Madam, - Regardless of the gross historical inaccuracies in the article by the Palestinian representative to Ireland, Dr Hikmat Ajjuri about the Middle East (Opinion & Analysis, May 18th), the reference to the Holocaust is offensive and wrong. The Holocaust and the "Nakbah" are not comparable in any sense.
The Holocaust was a unique event in human history of a barbarism never seen before or since. It was perpetrated with the aim of annihilating the Jewish people and resulted in the extermination of 6 million Jews. The Holocaust was a mechanised form of mass murder, shipping in millions of humans from across Europe to be processed in factories of death.
One cannot compare the scale of death in concentration camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, the victimisation of the Jewish people under the Nazi regime, the tools of torture used, the psychological aftermath of the Holocaust on its victims and the use of humans for scientific experimentation in the same breath as any other human tragedy or suffering in history. It is a dark chapter in the history of all humanity that should never be repeated.
The decision to publish an article which compares the Holocaust to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a provocation. It is offensive to all victims of the Holocaust, to history and to the intelligence of the readers of The Irish Times. Dr Ajjuri might want to find an opportunity to retract this comparison. - Yours, etc,
KENNETH BAKER, Press Officer, Embassy of Israel, Dublin.