaust."

AIJAC National Chairman Mark Leibler said, "This Herald Sun reader's poll was not only in terrible taste, and offensive to Melbourne's many Holocaust survivors, it was positively destructive. The aim of Holocaust deniers like Irving is to legitimise right-wing extremism and antisemitism by creating in the public mind a belief that the Nazi Holocaust against Jews is a debatable issue, that it a mere matter of opinion whether it did or did not happen. The Herald Sun, with its readership poll, has lent credibility and legitimacy to the politically motivated claim of deniers that the Nazi Holocaust, probably the best researched historical event of the twentieth century, is merely a "theory."

AIJAC Executive Director Dr. Colin Rubenstein added, "The very phrasing of the Herald Sun poll showed a profound misunderstanding of this issue. Holocaust denial is not about history, it is about extremist politics and about legitimising Nazism."

"I had hoped the Herald Sun would have more sense than to lend legitimacy to the views of a man like Irving, a self-described "mild fascist" who once gleefully spoke of his desire to "hurt" Holocaust survivors with his planned visit to Australia."

AIJAC National Chairman Mark Leibler has been in touch directly with the Editor of the Herald Sun in order to communicate the Jewish Community' s profound concern and disappointment with the publication of the poll.

For more information, contact Tzvi Fleischer on: (03) 9529 5022 or at aijac@aijac.org.au