“I feel it a duty to come as a witness and make my points about the similarity between the Holocaust experience and the poor people of Palestine and Gaza.”
UK police have ordered Stephen Kapos, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, in for questioning for protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The 87-year-old is among several other activists who have been also summoned by the police for a protest on Jan. 18.
An 87-year-old Holocaust survivor has been questioned by police after he laid flowers at Trafalgar Square during a Gaza protest to commemorate the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed by Israel.
Stephen Kapos, 87, was interviewed by the Metropolitan Police on Friday about the pro-Palestine protest that happened on 18 January in central London – a demonstration the force faced accusations of “repressive and heavy-handed policing” over at the time.
"There is a question of historical responsibility towards injustice, genocide, and fascism," said Stephen Kapos. "If you are indifferent, if
A Holocaust survivor opposed to Israel's war on Gaza on Wednesday told U.S. student protesters they're on the right side of history, and that the global wave of demonstrations against the slaughter and starvation of Palestinians will soon force Western leaders to face up to their complicity in genocide.
Stephen Kapos, 86, was 7 years old in 1944 when he was separated from his family during the Nazi extermination of Jews in his native Hungary. Most of his family was murdered in the Holocaust but Kapos survived and moved to the United Kingdom after the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary.
Kapos is part of a small group of Shoah survivors and their descendants who "demonstrate disagreement with the use of the Holocaust experience as a cover by the Zionists and the state of Israel." They attend protests wearing signs around their necks reading, "This Holocaust Survivor Says Stop the Genocide in Gaza!"
"As a Holocaust survivor, my message to the brave student protesters in America is just keep doing it. Don't give up," Kapos said in a video published by Double Down News. "We are doing exactly the same, and in the long term we are going to prevail."
Kapos' comments came amid a growing wave of pro-Palestine student protests—many of them Jewish-led—on dozens of U.S. university and college campuses in response to Israel's U.S.-backed war on Gaza, which the International Court of Justice in January found "plausibly" genocidal and which many Israeli and international experts say is undoubtedly a genocide.
According to Gazan and international officials, more than 122,000 Palestinians have been killed or maimed during 202 days of near-relentless Israeli attacks. This figure includes around 11,000 people who are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed-out buildings. Around 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced. Starvation and dehydration caused by Israel's bombardment and blockade of Gaza are killing children and other vulnerable people.
Instead of condemning Israeli leaders, the Biden administration has lavished them with billions of dollars in U.S. military aid while providing diplomatic cover for Israeli crimes and blocking recognition of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations.
As the suffering in Gaza continues, U.S. students have set up encampments or staged other forms of protest, some of which have been brutally repressed by police—who have also attacked and arrested journalists and bystanders.
Holocaust Survivor Stephen Kapos Questioned After He Laid Flowers at Trafalgar Square During a Gaza Protest
Stephen Kapos, an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, has been questioned by the Metropolitan Police after he laid flowers in Trafalgar Square during a pro-Palestine protest. Kapos, who survived Nazi persecution as a child in Budapest, was among nine individuals called in for questioning by authorities following the demonstration on 18 January in central London.
The event was marked by accusations…
