Michael Gove
Michael GoveReuters

A senior British MP condemned the boycott movement against Israel Tuesday, branding it as a manifestation of pure anti-Semitism and comparing it to Nazi boycotts against Jews.

Speaking at the Holocaust Education Trust, Former Education Secretary and current Conservative Party Chief Whip Michael Gove warned of what he termed as the "resurgent, mutating, lethal virus of anti-Semitism."

Gove also said that attempts by anti-Israel activists to equate Israel with Nazi Germany were a form of holocaust denial, noting the presence of banners and placards at anti-Israel rallies such as  "Stop Doing What Hitler Did To You" or "Gaza is a Concentration Camp", according to the Guardian.

Ironically, some of those signs often appeared at the same demonstrations as more openly anti-Semitic banners and slogans such as "Hitler Was Right", which were seen at pro-Palestinian marches throughout Europe.

Gove labeled attempts to equate Israel's actions to those of the Nazis as a "deliberate attempt to devalue the unique significance of the Holocaust, and so remove the stigma from anti-Semitism," and said that they paved the way to more violent anti-Semitic acts.

"And even as this relativization, trivialization and perversion of the Holocaust goes on so prejudice towards the Jewish people grows," Gove stated.

He went on to list a number of high-profile incidents in which anti-Israel activity spilled over into anti-Semitism, including the decision by a London theater to ban the UK Jewish Film Festival - a move which was condemned by community leaders as anti-Semitic. The Tricycle theater soon backtracked after Jewish sponsors pulled funding, but for many British Jews the damage had been done.

"The Tricycle theater attempts to turn away donations which support the Jewish Film Festival because the money is Israeli and therefore tainted," Gove continued.

"In our supermarkets our citizens mount boycotts of Israeli produce, some going so far as to ransack the shelves, scatter goods and render them unsaleable," he added, referring to several incidents in which anti-Israel activists violently attacked stores holding Israeli produce. "In some supermarkets the conflation of anti-Israeli agitation and straightforward antisemitism has resulted in kosher goods being withdrawn."

Gove insisted that more people needed to speak out against anti-Semitism, saying there had been "insufficient indignation" voiced over anti-Semitism in Europe.

"In France, in July of this year more than 100 Jewish citizens had to be rescued from one synagogue and another was firebombed. The leader of an antisemitic party – the Front National – is France's most popular politician. Heroes of popular culture, like the comedian Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, try to make hatred of Jews a badge of radical chic," he said.

"The virus is spreading across other European nations. In Germany, Molotov cocktails were lobbed at one synagogue. In Belgium, a cafe displays a sign saying 'dogs are allowed but Jews are not', while a doctor refuses to treat Jewish patients. And in May of this year four people visiting the Jewish museum in Brussels were killed by a jihadist terrorist."

"We need to speak out against this prejudice. We need to remind people that what began with a campaign against Jewish goods in the past ended with a campaign against Jewish lives. We need to spell out that this sort of prejudice starts with the Jews but never ends with the Jews. We need to stand united against hate. Now more than ever."

During the 50-day war between Israel and Gazan terrorists Europe experienced an unprecedented surge in anti-Semitic attacks. 

While not as bad as other countries, most notably France, UK Jewry was shaken by the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents ever recorded, according to the Community Security Trust (CST) anti-Semitism watchdog.

Concerns over the inadequate response by authorities and communal establishment groups to the wave of hate prompted a major rally against anti-Semitism in central London earlier this month.

Turning to the bloodshed wrought by Islamist terrorists across the Middle East, including the Islamic State, Gove declared that the UK and Israel needed to stand together against what is essentially a common threat to both nations.

"We know that the jihadist terrorists responsible for horrific violence across the Middle East are targeting not just Jews and Israelis but all of us in the west," he said.

"They hate Israel, and they wish to wipe out the Jewish people's home, not because of what Israel does but because of what Israel is – free, democratic, liberal and western. We need to remind ourselves that defending Israel's right to exist is defending our common humanity. Now more than ever."