Post by GBPost by PhiThe row first erupted when Mr Livingstone, who was defending MP Naz Shah
over claims she had made anti-Semitic social media posts, said: "When
Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be
moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended
up killing six million Jews."
He has repeatedly defended his version of events, saying there had
been "real collaboration" between Nazis and Zionists before World War
Two.
I personally don't care much what Mr Livingstone says, or what the
Labour party do about it, but I don't accept that his version of history
is correct.
Hitler's initial stance was that he wanted rid of the Jews in Germany.
He didn't care much where they went. At the same time, Zionists wanted
to encourage Jewish emigration to Palestine. But calling that "real
collaboration" is simply a preposterous untruth, as is saying Hitler
supported Zionism.
It's like saying that the German bombers that followed the railway lines
on their way to bomb Coventry had a common aim with the passengers on
the trains underneath them, as they both wanted to get to Coventry. Or
that the people who laid the railway tracks had collaborated in the
bombing of the city.
Surely this isn't a debate about history with the loser to face
expulsion for getting his history wrong?
Hitler and Eichmann encouraged jews to emigrate and encouraged Zionists
to facilitate emigration. That seems to be an accepted fact.
Livingstone's comments about real collaboration were these:
Livingstone said: “He didn’t just sign the deal. The SS set up training
camps so that German Jews who were going to go there could be trained to
cope with a very different sort of country when they got there. When the
Zionist movement asked, would the Nazi government stop a Jewish rabbi
doing their sermons in Yiddish and make them do it in Hebrew, he agreed
to that.
“He passed a law saying the Zionist flag and the swastika were the only
flags that could be flown in Germany. An awful lot. Of course, they
started selling Mauser pistols to the underground Jewish army. So you
had right up until the start of the second world war real collaboration.”
unquote
Now, that may be historically accurate. I think those who find the
remarks offensive are assuming that Livingstone made the remarks because
he is antisemitic and wants to taunt his enemies. I don't believe that
is true. I think he may have some sort of autism or aspergers - as
indeed many people have - and he wanted to make a pedantic point to
support his argument without caring whether it was tactless to make such
a point.
I don't think any jew should actually find Livingstone's remarks
distressing, hurtful, shocking or devastating. Those who say that they
have been distressed and have had to be comforted are, I suggest, not
being truthful.