Well done, Tal Ofer! After I reported on Thursday that during Wednesday’s parliamentary debate on Gaza Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi had compared the situation of the Palestinians in Gaza to that of Jews living in Nazi Germany Labour Party activist Ofer immediately reported her remarks to Labour’s HQ and brought it to the attention of the media generally.
Qureshi had said:
“What has struck me in all this is that the state of Israel was founded because of what happened to the millions and millions of Jews who suffered genocide. Their properties, homes and land—everything—were taken away, and they were deprived of rights. Of course, many millions perished. It is quite strange that some of the people who are running the state of Israel seem to be quite complacent and happy to allow the same to happen in Gaza.”
You cannot get more offensive to the few remaining Holocaust survivors and to those who lost loved ones in Auschwitz, Belsen etc.
Gaza is no Belsen. And the suffering in Gaza is at the behest of Islamist-terror organisation Hamas which is happy to oppress its own people so that useful idiots in the West will blame Israel.
The response to Qureshi’s remarks from the Labour Party itself was an utter disgrace:
“These remarks were taken completely out of context. Yasmin Qureshi was not equating events in Gaza with the Holocaust. As an MP who has visited Auschwitz and has campaigned all her life against racism and anti-Semitism she would not do so.”
However, soon after, Qureshi must have had a pang of conscience and came out with this apology:
“The debate was about the plight of the Palestinian people and in no way did I mean to equate events in Gaza with the Holocaust. I apologise for any offence caused. I am also personally hurt if people thought I meant this. As someone who has visited the crematoria and gas chambers of Auschwitz I know the Holocaust was the most brutal act of genocide of the 20th Century and no-one should seek to underestimate its impact.”
So Qureshi is “personally hurt”? Poor her. Not as “personally hurt” as those who were in Auschwitz or Belsen etc or lost family there.
But let’s all feel sorry for Qureshi instead!
It is also pretty frustrating that Labour List’s Mark Ferguson thinks “Qureshi’s apology should draw a line under this, and rightly so. If there was no intention to cause offence or equate events in Gaza with the Holocaust I am happy to accept that.”
How can there have been “no intention”? Her words are 100% clear. There is no nuance!
And then what does Ferguson think of Gerald Kaufman MP’s words about Israelis?:
“Go to Tel Aviv, as I did not long ago, and watch them sitting complacently outside their pavement cafés. They do not give a damn about their fellow human beings perhaps half an hour away.”
The remainder of Qureshi’s speech was also disgraceful, especially the way she frames Jews solely by religion. She said, referring indirectly to Kaufman:
“I want to praise the people in Israel and the Jewish people in this country who campaign actively for the rights of Palestinians. Like my right hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Gorton, I am sure that they are criticised by other Jewish people perhaps for trying to betray the state of Israel”.
But the likes of Kaufman are criticised not just by “Jewish people” but people of all religions and none. It is this division of Jews into “good Jew/bad Jew” that is almost tantamount to inciting racial hatred.
Meanwhile, these Holocaust comparisons are slowly, slowly becoming the norm.
American Professor Joel Beinin told a student audience at SOAS recently that Israel is putting the Bedouin into “concentration camps” and at a recent War On Want talk at SOAS students were told that the Palestinians are living in “apartheid ghettos”.
Thanks to the rhetoric of Beinin, Qureshi, War On Want and others Israeli Jews (and, by extension, any Jew that supports Israel) are slowly becoming thought of as Nazis.
RichardMillett's Blog 
So the Holocaust was the most brutal act of genocide “of the 20th century”. What were all the other, more brutal, genocides of previous centuries and our present one?
fcallen – What makes the Holocaust unique is the fact that, unlike other genocides, it was carefully thought out, planned and premeditated. Nor was this the first attempt to wipe out (specifically) the Jewish people (being preceded, for example, by Pharaoh and Haman). You claim other genocides were MORE brutal? Kindly clarify – which genocides and WHY were they MORE brutal, in your opinion?
… all you have to do is remember the accountants who sat in the RSHA and controlled that the Reichsbahn’s invoices of 4 Pfennig per km per person were correct. I don’t think that there is another genocide that can match that image.
But maybe it strikes only people who have at least for a time earned money by controlling invoices. It is a work that requires high accuracy and dependability while at the same time leaving enough brain power available for flights of the imagination.
i.e. even that hitherto never highlighted group of people must have known exactly what they were working with or at.
Hello. I was not claiming that there were other more brutal genocides, I was taking issue with the statement that the Shoah was the most brutal genocide of the 20th century ALONE. Has there EVER been another genocide in recorded history that approached the sheer scale and inhumanity of the Holocaust? I don’t think so. And surely the nearest in scale all occurred in the 20th century anway.
fcallen – Sorry, my mistake. I misunderstood your intent.
No problem, I should have been clearer.
The Times ran an article yesterday from Jerusalem, concerning the plight of Iraqi women in prisons. Stories of physical abuse (including rape) were revealed,but the article did not say were, and in which country this was happening. Readers could be forgiven if they thought this was in Israel.Ihave written a personal letter to the editor. Brian Lux
======================================== Message Received: Feb 08 2014, 12:25 PM
Thank you Richard for publicising this. Sadly despite my attempts I couldn’t get publicity at the time in 2005 or any action against a teacher who was teaching 16 year olds that the Israeli’s were behaving like the Nazi’s behaved to them in Germany. See account of my efforts and what happened at http://netanyalynette.blogspot.co.il/2012/09/action-to-ban-teachers-incitement.html
Tarek Fatah is being supportive against this disgusting woman. On Twitter @TarekFatah.
Lynette, what an appalling experience. It makes me wonder why French Jews are coming here which is something I read today. And it shows what outstandingly great work Richard is doing and how essential it is.
This is unfortunately what we now have to expect from the majority of Labour MPs and members. Their stance on Israel is one of many reasons I am very seriously considering leaving the Party.
As usual, the “apologies” are ambiguous. She’ll try again soon.
(1)
According to the CIA world data,
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html
Gaza life expectancy for 2013 is at the 111th place
(74.40) out of 223 locations.
So if the situation is Gaza is comparable to the Holocaust
I wonder what the honorable MP has to say about the situation in Brazil
(127th place, 73.02) or about the Scottish MP who claimed that LE is some parts of Glasgow are worse then LE in Gaza.
(2) As a person who sit from time to time in coffee shops in Israel,
which are well inside range of rockets based in Gaza, and have some knowledge about the goals of the Hamas, let me state that I car for the Gazans as much as the average Englishman cared for the Germans between 1939 to 1945.
(3)Last time I checked , Gaza has a border with Egypt. Do the MPS have
something to say to the Egyptians? Do they know why the Egyptians
blocked the border with Gaza?Is it something the Egyptians know
and the MPs are afraid to ask?
The Scottish MP was understating the case as the overall life expectancy for Glasgow is 71.6 years, which is significantly lower than that of the Gaza strip.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_effect#Mortality_rates
I would imagine that our cousins would have an even higher LE if they learned to drive, stopped firing their guns in random directions at family celebrations and refrained altogether from the unhealthy practice of turning their kids into little Shahids – virgins or no virgins.
As I have indicated, I think that Yasmin Qureshi’s apology should be taken for what it’s worth and she should be commended for having the intellectual honesty to admit to her mistake.
Furthermore, from a purely practical point of view, if every time an opponent apologizes (sorry about the z “Leah”), we get all narky and start remembering all his or her other mistakes, they won’t want to do so anymore.
Who was the Zionist that said, “In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity”?
Dear Danial,
Me comments were not directed just at YQ.
However, checking her record shows that she is what is called in the Talmud “שור מועד” or in today’s
language she got enough warnings and yellow cards to be sent off for good, and every apology will be followed by another
apology with a nasty foul in between.
Bottom line: We’ll have this discussion again, sooner then later.Trust her.
Exactly.
I understand your point Yenta, though as a studet of the Talmud I’m sure you know that rule does not apply to human beings.
In my humble opinion there is more to be gained from savoring an, albeit minor, victory than sulking.
No less importantly,, if by embracing the “repentant”, you tarnish her street cred, is that not a net gain? You may have noticed that the Islamic jihad of Jenin see the PA as worse than us. Ask yourself why.
But what do I know?
Hi Yenta,
You’re right about oxen, but I’m sure you know that the principle you refer to does not apply to people:
“אָדָם מוּעָד לְעוֹלָם – בֵּין בְּשׁוֹגֵג בֵּין בְּמֵזִיד, בֵּין בְּאֹנֶס בֵּין בְּרָצוֹן.” (סנהדריו ע”ב)
Look, I’m really out of touch with UK reality and I may have it all wrong. However, it seems to me that you’ll do the lady and her street cred more harm by hugging her and praising her as a true repentant than by sulking.
If the Islamic Jihad in Jenin are pointing their guns at the PA and declaring them to be traitors, it’s because Israeli spokesmen have begun to differentiate between “good” and “bad” Palestinian leaders and there’s nothing worse than being a good one. Are you getting my point?
By the way, my name is spelt with one “a” and one “e”, The name Daniel is not uncommon.
Probably Abba Eban, given his previous life.
But you’ll probably find some way of being rude to me, if I got that wrong, and ignore your own rule/suggestion.
“To err is human, to forgive is divine”.
Not what you said to me.
A little cryptic Bri.
If you find that cryptic Da, then reread your comment to me when I misread a comment somewhere below. You were scabrous.
The one thing you should never do on blogs like these is attack your allies.
If you do, when you get hit, they will leave you swinging gently (or not so gently) in the breeze.
Get it now?
I honestly have not a clue about what you are talking, and suspect that I may not be alone. You want me to reread what you misread because you are my ally!?
Could anyone explain to me what this ally of mine is on about?
That you can’t remember says more about you than me. That is, you post a hostile comment and promptly forget that you’ve done so, especially as it was only about a week or so ago. Perhaps you’re doing too much and need to take a break?
Yes. You’re right. It says a lot about me. Good point. I still haven’t the vaguest notion what you’re going on about.
Could someone else explain? There must be somebody else who understands this geezer, surely!?
Shimona, I read fcallen’s comment as meaning exactly the opposite.
When Yasmin qereshi says she is hurt if people believed what she said is a classic. Why say it then?
Qureshi said ” allow the same thing to happen in Gaza”. Why is it that the Labour Party is unable to understand English? I know that it is a difficult language but some of its MPs have been to university. But perhaps that is the problem? Nothing means anything nowadays.
Their problems begin with the word “same”.
Of course this woman is “personally hurt” – it’s the default value for any supported of Muslim violence or antisemitism who has been found out, and an attempt to turn herself into the victim. Typical, in fact:
““He strikes me & weeps & then he runs before me weeping & saying that I struck him” –ضربني وبكى وسبقني واشتكى
Almost as insulting is that she expects us to believe that she didn’t mean it.
It’s a standard Islamic ploy adopted by their cheer leaders . Only apologise if found out .
In Fathom 5 Lesley Klaff explains the phenomenon of Holocaust Inversion. Read more here: http://www.fathomjournal.org/policy-politics/holocaust-inversion/