Posted on 01/12/2025 12:39:29 PM PST by Words Matter
Councils and universities urged to boycott Holocaust Memorial Day by Iran-linked group. The Telegraph, Jan 11, 2025.
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Fury over plot to boycott Holocaust Memorial Day in Gaza row - 'disgraceful!'.
As the world gears up to remember the Holocaust, a contentious campaign urging a boycott of the memorial day has stirred deep emotions and heated debates.
By Giles Sheldrick, Jan 12, 2025.
A campaign to boycott Holocaust Memorial Day has sparked fury from those preparing to mark the landmark anniversary.Link
It is understood the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) which has links to Iran has written to 460 councils and universities demanding them to snub official commemorations set to be held a fortnight today...On January 27 millions around the world will commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi regime’s notorious death camp, where 1.1 million perished, including 960,000 Jews, 74,000 non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Roma people, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war and up to 15,000 other Europeans.
Prisoners who were not exterminated in gas chambers died of starvation, exhaustion, disease, or were individually executed, beaten to death or killed during medical experiments, as part of what the Third Reich called the Final Solution. The camp was liberated by the Soviet Red Army.
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said the IHRC's call for a boycott was "shocking and disgraceful".
Some 1.1 million prisoners perished inside the Nazi regime’s notorious death camp.
She said: “This is a cynical attempt to denigrate and undermine the memory of the Holocaust by drawing false parallels between the Holocaust, a unique and unprecedented episode in history, and unrelated current events," she said.
"Such demands, including calls to make the day 'more inclusive' or to insert contemporary political agendas, not only insult the memory of the six million Jewish men, women, and children who were systematically murdered, but also undermine the fundamental purpose of Holocaust Memorial Day. It is vital that commemorations maintain their focus on the Holocaust, that Jewish victims are properly honoured, and that the central role of anti-Semitism in this genocide is unequivocally recognised."
The IHRC bills itself as a campaign, research and advocacy non-profit group which "struggles for justice for all peoples".
It was established in 1997 and enjoys special consultative status with the economic and social council of the United Nations.
But it was criticised in an independent review of the Prevent counter-terror strategy by Sir William Shawcross, who described it as an "Islamist group ideologically aligned with the Iranian regime, that has a history of extremist links and terrorist sympathies".
It is currently campaigning to “boycott genocide”, saying on its website: “We must act now, to do whatever we can to oppose this genocide. One of the easiest things to do is to boycott those that support genocide. There are many companies that support Israel and deserve to be boycotted.”
This year’s global commemorations come amid a spike in anti-Semetic hate crimes following the Hamas murder spree in Israel on October 7, 2023, the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. More than 1,200 were killed during the incursion, triggering shockwaves around the world which in turn sparked frequent and open attacks on Jews in cities including London.
In the first six months of last year the Community Security Trust, a Jewish charity, recorded 1,978 antisemitic hate incidents - more than double those in the first half of 2023.
The rise was attributed to the fallout from the massacre.
Some 1,037 of the self-reported incidents were in London, including 411 in Barnet, where Britain’s biggest Jewish community calls home.
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IHRC’s Holocaust Boycott: A Threat to Democracy.
Catherine Perez-Shakdam, Jan 12, 2025, 4:35 PM
Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is not simply a commemorative occasion; it is an essential confrontation with history, a stark and unflinching reminder of the human capacity for evil and the urgent necessity of vigilance. This year’s event, marking 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, should unite us in solemnity. Instead, the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has chosen to desecrate this observance with its call for a boycott.LinkThe IHRC claims Gaza’s omission ... invalidates HMD’s commemorations. Such a statement is not only historically illiterate but also grotesquely manipulative. The Holocaust was an unparalleled atrocity, a meticulously orchestrated campaign of extermination that consumed six million Jews and millions of others in the maw of industrialized genocide. To equate this with contemporary conflicts is a craven attempt to dilute the moral clarity of Holocaust remembrance.
Karen Pollock of the Holocaust Educational Trust has rightly called this boycott “shocking and disgraceful,” a brazen effort to subvert the memory of Holocaust victims with tawdry political manoeuvring. To yield to such demands is to trivialize the Holocaust, to render its lessons mute, and to risk forgetting the singular horror it represents.
The IHRC’s posturing as a moral arbiter is laughable, given its own sordid record. This organization operates as little more than an outpost for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) within Britain. A 2023 independent review of the Prevent counter-terrorism strategy laid bare its extremist affiliations, describing it as ideologically aligned with the Iranian regime, a state synonymous with institutionalized antisemitism and terrorism.
Massoud Shadjareh, the IHRC’s chair, has openly praised Qassim Soleimani, the IRGC commander whose legacy is one of death and destabilization. Shadjareh’s eulogy, wishing for “many, many more Qassim Soleimanis,” is as revealing as it is reprehensible. Meanwhile, the IHRC’s annual Al Quds Day rallies—complete with Hezbollah flags fluttering defiantly in London’s streets—lay bare its alignment with entities dedicated to erasing Israel from the map.
Financially, the IHRC’s lifeblood is provided by its charitable arm, the IHRC Trust. This is not merely questionable; it is a scandal. That charitable status can be used to funnel resources into an organization that promotes such divisive and extremist agendas demands urgent action. The Charity Commission’s ongoing investigation must be thorough, and the UK government must initiate a wider inquiry into the IHRC’s operations, recognizing it for what it truly is: a proxy of the IRGC and a clear threat to British values.The IHRC’s actions are not a matter of mere disagreement; they represent a direct assault on the principles of liberal democracy. Its narrative, draped in the guise of justice, is nothing more than a Trojan horse for the corrosive ideology of the Iranian regime. This is not simply an affront to Jewish communities; it is an affront to all who value pluralism, human rights, and the inviolability of historical truth.
State officials must cease their complacency. By failing to confront the IHRC’s activities, they enable the proliferation of extremist narratives that threaten to fracture Britain’s social fabric. A robust, transparent, and public inquiry into the IHRC is not just necessary; it is overdue.
Holocaust Memorial Day must remain an unassailable bastion against the tides of historical revisionism and hatred. It is a day that calls us to confront the consequences of prejudice and to reaffirm our commitment to a world where such horrors are never repeated. The IHRC’s call for a boycott must be met not with appeasement but with renewed determination to ensure HMD’s enduring relevance.
Local councils, universities, and civic leaders must rebuff this boycott with resolute participation in Holocaust Memorial Day events. The message must be clear: the lessons of the Holocaust are non-negotiable, and its memory is sacrosanct.
The IHRC’s boycott is not merely an insult to history; it is a calculated move to sow division and advance an agenda antithetical to the values of any free society. Britain must resist this with every fibre of its being. By safeguarding Holocaust remembrance, we honor the past, protect the present, and commit to a future where such atrocities are never allowed to happen again. Let us defend the sanctity of Holocaust Memorial Day and reaffirm, unequivocally, that “Never Again” is a promise we intend to keep.
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Related:
Pro-Hamas Islamists Celebrate, and Gather in London, in the Wake of Israel Slaughter. October 7, 2023. Sam Westrop. Focus on Western Islamism. Oct 7, 2023.
Islamic Human Rights Commission headquarters in London (Google Maps) Just a day after Iran-backed Hamas terrorists slaughtered and kidnapped Israeli civilians, leaving a trail of bodies across Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, Iranian Islamists in the United Kingdom are organizing an event, at a venue in London controlled by a British Hamas network, featuring pro-Hamas voices, including a prominent American Islamist leader.
On October 8, the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) is hosting a talk on “Justice, Peace and Reconciliation in Palestine.”
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50 peers accuse the IHRC charity of ‘primitive and dangerous antisemitism’. 9 Aug 2024.
Link
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The Jewish Chronicle. Islamic Human Rights Commission blames ‘Zionist financiers’ for UK riots. 7 Aug. 2024.
Link
January 20 would make more sense than January 27. Auschwitz was a big one, but there were others (6 death camps, 23 major camps, and about 1500 total concentration camps.)
January 20 is the anniversary of Wannssee and would honor all the dead, not just the ones that were killed at a single location.
Looking at some numbers, while more died at Auschwitz, it also had more survivors. So while ~1,100,000 died at Auschwitz and only 925,000 at Treblinka, Auschwitz had about 200,000 survivors and Treblinka less than 100 total.
I thought that was the Bee. There's a proper response for what passes for Islamic 'human rights':
Sadly, islamonazism is real.
Apologies as this is a subject that overwhelms my reason with the thirst for righteous justice. When 9-11-2001 occurred I was working for a brokerage firm in a downtown Nashville high rise where almost everyone there knew someone who perished. For weeks people watched every aircraft that came by wondering if that would be the last one they’d see.
And some ass-hat had the nerve to talk about a “religion of peace”. No sale.
LOL - there goes my ambassadorship to any Arabic country.
The tallest building in Dallas (NationsBank tower) evacuated pretty quickly. It was pretty close to the approach for one of the Dallas airports. I was in a midrise (20 some stories)the other side of downtown. They finally decided none of us were going to get any work home, and they sent us home mid-morning.
..and I remember :
Hate on 9/11: Footage of Palestinians Celebrating the Attacks Aired on CNN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04_qfj8921I
https://www.instagram.com/standwithus/reel/C_yh8n8KZWK/?hl=en
This footage was shown on CNN, MSNBC and FOX News.
In this time when the media should be informing people of the truth they push these lies that mush headed college kids use as fuel for their anti-Semitism trend.
And these news organizations bemoan the fact that the public's trust in them keeps reaching new lows. Aw; poor babies.
Indeed
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