Letter of the week: The truth about Haavara
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By New Statesman Photo by Instants/ Getty Images Your letter of the week (Correspondence, 10 December) made an excellent general point about the predicament facing refugees. One sentence, however, stands out like a sore thumb: “Zionists in Palestine agreed to accept wealthy Jews under the 1933 Haavara trade agreement with the Third Reich because they could share the economic spoils.” This is completely garbled. Palestine at the time was under British rule, not that of “Zionists”. The agreement presupposed British restrictions on the economic status of Jewish immigrants into Palestine. It followed a Nazi boycott of Jewish-owned businesses in Germany and it enabled around 60,000 German Jews, not all of them “wealthy”, to escape the approaching Holocaust. Even so, the agreement split Jews worldwide. In short, the topic is complex, the circumstances were dire in the extreme, and Zionists were deeply divided over negotiating with the devil. You do not have to be a Zionist to object to the distortions in this sentence, whose connotations, moreover, are toxic. To continue reading this article Register now for 3 free articles a month or Subscribe for 12 weeks for just US$24 Already have an Account? Sign in here UK Politics Energy and Climate Change UK Content from our partners The truth about employability Ewan McCall Why we need a Minister for Citizen Experience The Serco Institute Look at the person, not the CV Richard Hamer Newsletters from the New Statesman View all newsletters Subscribe for the best of our politics, international affairs, culture and business coverage, straight to your inbox Sign up here Select and enter your email address Morning Call Quick and essential guide to domestic and global politics from the New Statesman's politics team. The Crash A weekly newsletter helping you fit together the pieces of the global economic slowdown. 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