British MP Decries Comparison of Israel to Nazi Germany

A senior member of the British Parliament forcefully condemned the boycott movement against Israel on Tuesday, declaring it a manifestation of pure anti-Semitism and comparing it to Nazi boycotts against Jews back in the 1930s.

Speaking at England’s Holocaust Education Trust, Former Education Secretary and current Conservative Party Chief Whip Michael Gove warned about what he called the ”resurgent, mutating, lethal virus of anti-Semitism.”

According to Arutz Sheva, Gove additionally stated that attempts by anti-Israel activists to compare Israel to Nazi Germany amounted to a form of Holocaust denial, noting the proliferation of signs at anti-Israel rallies such as  ”Stop Doing What Hitler Did To You” or “Gaza is a Concentration Camp.” Ironically, some of those same type of signs have often been held aloft at the same demonstrations where more openly anti-Semitic slogans – such as “Hitler Was Right” – were expressed. The latter was seen at pro-Palestinian rallies throughout Europe.

Gove asserted that any efforts to equate Israel’s actions with those committed by the Nazis are a “deliberate attempt to devalue the unique significance of the Holocaust, and so remove the stigma from anti-Semitism,” and he said they began a path of incitement toward more violent anti-Semitic acts. ”And even as this relativization, trivialization and perversion of the Holocaust goes on, so prejudice towards the Jewish people grows,” Gove insisted.

He went on to itemize a number of high-profile incidents in which anti-Israel actions morphed into outright anti-Semitism, including a London theater’s decision to ban the UK Jewish Film Festival, which community leaders condemned as an anti-Semitic move. ”The Tricycle theater attempts to turn away donations which support the Jewish Film Festival because the money is Israeli and therefore tainted,” Gove related.

“In our supermarkets our citizens mount boycotts of Israeli produce, some going so far as to ransack the shelves, scatter goods and render them unsaleable,” the MP added. “In some supermarkets the conflation of anti-Israeli agitation and straightforward antisemitism has resulted in kosher goods being withdrawn.”

Gove called for more people to speak out against anti-Semitism, saying there had been “insufficient indignation” on the issue in Europe. He cited violent actions and rhetoric against Jews in recent months in France, Germany and Belgium.

“We need to remind people that what began with a campaign against Jewish goods in the past ended with a campaign against Jewish lives,” Gove stressed. “We need to spell out that this sort of prejudice starts with the Jews but never ends with the Jews. We need to stand united against hate. Now more than ever.”