Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, a political ally of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and a close friend of George Galloway, has got himself in hot water for exposing a regularly buried historical truth concerning the Nazis collaboration with Zionists to ease the transfer of German Jews to Palestine. He has now been branded “a Nazi apologist” and “an anti-Semite.”
Moreover, he has been suspended from the Party he has served throughout most of his career on the grounds he’s “brought it into disrepute.” Dubbed “Red Ken” in his younger days for his socialist affiliations, Livingstone joined the mainstream as a popular two-term mayor but has never ceased to speak out on the injustices meted out to the Palestinian people. He bitterly criticizes Israel but utterly denies being an anti-Semite.
In no way do I seek to defend Livingstone the man. He’s politically too much on the far left for my liking. But there is a principle here that does need defending. UK officials never cease to wag their fingers at other countries over their lack of human rights and Britain trumpets the rights of its citizens to free expression and free speech to the extent extremists are permitted to march through the streets of the capital in support of terrorist groups while hurling insults at the monarchy and the police.
So does the US, which permits anti-Muslim rallies and does nothing to stop bigots from holding anti-Muslim conferences or burning copies of Qur’an, while its presidential candidates declare their intentions to bar Muslim visitors or monitor American Muslim communities.
France, Holland, Denmark and other European states hold fast to their own laws of free expression even when Islam comes under attack by filmmakers or cartoonists. If that’s the way it is, those rules should be applicable to all forms of self-expression. No community should be immune. What has happened to Livingstone is a blatant example of double standard. What’s the betting that had he regurgitated a controversial snippet about murky Christian or Muslim past alliances they wouldn’t have merited a column on newspaper back pages!
Now Livingstone is being badgered by his party colleagues and insulted by the media for saying the truth. Overnight, he’s being treated as though he’s a member of the Ku Klux Klan or the Neo Nazis, a pariah to be quashed underfoot. They are pressing him hard to apologize. He has regretted what he said because it has caused such a storm. But he won’t apologize for revealing a little-known historical reality—and quite right too, although, he could have framed his comment in a more palatable fashion. “Hitler supported Zionism” in 1932 before going “mad and killing six million Jews,” he said.
That will of course sound preposterous to some ears. How could the planet’s most virulent, genocidal anti-Semite have supported Zionism? Well the reason he seemingly did was because of his desire to rid Germany of its Jewish population and the desire of Zionists to make it easy for German Jews to populate Palestine coincided at one point.
In October last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed during a speech before the Zionist Congress that “Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time he wanted to expel the Jews . . .” before proceeding to blame Jerusalem’s Grand Mufti for giving Hitler the idea to annihilate them, as reported in the New York Times. Amid an outcry from his own Cabinet minister and Palestinian leaders alike, he later said, “Hitler was responsible for the Final Solution . . . ; he made the decision.”
Klaus Polkehn, a German journalist awarded Germany Patriotic Order of Merit, has written in great detail on the secret contacts between Zionists and Nazi Germany, including a meeting conducted in the iconic Cairo Cafe Groppi’s between Feivel Polkes an officer in the Haganah and Adolf Eichmann as has been confirmed by Israeli newspapers, numerous books and papers discovered in German archives.
Livingstone plans to appeal his suspension armed with historical documents. No doubt one will be the Haavara (Transfer) Agreement made between Nazi Germany and Zionist German Jews on Aug. 25, 1933 following negotiations held between the Zionist Federation of Germany, the Anglo-Palestine Bank and Nazi authorities.
The agreement’s core aim was to facilitate the immigration of German Jews to Palestine with a system permitting them to recoup a proportion of their personal belongings and financial capital following their arrival on Palestinian soil. Unfortunately, the poor were not able to pay the fee, which would have enabled them to take advantage of the agreement.
Livingston would also be advised to explain to his legions of detractors what the word Zionism means. According to Merriam Webster the short definition is: “Political support for the creation and development of a Jewish homeland in Israel.” The longer definition reads: “An international movement originally for the establishment of a Jewish national or religious community in Palestine . . .” Certain Christian sects, especially those prevalent in the US consider themselves Zionist but their beliefs are tied up with the Second Coming, Armageddon and the ultimate conversion of Jews to Christianity, which doesn’t exactly make them pro-Jewish.
So was the disgraced politician right to say that Hitler supported Zionism? Should he have been temporarily expelled from the party pending investigation and should he bow to the clamor to apologize? You decide!
Linda S. Heard is an award-winning British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.
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An inconvenient truth
Posted on May 4, 2016 by Linda S. Heard
Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, a political ally of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and a close friend of George Galloway, has got himself in hot water for exposing a regularly buried historical truth concerning the Nazis collaboration with Zionists to ease the transfer of German Jews to Palestine. He has now been branded “a Nazi apologist” and “an anti-Semite.”
Moreover, he has been suspended from the Party he has served throughout most of his career on the grounds he’s “brought it into disrepute.” Dubbed “Red Ken” in his younger days for his socialist affiliations, Livingstone joined the mainstream as a popular two-term mayor but has never ceased to speak out on the injustices meted out to the Palestinian people. He bitterly criticizes Israel but utterly denies being an anti-Semite.
In no way do I seek to defend Livingstone the man. He’s politically too much on the far left for my liking. But there is a principle here that does need defending. UK officials never cease to wag their fingers at other countries over their lack of human rights and Britain trumpets the rights of its citizens to free expression and free speech to the extent extremists are permitted to march through the streets of the capital in support of terrorist groups while hurling insults at the monarchy and the police.
So does the US, which permits anti-Muslim rallies and does nothing to stop bigots from holding anti-Muslim conferences or burning copies of Qur’an, while its presidential candidates declare their intentions to bar Muslim visitors or monitor American Muslim communities.
France, Holland, Denmark and other European states hold fast to their own laws of free expression even when Islam comes under attack by filmmakers or cartoonists. If that’s the way it is, those rules should be applicable to all forms of self-expression. No community should be immune. What has happened to Livingstone is a blatant example of double standard. What’s the betting that had he regurgitated a controversial snippet about murky Christian or Muslim past alliances they wouldn’t have merited a column on newspaper back pages!
Now Livingstone is being badgered by his party colleagues and insulted by the media for saying the truth. Overnight, he’s being treated as though he’s a member of the Ku Klux Klan or the Neo Nazis, a pariah to be quashed underfoot. They are pressing him hard to apologize. He has regretted what he said because it has caused such a storm. But he won’t apologize for revealing a little-known historical reality—and quite right too, although, he could have framed his comment in a more palatable fashion. “Hitler supported Zionism” in 1932 before going “mad and killing six million Jews,” he said.
That will of course sound preposterous to some ears. How could the planet’s most virulent, genocidal anti-Semite have supported Zionism? Well the reason he seemingly did was because of his desire to rid Germany of its Jewish population and the desire of Zionists to make it easy for German Jews to populate Palestine coincided at one point.
In October last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed during a speech before the Zionist Congress that “Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time he wanted to expel the Jews . . .” before proceeding to blame Jerusalem’s Grand Mufti for giving Hitler the idea to annihilate them, as reported in the New York Times. Amid an outcry from his own Cabinet minister and Palestinian leaders alike, he later said, “Hitler was responsible for the Final Solution . . . ; he made the decision.”
Klaus Polkehn, a German journalist awarded Germany Patriotic Order of Merit, has written in great detail on the secret contacts between Zionists and Nazi Germany, including a meeting conducted in the iconic Cairo Cafe Groppi’s between Feivel Polkes an officer in the Haganah and Adolf Eichmann as has been confirmed by Israeli newspapers, numerous books and papers discovered in German archives.
Livingstone plans to appeal his suspension armed with historical documents. No doubt one will be the Haavara (Transfer) Agreement made between Nazi Germany and Zionist German Jews on Aug. 25, 1933 following negotiations held between the Zionist Federation of Germany, the Anglo-Palestine Bank and Nazi authorities.
The agreement’s core aim was to facilitate the immigration of German Jews to Palestine with a system permitting them to recoup a proportion of their personal belongings and financial capital following their arrival on Palestinian soil. Unfortunately, the poor were not able to pay the fee, which would have enabled them to take advantage of the agreement.
Livingston would also be advised to explain to his legions of detractors what the word Zionism means. According to Merriam Webster the short definition is: “Political support for the creation and development of a Jewish homeland in Israel.” The longer definition reads: “An international movement originally for the establishment of a Jewish national or religious community in Palestine . . .” Certain Christian sects, especially those prevalent in the US consider themselves Zionist but their beliefs are tied up with the Second Coming, Armageddon and the ultimate conversion of Jews to Christianity, which doesn’t exactly make them pro-Jewish.
So was the disgraced politician right to say that Hitler supported Zionism? Should he have been temporarily expelled from the party pending investigation and should he bow to the clamor to apologize? You decide!
Linda S. Heard is an award-winning British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.