A council has said it is even more determined to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, after rejecting an attempt by the British-based Islamic Human Rights Commission to persuade councils and universities to boycott the event in January.
Earlier this week the chair of the IHRC, Massoud Shadjareh, sent out a statement saying he had written to 460 councils and universities across the UK, after having unsuccessfully lobbied the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) to include Gaza in its list of places where genocide had taken place.
Massoud Shadjareh chair of the IHRC
Shadjareh said: “In view of the overwhelming evidence pointing to the crime of genocide being perpetrated in Gaza it is imperative that if HMD is to retain any credibility as a commemoration, it must be universal in scope and inclusive and recognise the genocide currently unfolding in Gaza. It is also imperative that if we are to remain faithful to the aim of stopping current and preventing future genocides that we include the genocide that is unfolding in our time.
“Our request to the HMD Trust to include Gaza has been met with silence. We feel this is morally unacceptable”.
As a result, he said, “the failure of the HMD Trust to respect such an axiomatic principle speaks to the racial exclusivism that has come to characterise the official commemoration. For these reasons, we would request that you boycott the official HMD Trust commem-oration and replace it with alternatives that recognise the horrific genocide taking place in front of our very eyes”.
But he was given short shrift by Councillor Jeremy Newmark, leader of Hertsmere Borough Council. He said he found the request “appalling, objectionable and racist. This thinly veiled attempt to redefine Holocaust Memorial Day as a vehicle to attack the state of Israel will receive no traction in this borough whilst I am Leader of the Council”.
He added: “In fact, your email has convinced me that here in Hertsmere, our council should increase the amount of resource and effort that we put into marking National Holocaust Memorial Day in the context of the official HMDT guidelines and protocols.
“Our borough was one of the first in the country to institute an official programme of events to mark Holocaust Memorial Day in partnership with HMDT. Our events have always involved representatives of all our major faith communities. This year, once again in Hertsmere, we will unite and pause to remember the millions of people who have been murdered or whose lives have been changed beyond recognition during the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution and in the subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur. We will also recommit to fighting all attempts to deny the Holocaust or attempts, such as your own, to relativise man’s greatest ever inhumanity to man by conflating it with Israel’s war against terror”.
In its own statement, HMDT told Jewish News: “It’s deeply disturbing that a call is being made to boycott Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD), an event that is for people from all faiths and backgrounds. The Holocaust is rightly at the centre of HMD —following centuries of antisemitism, the Holocaust was the deliberate mass-murder of six million Jewish people and the attempted eradication of the Jewish people, faith and culture.
“Holocaust Memorial Day reminds us all of the devastating consequences of all forms of identity-based persecution and where hate and division can lead. On HMD we also commemorate the more recent genocides recognised by the UK government, including in Bosnia 30 years ago. Now more than ever, in a world increasingly polarised, the lessons of the Holocaust are essential. This day is a moment for reflection, education, and unity — values that should transcend any attempt to divide, especially on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.’
Mike Freer, the former MP for Finchley and Golders Green, is also a former trustee of HMD. He said: “This is a ridiculous move on the part of the Islamic Human Rights Commission. The Holocaust memorial event is rooted in the Nazi genocide. To try to shoehorn other issues is both distasteful and disgraceful. To try to politicise HMD is shameful, it is a hijacking of the event and is completely the wrong tactic”.
