John
Prescott was last night accused of being ‘deeply offensive’ to Jewish
people by comparing the Gaza Strip to a concentration camp.
The
leaders of Britain’s Jews criticised the comments by the former deputy
prime minister, saying they ‘trivialised’ the Holocaust and called on
Labour officials to investigate his ‘misconduct’.
Lord
Prescott wrote in the Sunday Mirror that Israel’s ‘indiscriminate’
bombardment of the Palestinian territory was a war crime and that Gaza
was a ‘ghetto’.
Some
six million Jews were killed by the Nazis during the Second World War,
many in concentration camps, while many more were confined to ghettos in
major cities such as Warsaw.
Writing
about Hamas, Lord Prescott said: ‘Israel brands them terrorists, but it
is acting as judge, jury and executioner in the concentration camp that
is Gaza.
‘What happened to the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis is appalling.
'But
you would think those atrocities would give Israelis a unique sense of
perspective and empathy with the victims of a ghetto.’
The
article provoked a stinging response from Vivian Wineman, president of
the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and Mick Davis, chairman of the
Jewish Leadership Council.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2711447/John-Prescott-accused-trivialising-Holocaust-comparing-Gaza-strip-concentration-camp.html
