HuffPo Posts Anti-Semitic Screed on Holocaust Remembrance Day

On Wednesday, the Huffington Post posted an article by self-described journalist Sophia Eribo that was nothing less than an anti-Semitic screed. The article itself overtly trafficked in Holocaust denial on Holocaust Remembrance Day. But since the Huffington Post routinely crosses over into anti-Semitism, that shouldn’t be any shock.

The piece begins by stating that January 27 was a “time to reflect on the horror that was the Holocaust.” But then it quickly descends into insanity:

But wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was such a day to commemorate the millions of black African victims of slavery? Unlike the “six million” figure that so often goes with statistic about the number of Jews killed during the Second World War, it’s not so easy to quantify when it comes to black slaves.

Yes, the article contained scare quotes around the number six million. Because it’s not like we’re certain that there were that many dead Jews, right? The awkwardness of this open Holocaust pooh-poohing led the Post to issue a rare editor’s note:

This blog previously contained quotation marks around the six million figure on Holocaust deaths. The author did not mean to cast doubt over the figure, it was meant as a quotation. We apologise for any offence this caused.

What, exactly, was the author quoting? Nobody knows. Unless it was Norman Finkelstein.

The author continued in this vein. After dismissing Jewish worries about rising European anti-Semitism resulting in mass exodus from France (“it’s heartening to see the number of Jews that have pointed out the economic circumstances tied to these departures”), Eribo then turns to the Jewish conspiracy more broadly:

Let’s not forget that nowadays, Jewish lobbying and interest groups are quite powerful in the UK and the US. Israel, the country viewed as the Jewish homeland, is a powerful country with even more powerful world allies.

Well, guess that means the Holocaust doesn’t matter any more. Clearly, anti-Semitism has been stamped out, as evidenced by this author suggesting that the Jews are supremely powerful and that Israel is the supposed Jewish homeland rather than the actual Jewish homeland. But Eribo continues:

It’s telling that South Africa is often seen as the most attractive place on the African continent, be it for tourism, investment or emigration. South Africa – a country ruled by whites under an apartheid system until 1994. For Jewish people, there can be no more victim mentality, no rush to all blame slights and injustices on anti-semitism. Perhaps it’s this (what can be perceived as) victim mentality, that causes certain other minority groups to feel a resentment that can be mistaken for, or even turn into, anti-semitism.

One can only assume that this barely-literate nonsense means to compare Israel with apartheid South Africa, suggest that the powerful hook-nosed Jewish lobby prevents Israel from being treated like an international pariah, and then blame anti-Semitism on those crazy Jews who think a disproportionate number of Europeans hate them based on evidence of a disproportionate number of Europeans hating them.

Eribo concludes by stating that she is not, in fact, an anti-Semite. This contention is not quite convincing:

I run the risk of being labelled an anti-semite, but I’m not. I’ll trot out that well-worn defence against every sort of “ism”, but it’s true – my best friend is a half-Israeli, secular Jew.

And David Duke probably has a black friend he calls upon in times of special need.

The argument that the world should remember black slavery – and the current suffering of Africans, who are being slaughtered by the thousands, many in the name of radical Islam – is a compelling one. So compelling, in fact, that the Slavery Remembrance Day has been instituted by the United Nations since 2008. But that has nothing to do with the Jews. The fact that The Huffington Post would see fit to run a piece making that argument by slandering Jews on Holocaust Remembrance Day demonstrates where that publication’s true heart lies.

Ben Shapiro is Senior Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the new book, The People vs. Barack Obama: The Criminal Case Against The Obama Administration (Threshold Editions, June 10, 2014). He is also Editor-in-Chief of TruthRevolt.org. Follow Ben Shapiro on Twitter @benshapiro.