We call on David Cameron to withdraw his Conservative MEPs from the group in the European Parliament led by Michal Kaminski. Jewish community leaders have warned that Kaminski, the leader of the European Conservatives and Reformists group, is a former member of Poland's notorious fascist National Revival (NOP). Kaminski is accused of being part of a group that denies one of the worst anti-Jewish atrocities in wartime Europe. Kaminski faces accusations that he used a homophobic term on Polish television in 2000 and that he used the pre-war anti-Semitic slogan 'Poland for the Poles'. We believe it is wrong for British Conservative MEPs to be part of a group led by Kaminski. We call on David Cameron to listen to mainstream Conservatives and Jewish community leaders and remove his MEPs from Kaminski's group. WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT THE TORIES' NEW ALLIES The Polish Chief Rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said, "Anyone who would want to align himself with a person who was an active member of NOP and the Committee to Defend the Good Name of Jedwabne, which was established to deny historical facts of the massacre . . . , needs to understand with what and by whom he is being represented." Rafal Pankowski of the Polish Holocaust campaign group Never Again has called on Cameron to sever his party's links with Kaminski saying, "Kaminski has an extreme-right background. To have him, of all people, the chairman of a group that legitimises far-right tendencies across Europe, is somewhat ironic. [Especially] for a leader like Cameron, who domestically opposed the BNP, for example." In the Jewish Chronicle on 23rd July 2009, Rabbi Barry Marcus said, "My stance is not a political one. I am raising the alarm because only 65 years after the most unspeakable tragedy on Polish soil and throughout Europe, there has been a right-wing resurgence which allows a person like Kaminski to be given prominence. "We are sleep-walking towards another wave of anti-Semitism. We have given these people a hechsher (seal of approval.) All of us, and I include myself, want to believe that people of goodwill, sanity and common sense will see the danger and do something, and that all this will disappear by itself, but it won't. "David Cameron has been making overtures to the Jewish community. We need to say: 'Why are you associated with people like this' The ideal thing would be to make a statement dissociating himself and the Tories from people like this." One of David Cameron's own MEPs said that we must stop the rise of a 'new face of fascism' (http://su.pr/AS491t). Edward McMillan-Scott opposed Michal Kaminski and he had the Tory Whip withdrawn for doing so.

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