'Deeply offensive': Jewish leaders have criticised John Prescott for comparing Israel's treatment of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip with the Holocaust

John Prescott was last night accused of being ‘deeply offensive’ to Jewish people by comparing the Gaza Strip to a concentration camp.

The leaders of Britain’s Jews criticised the comments by the former deputy prime minister, saying they ‘trivialised’ the Holocaust and called on Labour officials to investigate his ‘misconduct’.

Lord Prescott wrote in the Sunday Mirror that Israel’s ‘indiscriminate’ bombardment of the Palestinian territory was a war crime and that Gaza was a ‘ghetto’.

Some six million Jews were killed by the Nazis during the Second World War, many in concentration camps, while many more were confined to ghettos in major cities such as Warsaw.

Writing about Hamas, Lord Prescott said: ‘Israel brands them terrorists, but it is acting as judge, jury and executioner in the concentration camp that is Gaza.

‘What happened to the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis is appalling.

'But you would think those atrocities would give Israelis a unique sense of perspective and empathy with the victims of a ghetto.’

The article provoked a stinging response from Vivian Wineman, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and Mick Davis, chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council.



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'Concentration camp': A man helps a victim of an Israeli air strike on a crowded marketplace in Gaza City

In a letter to Opposition Chief Whip Lord Bassam, they said: ‘Comparing Gaza to a concentration camp and a ghetto is deeply offensive.

'The systematic and premeditated slaughter of the Holocaust cannot in any way be compared to the conflict in Israel and Gaza.’

They added: ‘Through his remarks, Lord Prescott has trivialised the Holocaust, the most painful memory in Jewish history, and will undoubtedly encourage others to use such language.