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Wiesenthal Centre and Olokaustos to Italian Minister for Europe: "A Principal Motor for Holocaust Denial in Europe Operates at the University of Teramo - Tomorrow's Invitation to French Revisionist Faurisson Must Be Withdrawn"

Paris and Venice, 16 May 2007

In a joint letter to Italian Minister for Europe Emma Bonino, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, and Giovanni De Martis and Giovanni Costantini, President and Vice-President, respectively, of the Italian Institute for Historical Studies-Olokaustos, expressed alarm at the invitation to convicted French Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson, to speak tomorrow at the University of Teramo.

Samuels noted the Minister's "record at the European Parliament on the battle against intolerance, and her sensitivity to history."

He added that "both the European Parliament and the Commission have expressed a clear consensus against the denial of the Holocaust and apologia for genocide, campaigning for countermeasures among all member-states."

De Martis and Costantini stated that "a principal motor for such revisionism in Europe is the University of Teramo's so-called 'Enrico Mattei' Master programme in Middle East Studies, chaired by Claudio Moffa."

They pointed out that, on his website http://www.mastermatteimedioriente.it, Moffa claims that the aim of his programme is "to furnish a consciousness of the complexity of the Middle East and Mediterranean region and its conflicts, to preserve, empower and develop in such professional field a dialogue between civil society and different countries through culture, history, religion and economic development", to train "experts destined for political-diplomatic careers, peace-keepers, journalists and correspondents on immigration and interculturalism for the Mediterranean - Middle East region, experts on questions of energy related to the oil market."

Samuels added that "Moffa's website is vaunted as 'The Middle East without Taboos', but hardly addresses the subjects listed in his abovementioned mission statement. Contributors, among them the Iranian and Syrian Ambassadors to Italy, fixate obsessively on the State of Israel as the root of the world's evils."

He continued, "Most discordant to University gravitas is his notice on the website, 'Dracula Arrives at Teramo 18 May at 3.30 pm'", explaining that "'Dracula' is convicted French Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson, renowned for his abuse of the classroom to dismiss the gas chambers of Auschwitz as a fabrication."

The Wiesenthal Centre and the Italian Institute for Historical Studies-Olokaustos urged the Minister "to impress upon the Teramo University administration their moral obligation to cancel Faurisson's appearance on their campus. Moreover, those authorities should withdraw their auspices from Moffa's programme which, in hijacking Middle East Studies as a vehicle for hate, is a debasement of intellectual integrity."

The appeal emphasized that "to welcome Faurisson is an embarrassment to Italian academia, offends the families of Italian martyrs who fell in fighting the scourge of fascism, abuses the name of the resistance hero Enrico Mattei, and encourages a perverse propaganda - ostensibly on the pretext of freedom of expression - to incite a new generation to antisemitism and racist doctrine."

"Madam Minister, you have often addressed this dark period of Europe's past. To deny it is to repeat it. Italy's record of anti-Nazi resistance in World War Two must not be desecrated", the letter concluded.

For further information, please contact Shimon Samuels at +33.609.77.01.58