The Oxford Union debating society rescinded an invitation in October for American professor Norman Finkelstein to debate Alan Dershowitz on the topic of Israel. Finklestein is one of the greatest critics of Isreali and American foreign policy.

But this week the Union is defending the presence of convicted Holocaust denier David Irving and British National (Nazi) Party leader Nick Griffin for a panel discussion on Free Speech.

The kind of doublethink on these issues has now reached the point of farce.

[ 25 November 2007: Message edited by: -=+=- ]

I guess Dershowitz didn't demand that Holocaust deniers and British neo-fascists be un-invited.

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Shadow defence minister and MP for New Forest East Dr Julian Lewis said the students should be "ashamed". [...]

In a letter to the union's officers and standing committee, Dr Lewis said he was resigning his life membership "with great sadness".

The MP, who studied at Balliol and St Antony's colleges, said the right to free speech should not guarantee access to privileged platforms.

"Nothing which happens in Monday's debate can possibly offset the boost you are giving to a couple of scoundrels who can put up with anything except being ignored," he said. [...]

Trevor Phillips, chair of the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights, told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: "I think it is an absolute disgrace.

"As a former president of the National Union of Students I'm ashamed that this has happened.

"This is not a question of freedom of speech, this is a juvenile provocation."

The invitation has been opposed by the Oxford Student Union and the university's Muslim and Jewish societies.

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