Mick Hartley

More on the desecration of Holocaust Memorial Day, from the JC:

The grandson of Holocaust survivors says he was “forced out” of Leicester’s Holocaust Memorial Day event after a speaker accused Israel of “genocide”.

Approximately ten Jews, including a local rabbi, walked out of the HMD commemoration after a speaker claimed Israel was committing a "genocide in Gaza."

During the city’s memorial event on Monday evening, titled “The Student Experience” and hosted by De Montfort University, a panel of high school students who had visited Auschwitz addressed the crowd.

One student delivered a speech addressing the Holocaust and the Bosnian genocide, and then brought up the war in Gaza.

Victor Kaufman, a grandson of Holocaust survivors, said the comments about Gaza were "deeply offensive" and has lodged a complaint with the local council, the event’s sponsors.

"She said that Israel is committing a genocide," Kaufman, an NHS accountant, said. "It was disturbing that she drew parallels between the Holocaust and what is happening in Gaza."

Some audience members reacted by heckling, shouting "rubbish" and "stop," before around ten people, including Kaufman and Rabbi Pink, walked out.

When the speech ended, the student received applause from those who remained, with at least one person giving a standing ovation, according to Kaufman.

Is this just a blip? – with the Gaza war and the general mis-reporting and the endless Free Palestine marches skewing the debate. Or is this a sign that we just can't do this any more? – that people would sooner forget, and return to those happy old days when they could just hate the Jews without having to feel guilty about it.