Holocaust or No Holocaust?
To all commentators on a previous post who argued for and against comparing the Israeli atrocities to the holocaust, I found a relevant article:
A ‘holocaust’ for the Palestinians too
Hasan Abu Nimah
Israel and the Zionist movement have never permitted the word “holocaust” to be applied to any tragedy except that of the attempted annihilation of the Jews in Europe, perpetrated by the same countries that now look on indifferently at the suffering of the Palestinians.
Israel has tried to appropriate the debt rightly owed to Europe’s Jewish victims by their persecutors in the form of unconditional support and obedient silence, not only from the successor governments of those countries that harmed their Jewish citizens, but from everyone else in the world. In using the tragedy of European Jews for this manifestly narrow political purpose, the Zionist movement at the same time claims that keeping alive the memory of the Nazi holocaust and wider European collusion with it is a constant warning that such horrors should happen never again.
Thus, Palestinians who often complained that they alone had to bear the price of historical crimes that occurred in Europe early last century, including the destruction of their country and society, and the dispersal of the people into an excruciating exile, have been severely criticised if they ever dared to compare their own torment to that experienced by some of their Israeli tormentors at the hands of the Nazis.
Perceptions shifted suddenly, however, after Matan Vilnai, Israel’s deputy defence minister threatened the Palestinians with a “bigger shoah”, using the Hebrew word usually reserved to describe the Nazi holocaust. Immediately after that, Israel began a series of massacres, killing dozens of Palestinian civilians, as well as resistance fighters defending their beleaguered communities in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip. At last it was an Israeli minister, a partner in crime, who gave Palestinians permission to refer to their tragedy as a “holocaust”.
For many, no other word can describe the debasement of human values, of common decency that allows Israel to treat the Palestinians like nothing more than millions of troublesome animals who must be kept in a zoo. Pity the world for what it has become, and for what still awaits its people!
It is painful, even revolting, in such dark times to reduce our concerns to mere haggling over what to call our calamities rather than to commit to halting and preventing them. How can we explain the shocking, damning impotence of the self-appointed “international community” as one of the mightiest armies in the world turns its full firepower on an occupied, refugee population, using tanks, fighter planes and missiles under the most ridiculous pretexts.
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March 5th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
"It is painful, even revolting, in such dark times to reduce our concerns to mere haggling over what to call our calamities rather than to commit to halting and preventing them." this is the subject’s essence, nothin else need to be spoken.
March 5th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
We always fall for the same trap set to us by the Zoinest regime which says Israel values it’s jewish blood dearly and when one is injured by a rocket and an ounce of this blood is spilled Israel is hurting real real bad and thus may be justified in bombing the heck out of us and killing few hundreds of us. Come on people, wake up. The Zionest movement in Europe in an effort to encourage Jewish to immigrate to Palestine killed many of their people and committed crimes and atrocities agaist their own for the final goal of garnering sympathy from the Europeans as well as to make Jewish immigrate by convincing them it is too dangerous to stay among Europeans, that they always blamed the Europeans for such killings was a BONUS. Living in the safe environment of Jordan, or the Gulf or Europe or America we can always advice our people back home to carry on the with fighting Goliath and disturbing his sleep, if they finish Hamas and it’s leaders and it’s grass roots ( a million?) and countless children and civilians which we seem to envisage or at least not rule out, it is alright , others will take their place! Please don’t give example of Veitnam and General Jiab, the times were different, the world was polarized between West and Russia, they had staunch supporters in China and Russia, large populations , jungles and sympathtic world plus the American public opinions misgivings which tilted the scales in favour of Veitnam. Palestinians have none of the above I don’t doubt the patriotism of any or their love for their people and their homes and lands but can’t we see the Israeli lies for what they are, can’t we see we are all alone in a highly mismatched contest? can’t we see how much Israel loves some volatile and charismatic Palestinian leaders as they help them along in committing more atrocities? can’t we see that should our rockets finish Israel is going to supply us some more of course equally more bark and no bite. Many writers admit that Israel can destroy Hamas and kill all but are not doing it because they are scared of getting more radical movements, don’t think this is the real reason, Israelis of course wish that they wake up one day and find the Palestinian gone forever, they want to kill all but they will do it at a time of their choosing and they believe they have all the time in the world to do it so are not in real hurry. It is matter of logistics for them, a matter of how and when meanwhile if we can help them along it is a BONUS</p>
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March 5th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Perhaps that’s true, Abdullah. Ironically enough, though, that is exactly what the author has engaged in. <br /><br />Rhetoric and terms of discourse <span style="font-style: italic;">do</span> matter, albeit in small measure compared to preventing man-made calamities.<br /><br />And I’ll reserve any other comments I have about this piece for the time being, although I’m not sure how long I can hold my tongue.<br />
March 5th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
""
<p>There should be an end to the mantra that Israel’s actions are justified “self-defence” against Qassam rockets. If these rockets are so “futile”, as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said, or “laughable caricatures”, as Egypt’s foreign minister mocked, why should Israel not just laugh at them and mock them instead of perpetrating bloody massacres against innocent people who did not in fact launch them?</p>
<p>Apparently they are not that futile. Despite their modest impact and the limited casualties and damage they caused, they succeeded in one important way: they have denied Israel the luxury of enjoying the fruits of occupation and colonisation in peace and quiet without being reminded of the continued troublesome existence of its victims.</p>
<p>Israel’s goal is to eradicate any form of resistance, even if entirely non-violent. The rockets are a mere excuse. Had there been no rockets, would Israel have responded positively to Hamas’ many truce overtures? And there are no rockets coming from the West Bank, and yet that has not stopped Israel from carrying out daily attacks, kidnappings, extrajudicial murders, land theft and colonisation.""</p>
<p>Israel love these rockets and you are right they are being used as pretext to punish and kill. Are they futile? Yes. Did they prevent Israel from enjoying the fruits of occupation? No, they did not. But Israel would like you and the whole world to think they do. Do they help Israel sow destruction and terror with impunity? Yes..Israel left Gazza because it is too populated and nothing is there for them but the sparsely populated green, milk and honey West Bank is another matter where they still can comfortably fit in couple of million jewish immigrants.</p>