Gerald Kaufman

Sir Gerald Bernard Kaufman (June 21, 1930 – 26 February 2017) was a British politician and author who served as a minister throughout the Labour government of 1974 to 1979. First elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) at the 1970 general election, he became Father of the House in 2015 and served in this role until his death in 2017.

Quotes

 * It is time to remind [Ariel] Sharon that the star of David belongs to all Jews, not to his repulsive Government. His actions are staining the star of David with blood. The Jewish people, whose gifts to civilised discourse include Einstein and [Jacob] Epstein, Mendelssohn and Mahler, Sergei Eisenstein and Billy Wilder, are now symbolised throughout the world by the blustering bully Ariel Sharon, a war criminal implicated in the murder of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila camps and now involved in killing Palestinians once again.
 * Speech to the House of Commons, as cited in: Stuart Littlewood (14 January 2009). "Could the Rising Anger of British MPs Shake America’s Complacency?". Middle East Online. Retrieved on 18 January 2009.
 * This speech related to Israel's military operation codenamed Defensive Wall

Speech to the House of Commons (16 January 2009)

 * In January 2009, during the Israel-Gaza Conflict, Kaufman gave a speech to the House of Commons. Source: UK Jewish MP: Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza. Youtube (16 January 2009). Retrieved on 2009-01-18.


 * My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town of Staszów. A German soldier shot her dead in her bed. Madam Deputy Speaker, my grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza. The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploit the continuing guilt among Gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians. The implication is that Jewish lives are precious, but the lives of Palestinians do not count. On Sky News a few days ago, the spokeswoman for the Israeli Army Major Livovich was asked about the Israeli killing of, at that time, eight hundred Palestinians. The total is now a thousand. She replied instantly, "Five hundred of them were militants." That was the reply of a Nazi. I suppose the Jews fighting for their lives in the Warsaw Ghetto could have been dismissed as militants.


 * Hamas is a deeply nasty organisation, but it was democratically elected, and it is the only game in town. The boycotting of Hamas, including by our Government, has been a culpable error, from which dreadful consequences have followed.


 * It's time for our government to make clear to the Israeli government that its conduct and policies are unacceptable and to impose a total arms ban on Israel. It is time for peace, but real peace, not the solution by conquest, which is the Israelis' real goal, but which is impossible for them to achieve. They're not simply war criminals; they're fools.

Quotes about Kaufman

 * Gerald had the sharpest tongue of any Labour politician. Though not a dislikeable man, he enjoyed being disliked. He was a politician through and through, but in the old style. Not for him the pink-cheeked hypocrisy of New Labour. He had learned his trade in the bowels of the old Labour Party and practised it in the service of Harold Wilson as Prime Minister. He was a cynic who loved intrigue, but deep down there was a sentimental core. He wrote the funniest book available on the art of being a minister.
 * Douglas Hurd, Memoirs (2003), p. 291