Fight oppression, but leave the Nazis out of it

In our fight to prevent eviction, we squatters commissioned one among us who could do graphics. This was before Apple Macs, and the work was done with Letraset and wild exaggeration; when our artist unveiled his creation, already printed by the hundred, I was mortified. Above a picture of what appeared to be two people in an empty flat in their underwear, were the words "What does Camden council have in common with the Nazi Party? The Final Solution." I did a lot of work with scissors that night.

OK, so we did have justice on our side; there was little need for the council to chuck us out because London at that time had thousands of empty council flats (one could justifiably say the capital looked quite pokey from the exterior but was surprisingly spacious once you got inside). One could also say that we were victims – of inefficiency, bureaucracy, a lack of compassion and a prejudice against squatters. But our victimhood extended only as far as the next block along, where most of us found alternative accommodation. And yes, the council was completely unsympathetic to the idea that we had to live somewhere, and it used spectacular statistical ruses to prove to us that all the flats that had steel shutters on the doors and windows were not empty, merely resting. I think I might even say the council was not being honest. But I don't think I would compare it to the Nazis.

Comparisons with the Third Reich are almost never valid. They are made because the Holocaust is the worst thing anyone can think of, so people are always trying to suggest that other things are equally bad. But if all these things were as bad, the Holocaust would not be used as a benchmark, as it would be seen as an everyday occurrence.

Nonetheless, a day does not pass without someone comparing something to the Holocaust, whether it's factory farming or the treatment of Palestinians by Israel. In my view, a thing is wrong because it is wrong, not because it bears comparison with something else that's wrong. Ariel Sharon is a racist and, arguably, a fascist, but he's not Adolf Hitler.

Although there are many Jewish people, including Israelis, who draw the parallels with Nazi Germany, I still squirm when I hear them. There are a number of reasons for this.

A day does not pass without someone comparing something to the Holocaust, whether factory farming or the treatment of Palestinians by Israel

For one thing, the oppression of the Palestinians is bad enough not to need verification by comparison with something else, either with the Holocaust or apartheid. The latter bears a stronger similarity, but even so, can't we just see the occupation of Palestine for what it is? It's brutal and colonial and unjustifiable – isn't that enough?

The comparisons with Nazi Germany are made for a specific reason: Jews suffered at the hands of the Nazis and Israel is a Jewish state. But a time will come when someone asks me (again), "How can a people who have suffered so much inflict such suffering upon others?" and I will punch them full in the face and shout: "Firstly, think of something new to say; your observation is on a par with 'it's not what you know, it's who you know'. Secondly, Jewish people are not collectively responsible for the crimes of the Israeli government. And thirdly, don't you know that suffering isn't good for people?" One of the most clearly observable facts about human nature is that a sense of victimhood sometimes makes us empathise with the suffering of others, and sometimes makes us take our pain out on them. And for Jewish people not to have a sense of victimhood would be a miracle that would make Moses look like Paul Daniels.

Israeli historian Ilan Pappe called the Palestinians "the victims' victims", but that is perhaps unfair to those Jews who suffered under the Nazis but still vocally champion the Palestinians.