Holocaust Lessons

Holocaust Lessons

By Leslie Bravery | Palestine Human Rights Campaign |15 July 2013

Stuart Littlewood's PressTV article on 11 July 2013 Who’s at the top of Britain’s Tory party? http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/07/11/313360/tory/ presents disturbing evidence of an invasive, ideological take-over of the British parliamentary process that is perversely ignoring the views of the majority of voters as well as subverting the principles of universal representation. He refers in his article to the Times of Israel gleefully quoting the words of the British Prime Minister David Cameron: “There are so many Jews at the top of Britain’s Conservative party that it should be known as the Torah party rather than the Tory party.” In that one sentence Cameron, the ardent supporter of Israel, implicated the Jewish religion and the 'Jews' with his party and with Zionism. Israel, the political creation of Zionism, claims to speak for all Jews and, although its ideology is basically secular, it wraps itself in the shawl of Judaism for all the sentimentalism it is worth. Indeed, and sadly, Cameron's identifying of Britain's pro-Israel, warmongering Conservative Party with the Torah is deeply offensive to many who regard themselves as Torah-true adherents of Judaism and who oppose Zionism.

Which raises another important point. Cameron and other supporters of Israel refer, without distinction, to 'Jews' when speaking in support of Israel. They identify Israel as the 'Jewish' state and attack Israel's critics for what they call their 'anti-Semitism'. Therefore it would seem that critics of Israel who similarly use the term 'Jews' in an all-embracing manner could well find themselves falling into Zionism's propaganda trap – think Jew, think Israel, as Israeli hasbara would have it! Never mind that the majority of Jews choose not to live in Israel and many Jews, both religious and secular, do not support Zionism. The language employed by Israel's supporters implicates all Jews in Zionism's acts of ethnic cleansing. The fact that some prominent members of the Jewish community support Zionism does not make Israel's war crimes 'Jewish'. A Zionist is a Zionist, regardless of background.

During a British Parliamentary debate on 8 July 2013, concerning the teaching of the Holocaust in the National History curriculum, Liberal Democrat MP Sir Bob Russell asked Education Secretary Michael Gove, “On the assumption that the 20th century will include the Holocaust, will he give me an assurance that the life of Palestinians since 1948 will be given equal attention?” Outraged, Jerusalem Chronicle Online reporter, Marcus Dysch, wrote on 12 July 2013 (http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/109384/shoah-slur-mp-commons), “A Liberal Democrat MP has been criticised after he appeared to equate the Holocaust with events in the Middle East.” And Karen Pollock, Holocaust Educational Trust chief executive, said that “To try to equate the events of the Holocaust — the systemised mass murder of six million Jews with the conflict in the Middle East is simply inaccurate as well as inappropriate.” So for Marcus Dysch, the massacre of Deir Yassin, the theft of desperately needed Palestinian water and other war crimes are merely “events in the Middle East” and Karen Pollock dismisses these inhumanities as “the conflict in the Middle East”.

'Events' and 'conflict' are terms routinely used by Israel's supporters and the mass news media to gloss over the daily human rights abuses carried out by Israel against a helplessly captive population. The horrific Nazi holocaust is a fact of history but at least it is over. Ideologically-driven human rights abuses, however, continue to this day; it is as if nothing had been learned. The ethnic discrimination suffered by Palestinians is happening right now and it should be accorded due and urgent recognition. The fact that it isn't is due to the disproportionate power of the Zionist lobby that enables the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention to be set aside.

The evil presence of Zionism spreads beyond ethnic and cultural divisions and is actually about great-power politics, imperialism and economic dominance. “Not in my name” say Jewish Voice for Peace and many other Jewish organisations and individuals. Regardless of faith or ethnicity, the true test of morality is behaviour. Zionism in practice is cruel and inhuman and the daily suffering of the belligerently-occupied Palestinian people is undeniable witness to that horrible reality. It must be brought to an end now and international law provides the means. All that is required is the will.

ENDS

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