January 2012 - Editorial: Paying lip service to the Holocaust
Published on Saturday, 28 January 2012 22:51 Written by Gerry Gable
Successive British Governments have done more than pay lip service to remembering the Holocaust, as well as the later genocides in Rwanda and the Balkans. Bodies such as the Holocaust Memorial Trust and Anne Frank Foundation have carried out tremendous work also in educating new generations of young people.
But government needs to go further than giving vocal and financial support to this important work; it also needs to legislate to curb the international activities of the thoroughly discredited far-right-orchestrated Holocaust denial industry.
Last month with the support of the Jewish Chronicle, Holocaust Memorial Trust, London Evening Standard, MPs, Members of the House of Lords, and academics such as Professor Colin Shindler from London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies, Searchlight called on the Home Secretary to ban the entry to Britain of the so-called Devil’s Advocate Jacques Vergès, who is due to speak at SOAS on 3 February.
The college appears to have washed its hands of responsibility for the actions of the postdoctoral student who, it is claimed, acted alone in organising this event, despite its potential for giving the far right a huge moral and political boost.
The hardline nazi IONA London Forum, meeting in London on 21 January, called on its supporters to turn up at SOAS to publicly support this disgusting man.
The Home Secretary remains silent, despite all the evidence that shows Vergès’s presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good.
Enough of this hypocrisy. As we remember the millions who died at the hands of the Nazis in the week of Holocaust Memorial Day, we expect the Home Secretary to make a public statement announcing a ban.
You can read about why the far right idolises Jacques Vergès in the December issue of Searchlight or on www.searchlightmagazine.com. And it is not too late to send protests to the Home Office and SOAS. See page 34 for details.