What
happened to European Jews and other minorities and races in WWII, was
absolutely shocking. Mass murder on an industrial scale by the Nazis.
But
it's not uncommon today to see graffiti written on walls in Israel and the
occupied Palestinian territories, which says, "Gas the Arabs". The Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant,
has described the Palestinians and Hamas as "Human Animals." Where have we heard that kind of language
before?
I
remember parts of the speech that Sir Gerald Kaufman, the Labour MP for
Manchester, Gorton, made in the House of Commons in January 2009. He
congratulated David Miliband on steering resolution 1860 through the United
Nations Security Council and asked him what the international reaction would be
if Hamas had slaughtered nearly 900 Israelis and subjected nearly 1.5 million
Israelis to degradation and deprivation? He added:
"Is it not an incontrovertible fact that
Olmert, Livni and Barak are mass-murderers and war criminals - Yes. And they
bring shame on the Jewish people..."
Kaufman
told the House of Commons that his grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis
came to her home town of Staszow. A German soldier shot her dead in her bed. He
added:
"My grandmother did not die to provide cover
for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza. The current
Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploit the continuing guilt among
gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their
murder of Palestinians. The implication is that Jewish lives are precious, but
the lives of Palestinians do not count."
What
would Gerald Kaufman make of the destruction of Gaza today? Some 30,000
Palestinians killed by the Israeli Defence Forces, two-thirds of them, innocent
Palestinian women and children.
Today,
most MPs would be far too afraid to make a speech like that made by Gerald
Kaufman (a Jew), who would now be denounced as a self-loathing Jew and an
anti-Semite.
The South African government have accused the Israelis 0f "genocidal intent" and have have asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ), for an interim measure to prevent Israel from committing acts of potential genocide by calling for a halt to combat operations. The have also asked the ICJ to issue an arrest warrant for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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3 comments:
I have been wishing that there was a strong Jewish voice on the continuing violence and Gerald would be exasperated if he were around today.
My wife and I were at an African event in Gerald's constituency a few years ago, shortly before his death. He came late, but said he tried never to miss any community led events in the constituency.
His excuse was that he had come straight from the airport having been at a meeting supporting Palestinians in Copenhagen! This spritely 90+ year old then took to the dance floor to the applause of the audience.
Where are today's MPs with moral integrity?
Yes you are right about Netanyahu , and it works the other way too ; Palestine would rather attack than talk . That`s why it will never end .
Just read your post on Israel/ Palestine and Gerald Kauffman . I appreciate the thought behind it but it does overlook the fact that on this particular occasion Palestine , or Hamas , was the aggressor . As I`ve said before there will be no winner in this conflict . A two state proposition has not worked . A single state concept would not be a practical solution either , so what you have is a condition of perpetual tension and conflict with thousands of casualties , most of them innocents .
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