View source for Document:British Jewish Zionist MP Gerald Kaufman says Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza

{{Document
|title=British Jewish Zionist MP Gerald Kaufman says Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza
|type=Speech
|source_name=House of Commons
|source_URL=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEYz00MqCx0
|authors=Gerald Kaufman
|publication_date=January 2009
|subjects=Israel, Gaza, West Bank, Hamas, Fatah, Israeli–Palestinian conflict, October 2023 Gaza−Israel conflict
|image=Kaufman_Israel.jpg
|image_width=260px
|image_caption="[[Israel]] acting like [[Nazis]] in [[Gaza]]"
|description="However many [[Palestinians]] the [[Israelis]] murder in [[Gaza]], they cannot solve this existential problem by military means. It is time for peace, but real peace, not the solution by conquest which is the [[Israelis]]' real goal but which it is impossible for them to achieve. They are not simply [[war criminal]]s; they are fools."
}}
In January 2009, [[Labour Party|Labour]] MP [[Gerald Kaufman]] gave a speech in the [[House of Commons]] strongly criticising the [[Israeli]] government and saying that [[Israel]] was acting like [[Nazis]] in [[Gaza]].<ref>''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEYz00MqCx0 "British Jewish Zionist MP Gerald Kaufman says Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza"]''</ref> Full transcript of [[Gerald Kaufman]]'s speech:
{{YouTubeVideo
|code=xEYz00MqCx0
|align=right
|width=400px
|caption=[[Sir Gerald Kaufman]]: [[Israel]] acting like [[Nazis]] in [[Gaza]]
}}
{{QB|
Sir [[Gerald Kaufman]] (Manchester, Gorton) (Lab): "I was brought up as an orthodox [[Jew]] and a [[Zionist]]. On a shelf in our kitchen, there was a tin box for the [[Jewish National Fund]], into which we put coins to help the pioneers building a [[Jewish]] presence in [[Palestine]].

"I first went to [[Israel]] in 1961 and I have been there since more times than I can count. I had family in [[Israel]] and have friends in [[Israel]]. One of them fought in the wars of 1956, 1967 and 1973 and was wounded in two of them. The tie clip that I am wearing is made from a campaign decoration awarded to him, which he presented to me.

"I have known most of the Prime Ministers of [[Israel]], starting with the founding Prime Minister [[David Ben-Gurion]]. [[Golda Meir]] was my friend, as was [[Yigal Allon]], Deputy Prime Minister, who, as a general, won the Negev for [[Israel]] in the [[1948 Palestine war|1948 War of Independence]].

"My parents came to [[Britain]] as refugees from [[Poland]]. Most of their families were subsequently murdered by the [[Nazis]] in the [[holocaust]]. My grandmother was ill in bed when the [[Nazis]] came to her home town of Staszow. A [[German]] soldier shot her dead in her bed.

"My grandmother did not die to provide cover for [[Israeli]] soldiers murdering [[Palestinian]] grandmothers in [[Gaza]]. The present [[Israeli]] Government ruthlessly and cynically exploit the continuing guilt among gentiles over the slaughter of [[Jews]] in the [[holocaust]] as justification for their murder of [[Palestinians]]. The implication is that [[Jewish]] lives are precious, but the lives of [[Palestinians]] do not count.

"On [[Sky News]] a few days ago, the spokeswoman for the [[IDF|Israeli army]], Major Leibovich, was asked about the [[Israeli]] killing of, at that time, 800 [[Palestinians]]—the total is now 1,000. She replied instantly that 500 of them were militants.

"That was the reply of a [[Nazi]]. I suppose that the [[Jews]] fighting for their lives in the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto Warsaw Ghetto] could have been dismissed as militants.

"The [[Israeli]] Foreign Minister [[Tzipi Livni]] asserts that her Government will have no dealings with [[Hamas]], because they are [[terrorists]]. [[Tzipi Livni]]'s father was [[Eitan Livni]], chief operations officer of the terrorist [[Irgun|Irgun Zvai Leumi]], who organised the [[Bombing of the King David Hotel|blowing-up of the King David Hotel]] in [[Jerusalem]], in which 91 victims were killed, including four [[Jews]].

"[[Israel]] was born out of [[Jewish]] [[terrorism]]. [[Jewish]] [[terrorists]] hanged two [[British]] sergeants and booby-trapped their corpses. [[Irgun]], together with the [[terrorist]] [[Stern Gang]], massacred 254 [[Palestinians]] in 1948 in the village of [[Deir Yassin]]. Today, the present [[Israeli]] Government indicate that they would be willing, in circumstances acceptable to them, to negotiate with the [[Palestinian]] President [[Mahmoud Abbas]] of [[Fatah]]. It is too late for that. They could have negotiated with [[Fatah]]'s previous leader, [[Yasser Arafat]], who was a friend of mine. Instead, they besieged him in a bunker in [[Ramallah]], where I visited him. Because of the failings of [[Fatah]] since [[Yasser Arafat|Arafat]]'s death, [[Hamas]] won the [[Palestinian]] election in 2006. [[Hamas]] is a deeply nasty organisation, but it was democratically elected, and it is the only game in town. The boycotting of [[Hamas]], including by our Government, has been a culpable error, from which dreadful consequences have followed.

"The great [[Israeli]] Foreign Minister [[Abba Eban]], with whom I campaigned for peace on many platforms, said: 'You make peace by talking to your enemies.'

"However many [[Palestinians]] the [[Israelis]] murder in [[Gaza]], they cannot solve this existential problem by military means. Whenever and however the fighting ends, there will still be 1.5 million [[Palestinians]] in [[Gaza]] and 2.5 million more on the [[West Bank]]. They are treated like dirt by the [[Israelis]], with hundreds of road blocks and with the ghastly denizens of the illegal [[Jewish]] settlements harassing them as well. The time will come, not so long from now, when they will outnumber the [[Jewish]] population in [[Israel]].

"It is time for our Government to make clear to the [[Israeli]] Government that their conduct and policies are unacceptable, and to impose a total arms ban on [[Israel]]. It is time for peace, but real peace, not the solution by conquest which is the [[Israelis]]' real goal but which it is impossible for them to achieve. They are not simply [[war criminal]]s; they are fools."}}

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