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Opinion

Ken Livingstone the History Man

January 4, 2009 12:23
1 min read

Reiterating a notion put forward by musician Brian Eno on Friday at the demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy, Ken Livingstone announced "This (Gaza) is a ghetto, in exactly the same way that the Warsaw Ghetto was and people are trapped in it. Under those conditions angry young men will take up arms".

Gaza is the same as the Warsaw Ghetto? I didn’t know that but Ken is a man who has taken a deep interest in these matters for many years. He must have a point. I thought I’d research the assertion further as I’m embarrassed to admit that while I was aware of the Warsaw Ghetto I have no detailed knowledge of it.

It turns out that Ken is absolutely right. Gaza is indeed a modern day mirror image of the Warsaw Ghetto. Some of the most striking parallels are as follows:

1In the Warsaw Ghetto young men did indeed take up arms against their oppressors. They fired hundreds of missiles week after week out of the Warsaw Ghetto into neighbouring towns causing those communities enormous stress and fear.