Denial as Hate Speech

How does genocide denial affect the victim and why do we need laws against it? Dr. Israel Charny, psychologist and executive director of the Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide in Jerusalem, asserts that denial - as a form of hate speech - is a continuation of the trauma of genocide, a form of violence that continues to dehumanize and inflict suffering on the victim group long after the physical act of genocide.

Produced by AGBU WebTalks in partnership with the Zoryan Institute.

Originally published April 2021.

About the speaker

Israel Charny

Dr. Israel W. Charny is an Israeli and American psychologist who is widely known as the co-founder and past president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, founder and first president of the Israel Family Therapy Association, and a past president of the International Family Therapy Association. Three of his works have been awarded "Outstanding Academic Book of the Year" by the American Library Association including Fascism and Democracy in the Human Mind. He has written and lectured extensively on the psychological motivations and impact of denial. He is also the author of Encyclopedia of Genocide, a two-volume reference work that examines the entire historiography of all genocides, including the phenomenology of the denial.

Israel Charny