Jews Criticize the Spanish Constitutional Court over Holocaust Related Decision

[Menydh]

Jews Criticize Spanish Constitutional Court Decision

El Mundo
November 15, 2007

The Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain (Federación de Comunidades Judías de España) has expressed worry about the judicial decision of the Spanish Tribunal Constitucional last week to depenalize only in part the apology of genocide. The Tribunal Constitucional declared last week a crime the broadcasting of ideas or doctrines that deny genocides.

Although the sentence has not been made public yet and it is expected that there will be some votes that will disagree with it, the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain has resolved to "share their worries with the rest of the Spanish society".

The speaker of the Jewish Federation, Nily Schorr, pointed that the sentence "puts Spain at a distance from important theses that rule in the most important European countries, and it is in open contradiction with the international agreements over human rights, which limit the freedom of expression to the respect and the defense of fundamental rights", as reported by EFE News Agency. According to the Jewish Federation, "Spain will become the legal center of Nazi information in Europe, from where it will be projected to the rest of the World, both with respect to the broadcasting of such contents throughout books and media press, as through the Internet."

The press note says that the Federation of Spanish Communities in Spain is in favour of a total freedom of speech as well as in favour of the rest of contitutional freedoms. However, the note says that "all freedoms have its limits".

The press note also asserts that "the victims of the Holocaust feel that they are victims of the decision of the Tribunal Constitucional, as it removes the penal limits that are necessary to prevent the diffusion of racism, xenophobia and anti-semitism in society."

[Breogan]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

...
Although the sentence has not been made public yet and it is expected that there will be some votes that will disagree with it, the Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain has resolved to "share their worries with the rest of the Spanish society".
...

The rest of what?
We neither care nor share the treacheries of foreign people.

[Marcus Marulus]

Outrageous. Abolishing that law is such a terrible display of Islamoph...ooops...no...anti-Semitism.

[Menydh]

There are two things that I would comment about this statement.

One is that I agree in that freedom of expression (freedom of speech) or any other freedom is (must be) limited by the respect to other's [freedoms]. What used to be said here as "your rights end there where mine start".

The other thing is that the statement is a trick. It is not true that they intend to prevent freedom of speech from stepping over others' freedom or rights. What they intend is to prevent anyone from reading or discussing any other version but the one that they have made officially the absolute and only truth.

While I'm personally not a Holocaust denier, I refuse to be force-fed on any historical (or current) event and I demand MY RIGHT to be able to listen to all parts, if that is my desire. So they are violating my rights, and my freedom to learn.

The only possible reading that I can do in all honesty from their press note, is that there must be much obscure stories and/or interests behind the Holocaust, when they try so hardly to ban people from reading any version that is not their version.