UK decides not to replace Holocaust Day

[Erikl]

UK decides not to replace Holocaust Day

By MATTHEW WAGNER

British Prime Minister Tony Blair notified Monday that he would not adopt the proposal to change the British Holocaust Memorial Day to a British Genocide Day, which would serve as a memorial to Muslim deaths as well as Holocaust victims.

Radical Muslims were uncomfortable with the Holocaust because of the infamous role played by some of their leaders during World War II, said former Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Israel Meir Lau on Monday in response to proposals to do away with Holocaust Memorial Day in Britain because Muslims find it offensive.

"The so called 'religious' leader Haj Amin el Husseini, Mufti of Jerusalem, went out of his way to come all the way to Berlin to encourage Hitler to kill Jews. He did everything in his power to help the Nazis in their diabolical plot."

"So I do not buy it when Palestinians argue that they were victims of the Holocaust because it led to the establishment of the state of Israel."

"Before there was ever a state of Israel there was rabid anti-Semitism among radical Muslims."

"I call on Tony Blair, who was the man who is responsible for creating Holocaust Memorial Day back in 2001, not to bow down to pressures made by these radical Muslims," said Lau, himself a survivor of Buchanwald. "He should be faithful to his own convictions."

According to British media reports, advisers to Prime Minister Blair proposed that Holocaust Memorial Day be replaced with 'Genocide Day'. The new memorial day would commemorate Muslim deaths in the West Bank and Gaza, Chechnya and Bosnia, in addition to Holocaust victims.

The recommendations, which were finalized were to be submitted to Blair on September 22, were prepared by four committees that Blair appointed after the recent London bombings in an effort to combat extremism.

Britain's Sunday Times quoted one committee member as saying, "The very name Holocaust Memorial Day sounds too exclusive to many young Muslims. It sends out the wrong signals: that the lives of one people are to be remembered more than others. It's a grievance that extremists are able to exploit."

Ibrahim Hewitt, chairman of the charity Interpal was quoted as saying, "There are 500 Palestinian towns and villages that have been wiped out over the years. That's pretty genocidal to me."

Lau said that Blair had the opportunity as Prime Minister to right historical wrongs made by previous British statesmen.

"Churchill was a great man, but he did not help the Jews as much as he could have during the Holocaust. He could have bombed the train tracks from Budapest to Auschwitz and save 50,000 lives a day."

"You, Tony Blair, are in Churchill's place now. Do not give credibility to Holocaust denial. Lau has said in the past that he sees no future for European Jewry, due in part to the rising tide of Islamic anti-Jewish sentiment."

In January, the Muslim Council of Britain, representing about 350 different Muslim organizations, boycotted the commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz claiming it was racially inclusive and did not honor the victims of Palestinian conflict. The council insisted that the Palestinian 'holocaust' be included as well.

SOURCE

Ibrahim Hewitt, chairman of the charity Interpal was quoted as saying, "There are 500 Palestinian towns and villages that have been wiped out over the years. That's pretty genocidal to me."

And this sounds, not surprisingly, demagogouic to me. "wiped out" isn't the same as "destroyed with all their inhabitants".

500 Palestinian villages have been left by the Palestinians themselves, after their leader Haj Amin Al-Husseini told them to do so in 1948, so that the Arab armies would "finish the job" in destroying young Israel with minimum Palestinian casualties.

[StalingradK]

That's not right, if they want their own memorial, build one. But really... being offended by the Holocaust one? What the hell