Jewish leaders oppose intellectual freedom and free speech
in New Zealand:
Dr Thomas Fudge's suppressed article is published: ... Holocaust, history and free speech: Part I Canterbury University history lecturer Thomas Fudge has resigned in protest at the university's refusal to publish this article defending a young academic against the charge of holocaust denial. It appears in two instalments, today and tomorrow. The Fate of Joel Hayward in New Zealand Hands:
From Holocaust Historian to Holocaust? By Thomas A. Fudge, Focal Point Publications (originally from New Zealand Herald, July 23, 2003)
"For the past three years, newspapers, national periodicals and television programmes have provided coverage about the Joel Hayward affair, a story of a New Zealand student who wrote a controversial thesis. Contestable work and arguable conclusions are not uncommon in modern universities, but Hayward's unpublished work as a student seems to remain, after ten years, a point of unusual and continuing interest. Does Canterbury University support holocaust denial? The university answers no. Is Hayward a denier? He claims he is not. Does his thesis constitute holocaust denial? His critics say yes (some without having read it); others (who have read it) answer in the negative. In June 2002, Joel Hayward resigned as senior lecturer in history at Massey University where he had been respected as an effective teacher and productive scholar. His departure generated applause from some quarters. Others lamented academe's loss. What brought Hayward, a year and a half after the Hayward affair, still in the early stages of a potentially distinguished career, to this act of professional extinction? In 1993 Hayward was awarded a master of arts degree with first class honours in history by the University of Canterbury for a thesis ['The Fate of Jews in German Hands'] on the historiography of the Holocaust. He later wrote a PhD thesis, and in 1996 was appointed to a lectureship at Massey University. In late 1999, the MA thesis was publicly denounced. The New Zealand Jewish Council alleged that the work amounted to historical revisionism constituting Holocaust denial, and called on the University of Canterbury to revoke the degree. Hayward repeatedly apologised for any harm or distress his thesis might have caused, agreed to the extraordinary step of including an appendix to his thesis modifying his findings, co-operated with the subsequent investigation and appears to have made efforts to distance himself from Holocaust denial. Under pressure, the university appointed an independent working party to investigate the claims against the thesis. This committee consisted of retired High Court judge Sir Ian Barker and academics Professor Ann Trotter and Professor Stuart Macintyre. Their lengthy report concluded that the thesis was seriously flawed, and that Hayward should not have essayed a judgment in such a controversial area. The report did not recommend withdrawal of the thesis by the university and did not agree with the allegations that Hayward's argument was racist or motivated by malice. While the opinion that the thesis did not deserve the high marks it received was widely publicised in the media, no fewer than six serving or retired members of the history department persisted in their own judgment that it was a first-class effort. Notwithstanding the apparent finality of the report and its qualified exoneration of Hayward, during 2000, 2001, and 2002 Hayward received hundreds of pieces of hate mail, abusive telephone calls, threats against himself, his wife and small children, harassment at Massey University and continued negative media attention. Further attempts to publish, as well as efforts at finding other employment, have been unsuccessful. The issue therefore goes beyond the apparent concern over allegedly flawed (but unpublished) research. Is this issue really about academic values and freedom? ... The Barker inquiry found no evidence of malicious intent, dishonesty or deliberate efforts to circumvent the truth on Hayward's part. Is it possible that the outrage over the thesis itself was also a device for attacking Hayward? One of the complexities of the Hayward affair is its apparent relation to issues of academic freedom and intellectual fashions. Hayward's detractors claim that he is wrong in terms of both. One of his critics stated that academic freedom could exist without academic responsibility. However, considered legal opinion concluded that the interpretation being applied in the Hayward affair permitted a very limited right to academic freedom. Proponents of academic freedom insist that universities should be great storehouses of wisdom and learning, and students ought to be able to go there, learn and choose. Academic freedom implies there are no taboo subjects, no off-limits topics. The fuss made about this obscure piece of work fits rather awkwardly with the position taken by New Zealand academic libraries. Official statements read, "No library materials should be excluded ... because of the ... views of their authors [and] no library materials should be censored, restricted or removed from libraries because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval or pressure" ... The Jewish Holocaust is one of those delicate topics about which certain beliefs have become so fashionable as to be unassailable regardless of intellectual considerations. The Hayward affair elicited the pronouncement that at least in this country anyone wanting to question received notions about the Holocaust is controlled by accepted truth standards. The danger in this thinking lies in the ambiguity of the term "truth standards". What did Hayward say? The major issue appears to be the belief that Hayward rejected well-established facts about the Holocaust. His thesis examined the writings of some of those who question the Holocaust industry, which has reached significant political proportions in the past 30 years. Setting aside the question of whether Hayward's conclusions were really so exceptional, is it not the duty of universities and researchers to challenge conventional understandings? In his MA thesis, The Fate of Jews in German Hands: An Historical Enquiry into the Development and Significance of Holocaust Revisionism, Joel Hayward investigated Holocaust historiography, especially that branch of it regarded as revisionist. He concluded that some of the revisionist literature was unworthy of sustained scholarly consideration. Other approaches he found to be significant and worthy." |
