The extreme politicisation of Holocaust Memorial Day by Zionist organisations in the UK needs to be exposed, and where those organisations are charities action taken by the sector regulator, argues Arzu Merali.
What is going on with Karen Pollock and the Holocaust Education Trust? I ask because all week there has been a drip feed of condemnatory comments from Pollock on behalf of / and or HET, in first the Jewish press in the UK and then some of the right-wing papers, criticising; firstly Islamic Human Rights Commission for calling on Holocaust memorial ceremonies[1] to include the genocide in Palestine in their commemorations (and suggesting there be a boycott of those ceremonies which refuse); secondly the Convivencia alliance of Muslim, Christian and Jewish organisations for their letter to King Charles, who is a patron of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, advocating much the same.
The gist of the criticism has been that the Holocaust in unique and comparing it with other genocides is highly disrespectful; further that comparing to the genocide of Palestinians in the current time is a form of antisemitism. There are many reasons to dispute the accusations, and these have been printed elsewhere; I am just going to focus on Pollock and HET’s previous actions and words, because they are responsible for a volte face on this that undermines their credibility and the trust and confidence from the public that they should hold, as a charity registered in the UK.
In 2008, the tenth annual HET trip to Auschwitz took place, with the erstwhile Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, then Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, 14 other representatives of the UK’s main religious communities: Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Bahais and Zoroastrians; various current and former MPs, including former Conservative Party leader Michael Howard, as well as 180 teenagers and teachers. Among the Muslim representatives was Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, who was interviewed for a feature on the event by The Jewish Chronicle (who have been chief amongst IHRC’s accusers this last two weeks), who was quoted as saying that:
What troubles me is the fact that a vast majority of people murdered here were Jewish, yet we find in the Holy land, in Palestine and in the occupied Territories, it is the Jewish people, the Israeli army and the Israelis, who are mistreating fellow human beings in an unacceptable manner, ghettoising, discriminating, demonising, isolating.
Not only did The Jewish Chronicle report this without any complaint or criticism, there was none forthcoming from any other participant, not then and not it seems in the intervening 17 years. Further Pollock herself, then and now the CEO of Holocaust Education Trust said:
We are pleased that the archbishop and the chief rabbi, together with representatives from the UK’s major faiths, joined us on this visit to demonstrate the importance of Holocaust remembrance and of joining together to stand up against discrimination in whatever form it may materialize.
This comment was further strengthened by the Chief Rabbi’s on the same topic:
However painful it is, we must learn what happened, that it may never happen again to anyone, whatever their color, culture or creed. We cannot change the past, but by remembering the past, we can change the future.
So, neither she (on behalf of HET) or the then Chief Rabbi believe that Holocaust remembrance must be divorced from the remembrance of other (including current) events, let alone genocides, or their relevance being to current events. Here is Pollock again:
The project is an integral part of the HET’s work, as it gives participants the opportunity to develop a greater understanding of the dangers and potential effects of prejudice and racism today.
All of the above bring into question HET’s credibility. Why are they speaking in total opposition to their previous points and actions? It is no small matter that genocide in Palestine was spoken about ‘along the railway tracks’ at Auschwitz with HET’s (and the Chief Rabbi and The Jewish Chronicle’s) full support, and yet HET now states that the commemoration of a well-documented ongoing genocide is somehow ‘tasteless’ and ‘cynical’ (Pollock’s words in The Telegraph) or that the genocide and crimes against humanity in Palestine now are ‘unrelated current events’.
It seems clear that The Charity Commission of England and Wales need to investigate why it is that HET are so cynically targeting IHRC and Convivencia? Is it racism, is it political intervention in support of Israeli crimes against humanity and genocide? Whatever it is, it has made HET and Pollock’s positions untenable.
Arzu Merali is a writer and researcher based in London, UK.
[1] 26th January was Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK.
