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In 1979, Robert Faurisson, a French professor, wrote a book claiming that the Naziss did not have gas chambers, did not attempt a genocide of Jews (or any other groups), and that the "myth" of the gas chambers had been put forth by Zionist swindlers for the benefit of the state of Israel and to the detriment of Germanss and Palestinians. (Hitchens, 1985) The Chorus and the Cassandra.
Serge Thion, a libertarian socialist scholar with a record of opposition to all forms of totalitarianism, asked Noam Chomsky to sign a petition calling on authorities to insure Robert Faurisson's "safety and the free exercise of his legal rights." (Faurisson had been beaten up by students, then suspended from teaching by his university on the grounds that the university could not guarantee his safety. Later he was charged in court with "falsification of history".) A furore soon arose over the wording of the petition, which referred to Faurisson's "extensive historical research" and mentioned his conclusions as "findings". Chomsky's critics saw this as a defence of Faurisson's opinions and not merely of his right to state them. In reply, Chomsky wrote an essay entitled Some Elementary Comments on The Rights of Freedom of Expression, which dealt mainly with the freedom to conduct and publish unpopular research. It also stated that he had not found evidence of anti-Semitism in the parts of Faurisson's work that he had reviewed. Chomsky writes:
- "Faurisson's conclusions are diametrically opposed to views I hold and have frequently expressed in print (for example, in my book Peace in the Middle East?, where I describe the Holocaust as "the most fantastic outburst of collective insanity in human history"). But it is elementary that freedom of expression (including academic freedom) is not to be restricted to views of which one approves, and that it is precisely in the case of views that are almost universally despised and condemned that this right must be most vigorously defended. It is easy enough to defend those who need no defense or to join in unanimous (and often justified) condemnation of a violation of civil rights by some official enemy. [1]
Chomsky also commented on the difference between the acceptance of historical facts (in this case, the existence of gas chambers, denied by Faurisson) and the attitude towards certain people (hatred of the Jews, anti-Semitism, probably also held by Faurisson):
- "I see no anti-Semitic implications in denial of the existence of gas chambers or even denial of the Holocaust. Nor would there be anti-Semitic implications, per se, in the claim that the Holocaust (whether one believes it took place or not) is being exploited, viciously so, by apologists for Israeli repression and violence. I see no hint of anti-Semitic implications in Faurisson's work" (quoted in Noam Chomsky's Search for the Truth).
In His Right to Say It, published in The Nation, Chomsky states: "It seems to me something of a scandal that it is even necessary to debate these issues two centuries after Voltaire defended the right of free expression for views he detested. It is a poor service to the memory of the victims of the holocaust to adopt a central doctrine of their murderers. " [1] His argument stressed the conceptual distinction between endorsing someone's view and defending his right to say it. Insofar as the latter does not imply the former, condemning censorhip should not be read as espousing the censored view.
