Editing Holocaust denial (section)

==Laws against Holocaust denial==
{{Main|Legality of Holocaust denial}}
[[File:Holocaust Denial Laws 2023.png|thumb|upright 1.2|Countries where Holocaust denial is illegal]]

Holocaust denial is explicitly or implicitly illegal in 18 countries: [[Austria]], [[Belgium]], [[Canada]], the [[Czech Republic]], [[France]], Germany, [[Hungary]], Israel, [[Liechtenstein]], [[Lithuania]], [[Luxembourg]], the [[Netherlands]], [[Poland]], [[Portugal]], [[Romania]], [[Russia]], [[Slovakia]], and [[Switzerland]].<ref>Lechtholz-Zey, Jacqueline: Laws Banning Holocaust Denial. [https://web.archive.org/web/20100821174310/http://www.genocidepreventionnow.org/2010/06/laws-banning-holocaust-denial.html Genocide Prevention Now.]. Retrieved October 4, 2020.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jta.org/2014/05/05/global/russia-makes-holocaust-denial-illegal |title=Russia makes Holocaust denial illegal |date=May 5, 2014 |access-date=February 24, 2019 |archive-date=February 25, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190225044746/https://www.jta.org/2014/05/05/global/russia-makes-holocaust-denial-illegal |url-status=live}}</ref> Romania officially denied the Holocaust occurred on its territory up until the [[Wiesel Commission]] in 2004.<ref name=bbc-news>{{cite news |title=Romania holds first Holocaust Day |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3736864.stm |access-date=September 24, 2013 |work=[[BBC News]] |date=October 12, 2004 |archive-date=October 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181029200156/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3736864.stm |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2997616.stm |title=Romania sparks Holocaust row |work=[[BBC News]] |date=June 17, 2003 |access-date=May 22, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130928085609/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2997616.stm |archive-date=September 28, 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref> The European Union's Framework decision on Racism and [[Xenophobia]] states that denying or grossly trivializing "crimes of genocide" should be made "punishable in all [[EU Member States]]".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/misc/93739.pdf |title=See Luxembourg, April 19, 2007, 8665/07 (Presse 84) |access-date=January 8, 2010 |archive-date=November 11, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111185351/https://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/misc/93739.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

Such legislation remains controversial. In October 2007, a tribunal declared Spain's genocide denial law [[unconstitutional]].<ref>By way of [http://www.tribunalconstitucional.es/jurisprudencia/Stc2007/STC2007-5152-2000.html judgment of November 7, 2007] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080215233053/http://www.tribunalconstitucional.es/jurisprudencia/Stc2007/STC2007-5152-2000.html |date=February 15, 2008 }} of the [[Constitutional Court of Spain]], which ruled the criminalization to be unconstitutional and void.</ref> In 2007 Italy rejected a denial law proposing a prison sentence of up to four years. In 2006 the Netherlands rejected a draft law proposing a maximum sentence of one year on denial of genocidal acts in general, although specifically denying the Holocaust remains a criminal offense there. The United Kingdom has twice rejected [[Laws against Holocaust denial|Holocaust denial laws]]. Denmark and Sweden have also rejected such legislation.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/world/europe/19iht-eu.4.5359640.html |title=EU adopts measure outlawing Holocaust denial |first=Dan |last=Bilefsky |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 19, 2007 |access-date=February 8, 2017 |archive-date=April 4, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404010722/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/world/europe/19iht-eu.4.5359640.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

A number of deniers have been prosecuted under various countries' denial laws. French literature professor [[Robert Faurisson]], for example, was convicted and punished under the [[Gayssot Act]] in 1990. Some historians oppose such laws, among them [[Pierre Vidal-Naquet]], an outspoken critic of Faurisson, on the grounds that denial legislation imposes "historical truth as legal truth".<ref>{{cite web |quote=To live with Faurisson? Any other attitude would imply that we were imposing historical truth as legal truth, which is a dangerous attitude available to other fields of application. |url=http://www.anti-rev.org/textes/VidalNaquet92a/ |title=Pierre Vidal-Naquet: A Paper Eichmann (1980)&nbsp;– Anatomy of a Lie (10) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190119100310/http://www.anti-rev.org/textes/VidalNaquet92a/ |archive-date=January 19, 2019}}</ref> Other academics favor [[criminalization]]. Holocaust denial, they contend, is "the worst form of racism and its most respectable version because it pretends to be a research".<ref>François de Smet, Philosopher of the [[Université Libre de Bruxelles|ULB]]: ''Le négationnisme est l'une des pires formes de racisme. Elle en est aussi sa version la plus « respectable », se parant des oripeaux de la science. C'est pour cela qu'il faut continuer à le sanctionner'', in ''[[La Libre Belgique]]'', on April 28, 2006</ref> Holocaust historian [[Deborah E. Lipstadt]] expressed her opposition to laws against expressing Holocaust denial, saying, "I don't think they work. I think they turn whatever is being outlawed into forbidden fruit." She also said that politicians should not be able to decide what can and cannot be said.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Chotiner |first=Isaac |date=January 24, 2019 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/looking-at-anti-semitism-on-the-left-and-the-right-an-interview-with-deborah-e-lipstadt |title=Looking at Anti-Semitism on the Left and the Right: An Interview with Deborah E. Lipstadt |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=January 28, 2019 |archive-date=July 15, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190715004921/https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/looking-at-anti-semitism-on-the-left-and-the-right-an-interview-with-deborah-e-lipstadt |url-status=live}}</ref>

===David Irving conviction===
In February 2006, Irving was convicted in Austria, where Holocaust denial is illegal, for a speech he had made in 1989 in which he denied the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz.{{R|release}} Irving was aware of the outstanding arrest warrant but chose to go to Austria anyway "to give a lecture to a far-right student fraternity".<ref name="release">{{cite news |title=Holocaust denier to be released |date=December 20, 2006 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6196073.stm |work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=January 13, 2011 |archive-date=July 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725005507/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6196073.stm |url-status=live}}</ref> Although he pleaded guilty to the charge, Irving said he had been "mistaken", and had changed his opinions on the Holocaust. "I said that then, based on my knowledge at the time, but by 1991 when I came across the Eichmann papers, I wasn't saying that anymore and I wouldn't say that now. The Nazis did murder millions of Jews."<ref name="BBCCenshorship">{{cite news |work=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4733820.stm |title=Holocaust Denier is Jailed |date=February 20, 2006 |access-date=February 21, 2006 |archive-date=August 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805031758/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4733820.stm |url-status=live}}</ref> Irving served 13 months of a 3-year sentence in an Austrian prison, including the period between his arrest and conviction, and was deported in early 2007.{{R|release}} The episode sparked intense international debate over the limits of freedom of speech. Upon hearing of Irving's sentence, Lipstadt said:<blockquote>I am not happy when censorship wins, and I don't believe in winning battles via censorship.... The way of fighting Holocaust deniers is with history and with truth.{{R|BBCCenshorship}}</blockquote>According to ''[[CNN]]'', upon Irving's return to the UK, he "vow[ed] to repeat views denying the Holocaust that led to his conviction" stating he felt "no need any longer to show remorse" for his Holocaust views.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/12/21/uk.irving.ap/index.html|title=Holocaust denier: 'No need to show remorse' |work=[[CNN]] |access-date=November 27, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070116221731/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/12/21/uk.irving.ap/index.html |archive-date=January 16, 2007}}</ref>