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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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 Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 9:37 pm Post subject: Holocaust survivor supports Palestinians |
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WEISS: Holocaust survivor � why I support Palestinian rights
by Suzanne Weiss - April 12, 2010
In Canada, Holocaust Memorial Day has been established by Heritage Canada to be on April 11. It is a good opportunity to review what we learn from the Holocaust experience and how we apply these lessons to the troubled situation in the Middle East.
This year, students in more than 60 cities took part in educational meetings on conditions in Palestine as part of Israeli Apartheid Week, held March 1�7. It is a controversial event, not popular in Canadian government circles. It is criticized for supposedly dishonouring the victims of Hitler�s holocaust.
I am a survivor of the Jewish Holocaust, the Nazis� mass murder of Europe�s Jews. The tragic experience of my family and community under Hitler makes me alert to the suffering of other peoples denied their human rights today � including the Palestinians.
True, Hitler�s Holocaust was unique. The Palestinians are victims of ethnic cleansing and apartheid. Hitler started with that, but went on to extermination. In my family�s city in Poland, Piotrkow, 99% of the Jews perished.
Yet for me, the Israeli government�s actions toward the Palestinians awaken horrific memories of my family�s experiences under Hitlerism: the inhuman walls, the check points, the daily humiliations, killings, diseases, the systematic deprivation. There�s no escaping the fact that Israel has occupied the entire country of Palestine, and taken most of the land, while the Palestinians have been expelled, walled off, and deprived of human rights and human dignity.
Many levels of government have recently been attacking the movement against Israeli apartheid, saying that it is anti-Jewish in character. This is bizarre. When Nelson Mandela opposed South African apartheid, was this anti-White? No, Mandela proposed that all South Africans, Whites included, join on a basis of democracy and equality in freeing the country from racial oppression. And that is precisely the proposal that the movement against Israeli apartheid makes to all inhabitants of Israel/Palestine.
We are told that Israeli Jews will never accept such a democratic solution. Why? Is there something wrong with their genes or their culture? The very notion is absurd � in fact, its logic is anti-Jewish. Opposition to Israeli apartheid is based on hope � a hope founded on the common humanity of the region�s Jewish and Palestinian inhabitants.
more at link, incl.:
Hope from Holocaust Resistance
Jewish Values Are Not Those of Israel�s Apartheid
Support from Jewish Community |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 11:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Right wing Zionists (moderate Zionists are fine) will use the race card and use the name of all Jews without permission. Morton Klein of ZOA is an example of that. He said Obama's pressure regarding settlements offendeds all Jews, though 55% of American Jews support what Obama is doing regarding Israel, at least. Did anyone poll Canadian Jews whether they consider saying Israel is an apartheid state constitutes being racist against Jews? No. Many Jews in Israel, Canada, and the US speak about apartheid. Anyway, Israel did support South Africa during apartheid, and Mandela has compared Israel to the apartheid regime and so did that famous cleric, whose name escapes me. Israel uses the holocaust, a horrible tragedy, as a political shield against Europe, the US, and Arabs and slanders Jews in many cases who disagree. |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 3:47 am Post subject: |
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I find this very interesting and reminded me of something I've always pondered....
I"ve met many Jews through my travels and time on this earth (and I'm a Jew but don't practice or consider it that important/relevant). Inevitably, the holocaust survivors I've had the honor to meet or read - don't / didn't support Israel's actions against the Palestinians. However, their sons and daughters were virulently pro Israel and if not publicly advocating Zionism and racist policies, had it in their hearts. Their attitude could be summed up by Irving Layton's famous lines wishing his son to be an IAF F-16 pilot.
I find it fascinating. Same tendency with "new immigrants" . When immigrants arrive at their "new" home , they become the most ardent conservative, anti immigration types.
Very strange - must be a gene for this.
DD
http://eflclassroom.com |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 3:19 pm Post subject: |
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| ddeubel wrote: |
I find this very interesting and reminded me of something I've always pondered....
I"ve met many Jews through my travels and time on this earth (and I'm a Jew but don't practice or consider it that important/relevant). Inevitably, the holocaust survivors I've had the honor to meet or read - don't / didn't support Israel's actions against the Palestinians. However, their sons and daughters were virulently pro Israel and if not publicly advocating Zionism and racist policies, had it in their hearts. Their attitude could be summed up by Irving Layton's famous lines wishing his son to be an IAF F-16 pilot.
I find it fascinating. Same tendency with "new immigrants" . When immigrants arrive at their "new" home , they become the most ardent conservative, anti immigration types.
Very strange - must be a gene for this.
DD
http://eflclassroom.com |
Mordechai Richler (Canada) discussed that as Jews became more established in Canada, the more we saw members of the community turn to the Right. That said, many Jews are still on the Left of the spectrum and most of the ones who live in the US opposed the War in Iraq. However, the "establishment" Jews give the appearance of the majority of Jews following them. I can't say what holocaust survivors think of Israel. I don't have any polls to go by. I have known some who were sympathetic to the Palestinians and some who were not at all.
As far as immigrants becoming very conservative, it's like becoming a convert to a religion and becoming more radical than the others. Some of the so-called neo-cons who used to be Leftists in the 60s were a disaster for America. You can find shifts within generations and sometimes within the same people.
Many Jews in Israel are angry over what occured in Ha Shoah, in the German holocaust. Some think the suffering of the holocaust survivors, which they didn't suffer from, entitles them to ignore whatever Europe or the US says.
A large percentage of young Jews in the US and Canada really don't care. Some people have tried to label intermarriage as the second holocaust. Most people of any ethnicity, whether Jewish or Arab or Greek, will marry outside of their group by the second and third generations. It's normal. |
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