Shoah survivor confronts Livingstone over ‘offensive and hurtful’ remarks
Mala Tribich, who survived Bergen-Belsen, criticised those who 'belittle the Holocaust' in a scathing attack on the ex-London mayor
Jack Mendel is the former Online Editor at the Jewish News.
Holocaust survivor Mala Tribich hit out at Ken Livingstone’s “offensive and hurtful” suggestion that Hitler had supported Zionism.
Appearing on J-TV, the former Mayor of London, who was suspended from the Labour Party for bringing it into disrepute, was played a testimony by the Shoah survivor.
Responding to Livingstone’s remarks, Mala, who survived Bergen-Belsen, said: “I find them very offensive and hurtful when people belittle the Holocaust. When they use the Holocaust to score a political point.”
“I really can’t see it. They are usually people in high places. I take them as being intelligent and educated. Yet they can stoop so low to use the Holocaust to better their positions.”
“What really bothers me is that they do it whilst there are some survivors still around. What will they do when we’re all gone?”
During the interview, host Alan Mendoza challenged Livingstone on the historical sources he cited to make his claims about Hitler’s support for Zionism.
Following the event, Oliver Anisfeld, J-TV’s Founder said: “This is the first time Ken Livingstone has been challenged face to face on TV by an historian and expert. Livingstone was revealed to have an unhealthy fascination with Nazis and was clearly exposed as making false inferences from a selective reading of history the results of which suit his prejudice. I am delighted that J-TV has laid bare Livingstone’s bigotry.
He added that “Livingstone confessed that J-TV’s interview was the first time his arguments had been seriously challenged and when faced with the facts he had no answer.”
Ken Livingstone was suspended by the Labour Party in April, after said an interview, that said Hitler’s policy “was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews.”
Since his comments, Ken Livingstone has denied being anti-Semitic at a Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry.
Giving evidence to a probe into anti-Semitism, the ex-London mayor said he stood by the remarks, and blamed “embittered Blairites” for forcing his suspension from the Labour Party as part of a bid to undermine leader Jeremy Corbyn.
One of the leading members of Britain’s Jewish community, Jonathan Arkush, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews said he should be a “political pariah” because of his claims that Hitler supported Zionism.
You can watch the FULL interview on J-TV here
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