Dear Sir,

Against the backdrop of Hamas’s horrific assaults on Israel three months ago, and Israel’s retaliatory war in Gaza aimed at dismantling their terrorist infrastructure, the January 27 observances for 2024 World Holocaust Remembrance Day should take on heightened significance. The question is, does the world even care?

Why? Hamas’s October 7 pogrom was the worst mass tragedy for Jews since the Nazi holocaust. Recall that this bloodbath occurred on a Jewish holiday, when 3,000 terrorists and ordinary Gazans invaded southern Israel under cover of an enormous rocket barrage from Gaza, and slaughtered more than 1,200 people — mostly civilians — while abducting over 240 of all ages, including babies, young girls, and elderly Holocaust survivors.

Disturbingly, Hamas’s barbarism, the cheerleading of their supporters, and rising global anti-Semitism validated that the societal dangers from the unrestrained Jew hatred that gave rise to the Holocaust remain alive and well. Readers are reminded that the Nazis’ slaughter of six million Jews during the Holocaust was the most appalling genocide in modern history. Consider my January 2023 letter: “Remembering the Holocaust”.

But unlike the Holocaust, when some Nazi soldiers expressed shame for killing Jews, the perpetrators of October 7 not only revelled in their brutality, they proudly recorded raping, mutilating, beheading, burning, slaughtering and abducting Jews – a brazen jihadist ideology inspired by the doctrine and Covenant of Hamas.

Sadly, the inversion of reality has exacerbated Israel’s trauma — primarily as the nation of Holocaust survivors faced genocidal recriminations, when in fact it is Hamas who should be hauled before The Hague for their genocidal attacks.

Thus, again bearing witness to mass crimes targeting Jews, Israel launched a website documenting Hamas’s atrocities: https://saturday-october-seven.com/. It has already garnered more than 43 million views, and contains a strong warning for access owing to the graphic evidence of Hamas’s sordid rampage across southern Israeli towns — many were massacred while in bed — the Nova music festival and overrun military bases.

Sir, I have condemned the Holocaust and Hamas savagery. I have also joined with others in calling for the immediate release of the remaining hostages and for Hamas’s surrender, bringing an end to the miseries of Gazans, who are Hamas’s first hostages. The world allowed Hamas’s 2007 coup in Gaza against their Fatah brethren, knowing full well the diabolical beliefs of this terror group and its long-term intentions.

Finally, I would be remiss for not highlighting the tragedy that after 105 days in unimaginable captivity — possibly held deep underground in hellish conditions — Hamas’s youngest hostage, Kfir Bibas, has just turned 1.

Since “Never Again” should indeed be so, the world would do well to ensure that observances for January 27 are not hollow virtue-signalling. Particularly as Hamas brazenly stated they will repeat the October 7 attacks many times to bring about Israel’s demise, and the Palestinian populace glorifies terrorism being incentivised by their “Pay for Slay” scheme. Thus, I fully support Israel’s inherent right to self-defence.

TONY REID

Pembroke