Has cancel culture come to Guernsey?
IN GUERNSEY, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, attendees at the ecumenical commemoration service held in the evening at the Princess Royal Centre for the Performing Arts were disappointed to find that the guest speaker Sabit Jakupovic had been cancelled at the last moment.
The Press report quoted the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust saying: ‘Since the event was initially organised, there has been a noticeable increase in anti-Semitism and community tensions in Guernsey. HMDT’s priority is the wellbeing of any Holocaust or genocide survivor and the difficult decision was therefore made to withdraw Sabit’.
Despite the above concerns, the memorial service at the White Rock and the commemoration service later, at the Performing Arts Centre, went ahead without incident. The latter, which I attended, was conducted with sensitivity by the Dean of Guernsey, with Deputy Jonathan Le Tocq standing in admirably for Sabit. Year 6 pupil Solomon Bearder played a Handel Aria, holocaust educational videos were shown and a poem was read.
No explanation was given as to how Sabit Jakupovic’s presence at the commemorative gathering might have provoked anti-Semitism or endangered any Holocaust or genocide survivors happening to live in Guernsey.
Whether Mr Jakupovic, a Muslim survivor of Serbian persecution in the former Yugoslavia, might himself have been in danger from the anti-Semitic component alleged to be in the Guernsey population seems unlikely. In hindsight, the climate of fear and suspicion, evoked by his mysterious cancellation seems somewhat over-inflated and unnecessary.
The Press also quoted the police. ‘Police confirmed that they had no specific security concerns about the events taking place locally for Holocaust Memorial Day, and said there had been no indications recently of a noticeable increase in anti-Semitism or community tensions’.
It is hard indeed to imagine how the desire for peace and an immediate stop to the killing in Gaza, Israel and the West Bank should constitute a threat to any Holocaust or genocide survivor, or any person of the Judaic faith living in Guernsey.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media continues to cause public confusion by belabouring the distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, often conflating the two. As a result the need for an immediate ceasefire and for proper peace talks remains unrealised.
The cry of ‘Never again,’ which followed the terrible atrocities of the WW2 Holocaust, applies equally to Jews, Muslims, and to all the beleaguered, poor peoples of the world.
It is therefore absolutely imperative that all the United Nations of the world – and that includes the USA, the UK and Israel – should uphold International Laws of Human Rights and the International Genocide Convention, as laid down by the highest of their own authorities.
The right of the Palestinians to self-determination and to be free of Israel’s oppressive and illegal military occupation remains paramount to the peace and safety of all faiths and ethnicities living in the Middle East. Only an active desire for peace ends war. The supply of weapons to the war-mongers should be stopped.
As Winston Churchill once said, ‘There needs to be less war war, more jaw jaw’. And for God’s sake, some human compassion.
Mark Windsor