Community upset by Nazi comment

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Jersey's Jewish community has condemned an e-mail sent by one States politician to another which likened him to a Nazi.

The remark referred to the Nuremberg trials and was sent to Jewish Senator Freddie Cohen by Senator Stuart Syvret in an e-mail about tax exemptions.

Mr Cohen complained to the Privileges and Procedures Committee, which will consider the matter next month.
Jewish Congregation president Stephen Regal said: "A more offensive or odious comment would be difficult to find."

Mr Regal said the term Nazi was abhorrent to any Jew, irrespective of the context.

He said Mr Syvret's emotive phraseology caused distress and tension within the Jewish community.

Mr Syvret told BBC News his remarks to the senator were intended to be personally insulting because of his "grotesque hypocrisy" over the 3% Goods and Services Tax (GST) which was introduced in the island in May.
"He [Mr Cohen] was elected after pledging not to tax health services, only to betray that pledge because he was asked to by other members," he said.

Mr Syvret said his remarks had been for Mr Cohen alone and strongly denied he was anti-Semitic.
Jewish authority
"I know exactly what the analogy meant - I have Jewish ancestry," he said.
"Gould was my mother's maiden name and my pregnant grandmother was deported by the Nazis."

Mr Cohen, who is an authority on the history of Jews in the Channel Islands during the German Occupation in WWII, described Mr Syvret's remarks as "extraordinary".
"They are deeply offensive, unparliamentary, wholly inappropriate and designed to inflict the most hurt," he told BBC News.

Privileges and Procedures, which deals with complaints about States members' conduct, has confirmed both the senators involved had been informed of the complaint.
Constable Derek Grey, the committee's chairman, said the matter would be discussed when the committee met again on 3 September.(from bbconline)

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