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ARARE is the campus arm of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Europe, established
in 1994 and now stands at over 500 members from a broad range of disciplines at
universities in 30 European countries
Venice, 8 December 2003
Professors from 38
universities from across Europe welcomed UNESCO Dirctor-General Koichiro
Matsuura's condemnation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (full
statement).
A two-day experts seminar
on "The Centennial of the Protocols: A PAradigm for Contemporary Hate
Literature," co-organised by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's campus arm, ARARE
and Olokaustos*, under the auspices of UNESCO.
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Protested the display of
The Protocols as "a Jewish sacred text" at the ancient Alexandria Library,
recently renovated by UNESCO, as "a defilement of its academic standing,"
and called for the library to be "a centre for serious scholarly and
inter-cultural dialogue."
-
Resolved that "hate
literature targeting any one faith community in Europe should be considered
an assault on all faith communities. Exposure of the deceit in this
literature and the factors common to all conspiracy theories is incumbent
upon all academics, religious leaders and international organisations."
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Considered measures for the
deconstruction and refutation of all conspiracy theories, including
defamation suits, exposure of the bad faith of instigators, embarrassment of
disseminators as accomplices, disclosing vested interests and the defusion
of myths through ridicule and humor.
-
Recommended identifying and
responding directly to specific consumer groups of hate literature by
+encouraging research into the
specificities, commonalities and underlying environments for the
dissemination of hate literature;
+launching local
countermeasures interactively between law professors, jurists and religious
leaders;
+including student
activists in academic dialogue on racism, antisemitism and hate literature;
+monitoring and engaging
editors and journalists on stereotyping and sub-textual slippage into the
language of conspiracy theories in the media and Internet websites;
+Stripping
campus-based Holocaust deniers and conspiracy theorists of academic
respectability;
+exposing the absurdity
of hate imagery to school children by editing a manual for teachers on
conspiracy rebutal;
+engaging
representatives of each religious and ethnic group to identify, acknowledge
and expose the dangers of hate literature within its own community.
*Olokaustos is a historical
studies centre established in 2001 and based in Venice
For further information, please contact Dr. Shimon Samuels at the
Simon
Wiesenthal Centre in Paris
and/or Giovanni Di Martis at Olokaustos at +39 348 272 3490
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