The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has decided to boycott the observance of Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD), held annually on 27 January to commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz. In an official statement, the MCB explains that it undertook this decision during a meeting of its Central Working Committee during which it emerged that '...there was no one in that meeting who was prepared to attend the HMD this year without making a visible protest about the genocide in Gaza.' (N/A online, obtained upon request to the MCB)
The
statement elaborates on this decision by explaining that '...the
MCB does not wish to minimise the tragedy of holocaust or demean or disturb its
annual memorial by attending and protesting about the genocide in Gaza and
therefore decided to abstain from the Holocaust Memorial Day this year,' but
contends that the MCB 'remains committed to its decision to participate in the
Holocaust Memorial Day,' presumably at some later date.
This is an unfortunate, though sadly not
unprecedented, decision-- a decision which can only exacerbate distrust and
alienation between communities. In 2007, the MCB was applauded by the
government for ending its six-year boycott of the HMD in 2007, and had appeared
to be signalling its commitment to dispelling accusations of anti-Semitism and,
perhaps, of combating anti-Semitism within the larger British Muslim community.
(See Hazel Blears' speech to Policy Exchange). By resurrecting their pre-2007 stance, the MCB
have at best shown poor judgement and moral fecklessness, and at worst indicate
that their decision to participate in the HMD was motivated less by conviction
than political expediency.
The notion that opposition to Israeli policy
abrogates the possibility of taking part in the HMD is inappropriate on a
number of levels. To begin with, the MCB's attempt to draw a historical
parallel between Israel's actions in Gaza and the premeditated, mechanized mass
murder of at least 5 million Jews (as well as thousands of Poles, Sinti and
Roma, homosexuals and other groups) lacks any sense of historical proportion or
accuracy. This is not to argue that the loss of life by thousands of
Palestinians throughout the past sixty years is unworthy of remembrance or
protest. But if the term 'genocide' is to retain its potency and moral purpose,
it must be reserved for cases in which populations are purposely targeted for
annihilation.
The HMD
is not an event sponsored by the Israeli government, nor has the Holocaust
Memorial Day Trust expressed any public stance regarding the Gaza
conflict. Why then should the MCB boycott what is essentially a secular
commemoration of all of the victims of Nazi mass murder? The logic of the MCB's
abstention implicitly suggests that it has identified the (largely Jewish)
victims of the Holocaust with the state of Israel, and thus that recognition of
these Jewish victims would be tantamount to approval of Israel. Surely an
organisation which has so often emphasized the distinction between anti-Zionism
and anti-Semitism should have avoided conflating Jewish individuals murdered
before the existence of Israel with the state of Israel itself. With this
boycott, the MCB have abandoned any regard for the capacity of making
distinctions, and have belied their stated commitment to inter-communal
understanding in the name of politics.
