ANDREW NEIL: Those who seek to deny the horror of Hamas’s modern-day Holocaust are dragging the world into a new dark age

I’ve always refused to sign petitions in which public figures take a stance on some great issue of the day. What need I of round robins when, as a journalist, I have the privilege of being able to report and comment on whatever matters I choose?

My rule was always to plough my own furrow, avoid lobbies, stay out of collective expressions of opinion and remain robustly independent.

This week I broke that rule. The widespread resurgence of anti-Semitism in the wake of the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, even in our own dear land, and the concerted efforts by many to deny the unspeakable barbarism of Hamas — which bore all the hallmarks of a modern-day Holocaust — is more than enough to indicate that we have entered a new dark age in which the old rules don’t apply.

So I signed the October Declaration, co-compiled by my Spectator colleague and friend, Toby Young, which pledges solidarity with British Jews in these anxious times and condemns anti-Semitism wherever it rears its ugly head, but especially in Britain.

I checked the text to make sure it was strong but considered (it is), that it recognised the disregard Hamas had for the lives of the people of Gaza as well as of Israel (it does) and that I would be in good company (I am — playwright Tom Stoppard, former Labour foreign secretary Lord (David) Owen, actor Maureen Lipman and many, many others far more distinguished than me have signed). The Declaration finishes with these words: ‘No one thought this would be necessary in the 21st century.’ True. But it is necessary — more so than ever since World War II.

A group of Islamic extremist protesters, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, gather on the street outside the Egyptian embassy waving placards, flags, and chanting slogans on October 21 in London

A man wearing all black waves a Shahada flag in Whitehall during huge pro-Palestine protests

Another male in a grey hoodie held up a megaphone and appeared to continually bellow ‘Hamas’ in the 35-second clip which has had more than three million views on X 

ANDREW NEIL: Those who seek to deny the horror of Hamas’s modern-day Holocaust are dragging the world into a new dark age

It’s not just that our streets resonate again to repugnant anti-Semitic tropes and calls for ‘jihad’ to wipe out Israel, and that British Jewish kids worry about whether it is safe to go to school while their parents wonder aloud if it’s even safe to remain within these shores.

READ MORE: Fury as Islamists chant Hamas slogans on the streets of London during huge pro-Palestine protest the same day the Met allowed a ‘jihad’ chant – as Robert Jenrick says police chiefs will be summoned to explain their actions

All of this is horrendous and shames Britain in 2023, but even worse is the fact that we are now living through a new era of Holocaust denial, not of the Nazi concentration camps (though there are still some evil people around denying them), but of the atrocities Hamas committed on October 7 against Jews — simply because they were Jews.

Big chunks of the mainstream media have been content to report whatever propaganda line Hamas spews out, almost without caveat or question, while everything the Israeli forces claim is subject to fierce scrutiny, scepticism and relentless quibbles.

Of course, Israeli claims should be toughly scrutinised. Israel has its own case to promote and it has not always been reliable in the past. Truth is a certain casualty of war.

But Hamas is a murderous death cult which runs Gaza with a totalitarian grip and is committed to the destruction of Israel and the Jews. You might think that alone would be grounds enough for treating cautiously what they say, that the bar for believing Hamas should be that bit higher than it is for Israel. But the reverse is the norm.

The BBC, sadly, has been in the forefront of this abnegation of journalistic standards.

In the immediate aftermath of a blast in a Gaza hospital, the BBC reported it had been hit by an Israeli missile ‘according to Palestinian officials’. It thinks that attribution gets it off the hook. But it doesn’t.

The ‘Palestinian officials’ are, of course, Hamas enforcers. And liars. The blast was almost certainly caused by a malfunctioning missile fired from Gaza at Israel.

The terrorists make many of their own missiles, so hitting their own people by mistake is not uncommon.

By the time the BBC made a reluctant acknowledgement that perhaps events were not quite as it had reported, its broadcasts, much watched and respected throughout the Middle East, had helped inflame Arab opinion and even did their bit to undermine President Biden’s visit to the region. Meetings with the rulers of Jordan and Egypt were cancelled. Careless reporting has consequences in war.

A workman cleans attempts to clean off pro-Palestine graffiti on the base of Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square on October 22

There were chants of ‘Jihad! Jihad! Jihad!’ at the rally outside the Egyptian embassy in London

At an Islamist protest held in London on Saturday, one speaker was seen called for a ‘jihad’ to ‘liberate people form the concentration camp called Palestine

Understandably, this infuriated Israel. It is even more angry about attempts to dismiss the barbarism of the Hamas invasion. This week it took unprecedented action. It invited international journalists to watch footage from the body cameras of the (now dead) Hamas terrorists as they carried out their slaughter.

That it should come to this is depressing. But if it helps counter those who would deny the Hamas Holocaust, then so be it.

It made for harrowing viewing. Hard-bitten war correspondents were moved to tears. It is uncomfortable to relate what they saw. But it must be reported if truth is to triumph.

It shows civilians and soldiers being shot, stabbed, tortured and burned. Merely because they were Jewish. Their corpses were bound, gagged and riddled with bullet holes and knife wounds. Because they were Jewish.

One Hamas terrorist throws a grenade at a father and his son running away in their underwear. The blast kills the father, while the young boy is covered in his blood. The child is dragged inside and forced to sit next to his brother, whose eye is a bloody mess after being subjected to horrific torture. Because they were Jewish.

There is footage of IDF soldiers beheaded, with their headless corpses left splayed in the streets. A contingent of female soldiers are badly injured by a grenade then shot at point-blank range. Because they were Jewish.

One Hamas gunman brags on the phone to his parents back in Gaza about ‘killing ten Jews’. He is using the phone of a Jewish woman he has just murdered. He boasts that he ‘is a hero’ after killing Israelis with his ‘own hands’. Because they were Jewish.

This newspaper has seen a video which the IDF claim shows one captured terrorist testifying that, prior to their attack on Israel, Hamas leaders had ordered them to behead women, children, the elderly — and then (it is hard to write this) to sexually abuse the corpses of young women. The ‘mission’ was ‘to kill. Women. Children. Everyone’. Because they were Jewish.

In other testimony, rescue workers have spoken of finding headless bodies, sometimes of the very young.

Protesters during a pro-Palestine march organised by Stop the War Coalition and Palestine Solidarity Campaign in central London on Saturday

Thousands took to the streets in London on Saturday to take part in peaceful protests in solidarity with the Palestinian people in London on Saturday

Israel’s most senior pathologist, tasked with identifying mutilated, unrecognisable bodies to bring some closure for their loved ones, has confirmed that some of the bodies were headless.

The evidence is overwhelming: October 7 was the day of the Hamas Holocaust. Those who are still trying to deny that should be seen for what they are — scum of evil intent.

Of course, bad as it was, it was not on anything like the scale of the Nazi Holocaust. But it was the worst day for Jews since the concentration camps were liberated in 1945.

And, given what we now know, can anybody doubt that Hamas would rival the Nazis in scale and the industrialisation of genocide if they had the opportunity and the resources?

So I’m glad I signed the October Declaration. It is, of course, pathetically inadequate — close to meaningless in the grand scheme of things. For me it has merely meant more online abuse and threats from the usual deranged numpties.

Not even a pinprick compared to the atrocities endured on October 7. But if it adds to a growing awareness that the world is once again contaminated by those who want to kill Jews because they are Jews, then it will be worthwhile. And in combating this poison there can be no surrender.

To sign the October Declaration, see britishfriendsofisrael.org

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