Outrage over ‘naked intimidation’ of Muslim charity’s call to boycott Holocaust Memorial Day

The IHRC’s current chair, Massoud Shadjareh, blamed “Zionist financiers abroad” for the far-right riots that swept England last summer. In 2008 he reportedly wrote that “we are all Hezbollah”.

Lord Austin, who sits as a life peer in the House of Lords, said the boycott call was “despicable” and Lord Pickles, the Special Envoy for post-Holocaust issues and the co-chair of the UK’s Holocaust Foundation, said that HMDT should be “congratulated” for standing up to the “naked intimidation” of the IHRC.

This year will mark 80 years since the liberation the German death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945. It will also mark 30 years since the genocide in Bosnia and remember victims of other genocides, including Rwanda and Darfur.

Marks told the JC: “At the heart of Holocaust Memorial Day is the Holocaust, the systematic murder of 6 million Jewish souls by the Nazis.

“We also commemorate non-Jewish victims of the Nazis and subsequent genocides as recognised by His Majesty’s government who founded, fund and support Holocaust Memorial Day.

“Politicising the day and encouraging boycott of it is dangerous, divisive and encourages distortion of the facts around the Holocaust. We are appalled and we encourage everyone to engage in this anniversary year for the future of us all.”

A spokesperson from the Community Security Trust (CST) told the JC: “The Islamic Human Rights Commission is an extreme, pro-Iranian organisation that has been campaigning for years to undermine Holocaust Memorial Day, and their boycott call is entirely typical of their appalling attitude to this important day.

“At a time where anti-Jewish racism is at an all-time high, it is more important than ever before to educate future generations of the atrocities that took place to ensure that history can never repeat itself.”

Lord Austin, who sits as a life peer in the House of Lords, told the JC that calls for the boycott and the “cynical linking” of the Holocaust to current events in the Middle East are “despicable”.

“I urge any public bodies to recognise this attempted boycott is the work of extremist forces who seek to undermine British values and society and pose a threat to the Jewish community.”

He added that Holocaust Memorial Day has “rightly” enjoyed cross-party support for many years.

Lord Pickles, the Special Envoy for post-Holocaust issues and the co-chair of the UK’s Holocaust Foundation, said that the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust should be “congratulated” for standing up to the “naked intimidation” of the IHRC.

Speaking to the JC, he said: “The Holocaust was unique; as the distinguished historian the late David Cesarani once said to me, the Holocaust was a systematic and planned attempt to murder European Jewry and to use the resources and methods of production of a modern state to achieve this.

“The uniqueness of the Shoah framed the last half of the twentieth century, and continues to define our own.”​

He added that this year is likely to be the last significant anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, where survivors will be present, noting that they “deserve the respect and reassurance of a dignified remembrance of the murdered Six Million Jews”.

Last year, participation at Holocaust Memorial Day dropped by almost 20 per cent, according to organisers, who said October 7 and the rise in antisemitism impacted engagement in events.

While 4,500 organisations participated on the day in 2023, this dropped to 3,700 in 2024.

Speaking at Limmud, Phil Rosenberg, the President of the Board of Deputies, said the Board was “anxious” about the prospect of a drop in participation for a second year.

Karen Pollock CBE, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, told the JC that the planned boycott was “shocking” and “disgraceful”.

“This is a cynical attempt to denigrate and undermine the memory of the Holocaust by drawing false parallels between the Holocaust – a unique and unprecedented episode in history – and unrelated current events,” she said.

“Such demands, including calls to make the day ‘more inclusive’ or to insert contemporary political agendas, not only insult the memory of the six million Jewish men, women, and children who were systematically murdered but also undermine the fundamental purpose of Holocaust Memorial Day: to honour the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and to ensure its lessons serve as a stark warning against the dangers of antisemitism.”

She called on recipients of the “divisive letter” to reject the demands and reaffirm their commitment to the “true purpose” of Holocaust Memorial Day.

The CEO of the Holocaust Memorial Trust, CEO Olivia Marks-Woldman, said there was a “inevitable concern” about disengagement from the commemorative day, particularly in schools, local authorities, universities, and further education colleges.

“We’re doing all that we can to mitigate disengagement and call on the Jewish community to support their local Holocaust Memorial Day event and help organisations ensure that it is run with integrity and commemorates the murder of Jewish people,” she said.

2025’s theme is ‘For a Better Future’ and organisers have stated that, following a rise in both antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred in the UK since October 7, they hoped that the day would be “be an opportunity for people to come together, learn both from and about the past and take actions to make a better future for all”.

This year, organisers are running a ‘Light in Darkness’ campaign, which asks people put a candle in their window at 8pm on January 27 to “remember those who were murdered for who they were”, and “stand against prejudice and hatred today”.

Speaking to the JC, Marks-Woldman said the IHRC’s boycott call was “beyond frustrating and disappointing.

“Nationally and locally we will be learning the lessons from the past, and our team is working hard to make sure that, as usual, thousands of events mark Holocaust Memorial Day appropriately with its focus on the unique crime that was the Holocaust.”

The IHRC said: “No amount of rehashed false accusations and demonisation of our organisation will undermine our concern that Holocaust and genocide memorials, founded on the principle of ‘never again,’ are being rendered meaningless when the genocide of our time, unfolding before our very eyes, is deliberately ignored.”