LONDON – A British university is investigating the actions of a student society after it hosted an anti-Israel activist who compared Gaza to a concentration camp and Israel’s actions to Nazism at an International Holocaust Memorial Day event.
American anti-war activist and Iraq war veteran Mike Prysner spoke to the Friends of Palestine Society at the University of Birmingham on January 26, the day it marked Holocaust Memorial Day, which is January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
In his talk, Prysner compared Gaza to a “concentration camp” and Israel’s actions during Operation Cast Lead to Nazism.
“I think history will not just remember these people [Israelis] as fools but really in context of other atrocities we’ve seen, in particularly that the Nazis waged during the Holocaust,” Prysner said. “I think you really can draw an equals-sign between what was done in Germany and what is done to the Gazan people because Gaza literally is one massive concentration camp where people are kept just hanging on by a thread.”
He later said: “Since then, Palestinians are denied rights in Israel like Jews were denied rights in Germany. They’re killed with impunity, they’re massacred with impunity.
You can very much draw an equal-sign between what the Nazis did to the Jews and what is done to the people of Palestine.”
Prysner also paid tribute to Palestinian “resistance.”
“Whatever resistance comes from the people of Palestine is justified resistance because if they weren’t resisting… if the Palestinian people did not resist, they would not exist anymore. It’s only because of the steadfast resistance of the Palestinians that they have not been completely exterminated,” Prysner stated.
Following the event, the university’s Guild of Students received a number of complaints.
The student body is now investigating, which could lead to the Friends of Palestine Society being derecognized or suspended for a period of time.
