Britain's first official ceremony commemorating the victims of the Holocaust to be held late Saturday and attended by Prime Minister Tony Blair has left the country's press divided.
"Admirable though its purpose and the intentions of its creators may be, this innovation's chance of lasting success remains uncertain," said the left-leaning daily Guardian
But while displaying skepticism for the hour-long ceremony to be held the country's parliament in London, the Guardian praised the attempt to "inculcate the virtues of tolerance and individual responsibility into political consciousness."
The right-leaning Daily Telegraph, however, accused Blair and Home Secretary Jack Straw of using the occasion to pursue their own interests.
"This newspaper is not alone in suggesting that the prime minister and others have appropriated the occasion for their own purposes," the Telegraph said.
"This exploitation of the Holocaust has been criticised as much on the Left as on the Right, not least by Jewish writers," the paper added.
Britain's chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks supported the initiative in a letter to the Times, saying what the "Holocaust must teach us is not what it means to be a Jew, but what it means to be human and to acknowledge the humanity of others."
Holocaust Memorial Day has already turned into a diplomatic headache for the British authorities, having been criticised by some Jews, and Queen Elizabeth has turned down a invitation to attend.
Meanwhile, fears have been voiced that ethnic Armenians will attempt to disrupt its central ceremony over massacres of their forebears at the hands of Turks early in the 20th century. That could damage Britain's relations with Turkey -- LONDON (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
