Is it right to use Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration to make points about the situation in Gaza?

[OpheliaWasntMad]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg8jvkk05no

I think Scirocco (who I find always a very thoughtful poster on these Boards) has nailed why I feel uncomfortable with the speech too (and the Lauder one too).

I agree

Indeed - I know he meant muslims - he was comparing them to the Nazis - I didn't explain myself very clearly. I was a bit agog that at a commemoration at Auschwitz of all places, he was basically saying that "these people need to be stopped".

I agree about the Lauder Speech btw. I apologise that I hadn’t fully read/ digested that post .
It’s wrong in every way to use the Holocaust to make political statements like this

Absolutely this 100%.

But they do.This may not have been the place to say it but he is correct if he means 'they' are people who wish to destroy our Western values, be they Hamas, Hizbollah, Houtis, Taliban, Iranian mullahs etc.

From the Irish Times article posted above this to me as a Jew, is most pertinent:

'But for Jewish and Israeli ears his words were not only profoundly inappropriate in that he deliberately politicised the memory of the Holocaust in a way that poisoned the event for some in attendance, but that he seemed to some to draw equivalence between the industrialised murder of six million Jews and the horror of the last 15 months of war in Gaza following the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023.'
I would have turned my back on Higgins too.

It's just anti Irish sentiment, happens all the time on these threads

Not at all. It's widely reported that Irish Jews in general are feeling the effects of anti semitism from their compatriots.

Do you live in Ireland? Do you have proof of this? Our President was entitled to say what he did, anyone who didn't like what he said was entitled to protest

Are you Jewish?

No but I'm Irish, are you Irish?

If you aren't Jewish but Irish you are missing the point.

And if you're not Irish you're missing the point, which you're obviously not seeing as you refuse to answer any of my questions, are you even Jewish?

I find it amazing the lengths people will go to, to argue with Jewish people that they shouldn't be offended. If you did the same thing with people of colour you would be accused of all sorts. It's really odd and I think a manifestation of the fact that even now people are suspicious of Jews. People find it straightforward to see POC as victims (often in a patronising and even racist way) but the old prejudice against Jews has always been based on their uncertain status, the suspicion that they have a sort of nebulous power and it means that people are never fully comfortable sympathising with them.

Surely opinions on him and his speech vary amongst Irish people?

Of course I am.

“Do you live in Ireland?” Lots of posters on here comment on other countries without being challenged in this way.

“Our President was entitled to say what he did, anyone who didn't like what he said was entitled to protest”
They were removed ( silenced) when they protested so it doesn’t sound as if they were allowed to protest.
Their symbolic turning of their backs has been called “disrespectful “ by another poster which is pretty ironic considering the nature of the occasion.

Why is your Irishness relevant here? Whether your Irish , British, Jewish or Palestinian you should be able to see that on the one day we remember the Holocaust it is insensitive to link it to a very different situation just because both conflicts involve Jewish people.

Really? In what way is it anti Irish to criticise your president? Is he beyond criticism?
Do you think it’s ok to criticise the presidents of other countries?

I’ve come to the conclusion that you don’t care because of your dismissive tone and refusal to take the concerns seriously unless it is proved prove all Irish Jews feel the same way.

(My final comparison was the point that if any other vulnerable group expresses a concern/ makes a complaint we don’t demand that they all feel exactly the same way before we apologise . )

It’s possible to think both deserve criticism.

Agreed, on both speeches.