Simon Schama: Anybody accusing Israel of committing genocide should be ashamed

Historian and professor Sir Simon Schama has warned in a keynote speech delivered at the annual Holocaust Educational Trust appeal dinner; “We will not have our job done until anybody uttering the notion that Israel is committing genocide is made to be ashamed for doing so.”

Addressing a packed room of government ministers, Holocaust survivors, and communal leaders, the 81-year-old television presenter highlighted the dire situation facing Jews worldwide, noting: “We, the victims of the greatest genocide the world has ever seen, are being called perpetrators of genocide.”

As the audience at the central London venue applauded, Schama added: “This is a profound lie.”

Reflecting on his academic career as a professor of history and art history at Columbia University, Schama recalled: “And when I hear, as I did outside my office, ‘Hey, Professor, you can’t hide. You’ve committed genocide.'”

“I did go outside and tell the facts,” Schama continued. “We are in the facts business in this room.”

In his often impassioned address, he described the rise of Holocaust denial in the United States and the recent success of the AfD party in a German election. He urged government ministers to acknowledge how the evil of antisemitism remains rife in British schools and wider cultural life.

“So we are in a very, very dark place,” observed Schama, before addressing the rise of “inversion” and allegations of “genocide.”

“We will not have our job done until anybody uttering the notion that Israel is committing genocide is made to be ashamed for doing so,” he reiterated. “That should be said in schools and universities.”

The historian continued: “You all know this happened in a genocide—18,000 Jews were shot in a single morning on November 3, 1943, at Leeinnek. Thirty-two thousand Jews were shot in a day and a half at Babiyar. Between July 27th and November 3rd, 1942, one and a half million Jews were murdered, mostly by shooting, not by other means.”

“Which is, as they say in social science departments, a kill rate of 434,000 Jews a month.”

Schama conceded that Israel’s war in Gaza had resulted in a “catastrophic tragedy” for the Palestinian people, acknowledging: “The enormity of one child’s life lost is a catastrophe, is a tragedy.”

However, he asserted that the allegations of “famine” in Gaza had proven to be “a lie.”

“There was no famine,” said Schama.

Others speakers at the event included HET chief executive Karen Pollock who also warned about the use of language once only used to describe the horrors of the Holocaust being used inappropritely today. “To the survivors here today, we have listened to you, we have learnt from you, and we will never let you down,” she said in her speech.

Pollock added:”No child should grow up not knowing the human impact of radical antisemitism. It is why the survivors choose us to help amplify their story.

“It is why teachers choose us when they have to teach the most challenging subject, and it is our work that empowers young people to choose to speak out, even when it’s hard to do so. That is why our work matters, and it’s why we need the support of every single person in this room.”

HET ambassador Amberley also bravely told of her own experience of facing antisemitism.

But she added: “The Trust is working to build a generation of allies, and I’m proud to be part of this Ambassador community. Tonight, I ask you to take a stand, as I have done.”

She said that despite facing abuse for her work in spreading knowledge about the Holocaust she was determined to carry on speaking out.