The topic of antisemitism has loomed large at this year’s Labour conference in Brighton. One detail from today’s unedifying Free Speech on Israel fringe event stood out for me. The Mirror reports:
Israeli-American author Miko Peled told a conference fringe meeting Labour members should support the freedom to “discuss every issue, whether it’s the holocaust, yes or no, whether it’s Palestine liberation – the entire spectrum.
And you can listen to the clip here.
Holocaust denial isn’t illegal in this country – and I assume (unless ‘yes or no’ implies some Labour members might actually endorse the final solution) that this is what Peled was referring to. The threshold for what is legal to discuss should be very different from what is acceptable in a respectable political party. Was he – and the Labour members sitting in the room – really suggesting that the historical reality of the Holocaust is a legitimate topic for debate?
