Toben defies court

From the Sunday Mail:

Race-hate site defies court
December 03, 2006

A RACE-HATE website operating from Adelaide has sparked a furious reaction from Australia’s top Jewish body.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry is considering further legal action against Dr Fredrick Toben, 62, from Wattle Park, who runs the Adelaide Institute website.

Dr Toben was the subject of a Federal Court directive in 2002 preventing the publication of material that vilified Jews.

Despite the court ordering him to remove such material from his website, anti-Jewish articles are still accessible from the site.


The Executive Council of the Australian Jewry says the statements made on the website contravene the Racial Discrimination Act.

Council past president, Jeremy Jones, says the organisation is now considering legal action.

The move follows a national report finding that physical attacks against Jews have reached a record high.

The report, released by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, identifies 156 physical attacks against Jews in the year to the end of September. The data, which has been collected on a national level since 1989, chronicled other attacks including arson, threats – via posters, leaflets, email, telephone or sms – and vandalism.

In the 12-month period, there were 442 attacks.

Dr Toben’s website was also flagged in the report.

“It is an ongoing concern and we are actively considering all options open to us,” Mr Jones said.

The 2002 ruling found that the website had published material which implied some Jews had exaggerated Jewish deaths in World War II for financial gain.

While Dr Toben has since published a disclaimer on his site outlining the court-imposed restrictions, Mr Jones says the website’s content is still an issue.

“There has been quite a lot of anti-Jewish material published on that site,” he said. “Not exactly the same wording but the same kind of material.” The website contains links to an array of anti-Semitic material including:

ARTICLES which question whether the Holocaust actually occurred.

CLAIMS that the death toll from the Holocaust has been exaggerated.

LINKS to another website blaming Jews for some of the biggest crimes in the past century, including the 1999 Columbine High School massacre where 12 students were killed, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing which killed 168 people and the September 11 terrorist attacks.

“The internet gives everybody a megaphone and a potential international audience,” Mr Jones said.

“And if one person – who would otherwise have had no reason to dislike another human being – forms negative opinions because of something put on a website, the racist might be quite happy but all the rest of us have reason to be concerned,” he said.

It is understood Dr Toben is overseas and he could not be reached for comment.

News brief · 4 December 2006