A lot of criticism has come the way of George Reid for daring to mention the Palestinians during Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations in East Renfrewshire.
According to the Jewish Telegraph, the former Presiding Officer at the Scottish Parliament said:
"I find it strange, when we've been dealing with intolerance and injustice, that no one has mentioned the Palestinians," he said at Eastwood Park Theatre in Giffnock, Glasgow.
"There is a general view among politicians that there will be no peace in the Middle East until there is justice for the Palestinians."
With there being no factual inaccuracy contained therein, Labour MSP Ken Macintoch’s criticism was:
"Everyone in the Middle East is entitled to peace. And the one bastion of democracy in the region is Israel."
Some may quibble about factual accuracy here, not least Macintoch’s masters who went to war in Iraq to establish such a bastion.
It’s been well documented that the Muslim Council of Britain this year took part in HMD after staying away since its inception. They argued that they event should be more inclusive, while others took the view, which I had a great deal of sympathy with, that the structure of the event is already such.
This view though becomes more difficult when people like Reid are treated as they have been. Glasgow Jewish Community Council president Philip Mendelsohn wrote to Reid saying:
"This is an example of a matter which is one of our main current concerns: The confusion between Israel and Jewish communities."
He also said Reid had introduced politics to an event that should have been beyond it.
Ephraim Borowski, of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, meanwhile said:
"The implication that Israel's treatment of the Palestinians was responsible for all the ills of the Middle East - a region that includes Darfur, Eritrea, Syrian domination of Lebanon, Iraq and Iran and the oppression of the Kurds and Armenians - would be risible were it not so insidious.”
I can’t help feeling that if Reid had mentioned Darfur, Eritrea, Syria Lebanon, Iraq or Iran that he wouldn’t have minded as much. Which means that Mendelsohn’s wish to separate Israel and Jewish communities becomes a bit hollow when so much offence is taken at the mere mention of the Palestinians. It shouldn’t bother him.
HMD when one looks at its aims, claims to be an inclusive event, taking in the Holocaust of Jews by the Nazis while also looking at recent atrocities like Rwanda and Bosnia. This seems to be forgotten all too often, even by people organising its events.
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