Jewish group slams British MP's Holocaust remark

The Simon Wiesenthal Center condemned British Parliamentarian Gerald Kaufman last week for telling his fellow lawmakers in the House of Commons that Israel is exploiting the guilt that non-Jews feel about the Holocaust in order to justify defensive operations in Gaza.

"The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploits the continuing guilt from Gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians," Kaufman, a governing Labour Party legislator, said Thursday during a House of Commons debate on Gaza.  

“Mr. Kaufman manages in one disgraceful screed to insult all victims of the Nazi Holocaust and the people of Israel, whose are guilty of finally protecting themselves from a terrorist group whose self-proclaimed goal is to fulfill Hitler's vision of a 'Judenrein' Holy Land,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center.

“Perhaps the only sin Israel is guilty of was turning the other cheek for over a half a year as Hamas openly pursued its murderous policy of rocketing Israel's Southern civilian communities from within civilian locations in Gaza – without so much as a word of protest from people like MP Kaufman,” Rabbi Cooper concluded.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.