CORBYN'S HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY

"Corbyn's a racist, he refuses to sign up to the Internationally (IHRA) agreed definition of antisemitism and he exploited "HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY" (HMD) for his own prejudiced political ends."

That is what we are told but my experience indicates otherwise...

by Chris Draper

HMD 2017

Last year I read on the official HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY TRUST website that a holocaust survivor was coming to give a talk in my town on Holocaust Memorial Day. My wife lost a lot of family members in the Holocaust and I was generally interested so we decided to attend. What we encountered was truly shocking - the event turned out to be little more than a political rally for the State of Israel. Politicians who'd just returned from sponsored visits told us how marvellous and democratic Israel is despite its troublesome neighbours (I have retained an audio recording). To celebrate Israel's success we were directed to stand and sing "Hatikva" (Israel's National Anthem).

I subsequently asked HMDT if it thought this was an acceptable event to advertise on its official site. To be be specific I sent the following email:

...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Sent: 30 January 2017 12:24
To: enquiries <enquiries@hmd.org.uk>
Subject: H M D

Dear Sir or Madam

Is it appropriate to direct a public audience to all sing "HATIKVAH" at what was described in publicity as , "An Official Commemoration of the Holocaust Memorial Day"?

I understand HATIKVAH was adopted as the official anthem of the Zionist Movement at their first Congress in 1897 and has subsequently been recognised as the State of Israel's National Anthem. 

To direct a public audience to literally sing the praises of the State of Israel appears to me to be outside the laudable aims of H M D and an entirely inappropriate divisive political act.

I anxiously invite your official response.

Christopher Draper

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I then received an unhelpful, non-committal response from "Joe Twilley - Communications Manager" Despite providing further extensive details of the event, including a written transcript of one of the politician's speeches and repeating my request for a clear response the last I heard from "Joe Twilley" was a January 2017 email saying he/she was out of the office but would reply when he/she returned - I'm still waiting!

Now HMDT is the organisation formally constituted to oversee HMD commemorations in Britain so I thought I should persevere. On 14 February 2017 I redirected my query to the Director of the Trust, Olivia Marks-Woldman. The next day I received an email from "HMD Trust" explaining that Ms Woldman was on leave "this week" but would "address my concerns on her return". 

Nine months later I'd still heard nothing further from either Ms Woldman or HMDT so on 6 November 2017 I emailed again repeating my question and asking if it might not be polite to reply.

Ms Woldman wasn't polite enough to reply. Although HMDT is supposedly a politically neutral charity it is demonstrably content to oversee and advertise events that demand uncritical support for Israel. HMDT is evidently happy to advertise events where guileless attendees are bombarded with pro-Israel propaganda and directed to sing Israel's National Anthem.

It seems there is indeed cynical political exploitation of HMD but the perpetrator has been wrongly identified.

Christopher Draper