Glenn Strachan mentioned an article in his facebook page today about a rather sensitive topic: the use, or abuse of the holocaust within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
Palestinians’ Plight, Holocaust Are Not Analogous
I began commenting back, but it was getting a bit too long, so figured I might as well do it here on my blog.
I think it’s sad that the claim even needs to be made, that the Palestinians’ plight and the holocaust are not analogous. Anyone comparing ANYTHING to Auschwitz is simply ignorant, IMO. Nothing compares and hopefully nothing will compare, ever.
There are a lot of aspects to the holocaust – it was never a single event – but the “hardcore” death camps are beyond comparison to anything else.
My great grandmother was taken with the people of their village from their homes. They were forced to dig a mass grave in the woods and shot right into it. That too was the holocaust – it wasn’t all the efficient Auschwitz machines. As an event, I suppose similar cruel mass murders of innocent civilians have happened elsewhere in the world too (hopefully not too often). Rwanda maybe? And obviously, even that is remote and has nothing to do with anything going on with the Palestinians these days. There is a lot suffering, granted, but nothing on the scale of the holocaust. Not close.
Now, in my experience, I have heard the argument that shocked post-WW2 public opinion, besieged with guilt, was the reason behind the UN vote in 1948 supporting the establishment of the State of Israel. In that context, some argue that the very fact that the holocaust took place, generated the stream of events leading to the establishment of Israel. One could argue about the validity of this argument, and I won’t go into that right here. My point is that this argument does NOT say that the suffering of the holocaust is in any way or form analogous to what the suffering of the Palestinians.
To even imply that Gaza, a hell hole I would rather give up a limb than live in right now, is remotely similar to any Nazi concentration camp is just stupid and plain ignorant. It’s bad enough as it is in Gaza – really no need to bring in the holocaust into this.
