Letter: Steve Aiken's comparison of proposed Irish law banning imports from Israeli West Bank settlements with Nuremberg laws is ridiculous
A letter from Arnold Carton:
Last month the Ulster Unionist Steve Aiken said that the proposed Irish law banning imports from Israeli West Bank settlements is “the most draconian anti-Jewish legislation in Europe since the Nuremberg laws”.
This is a ridiculous comparison to make.
The Nazi Nuremberg laws systematically denied citizenship to Jewish people and should not be trivialised by such hysterical comparisons.
By contrast, the Irish law penalises those criminal settler groups that invade Palestinian territory and steal their houses (some of us believe the law does not go far enough).
Furthermore, by attempting to link all Jewish people with what Israel is doing Mr Aitken risks encouraging anti-Jewish feeling by creating the inaccurate impression that ordinary decent Jewish people on these islands automatically support the war crimes that are being committed by Israel.
This is not the case. On many of the pro-Palestine marches that I have attended there have been brave Jewish people ready to speak out against the atrocities in Gaza.
Arnold Carton, Belfast BT6