Full and frank disclosure
I met the late Dr Hans Joachim ‘Hajo’ Meyer, a Jewish Dutch Physicist, on 19 November 2005 in Brussels, where we shared a platform at a meeting in defence of Palestinian human and national rights. At that meeting I heard him draw a comparison between Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and the way he was treated by the Nazi regime.
I did not protest at the time or subsequently against him making this comparison, as I felt that he – as a surviver of Kristallnacht and Auschwitz – had a full right to express his view about his own experience.
I remained in touch with Hajo until his death, and counted him as a friend, a feeling that he reciprocated. I am honoured and privileged to have had that great man as a personal friend.
Moshé Machover