During
a debate in England's Westminster Hall last Wednesday, a week after
International Holocaust Memorial Day, a Pakistani-born MP made the
surprising accusation that Israel is conducting a "holocaust"
against Arabs in Gaza. Labor Member of Parliament Yasmin Qureshi
claimed "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."
The
statement is of course blatantly inaccurate. Israel was founded not
"because of the Holocaust," but to re-establish Jewish
sovereignty in the Jewish nation's ancestral homeland, an irrefutable
historical connection that has been proven in countless
archaeological finds. The modern movement to re-settle the land began
in the mid-1800s, well before the Holocaust. "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," accused Qureshi.
Here
too Qureshi's claims defy the facts in comparing the systematic
genocidal extermination of 6 million Jews in Europe with the largely
Egyptian-run siege of Gaza following the terror attacks, conducted by
the Hamas government. Israel has continued to provide supplies, and
talked of increasing the amount of electricity being sent to Hamas,
even as the group threatened Israel with genocide and peppered the
country with missiles.
The
Labor party's response to the outrageous statements by one of its MPs
avoided the issue, claiming "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, apparently Qureshi found the flaw in her own logic, later
excusing her aspersions by saying "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 apologize for any offense
caused."
Qureshi
took the opportunity to try and portray herself as the victim, saying
"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." The
apology was apparently good enough for fellow Labor MP Mark Ferguson,
who said "Qureshi’s apology should draw a line under this, and
rightly so.
If there was no intention to cause offense or equate
events in Gaza with the Holocaust I am happy to accept that.” But
others were less convinced. Pro-Israel blogger Richard Millett
scoffed at Ferguson's response, asking "how can there have been
'no intention'? Her words are 100% clear. There is no nuance!"
This
is not Qureshi's first revelation of her antagonism towards the Jews.
In November 2012, during the IDF's counter-terror Operation Pillar of
Defense, she tweeted "Israeli [sic] is pounding gaza with
thousands of missiles which are lethal unlike Hamas home made few
rockets." The IDF reports that during the 8 day operation, Gaza
terror groups fired 1,506 rockets at Israel. 5 Israelis were killed
during the conflict, with an additional 240 wounded. Meanwhile the
IDF targeted 1,500 terror sites in surgical strikes, not a random
barrage of "thousands of missiles."
Source: Atutz
Sheva
My comments:
The Islamists will be relentless in their denunciation of Israel.
They will use any and every pretext to do so.
This will continue until the war of Ezekiel 38.
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