The Holocaust should be a lesson not a template

Written By: - Date published: 10:52 pm, November 11th, 2023 - 19 comments
Categories: israel, Palestine, Peace, war, Zionism - Tags:

Cross posted from Pearls and Irritations for Armistice Day.

“Jewish people exterminating men, women and children in a concentration camp is _______.”

How do you finish a sentence like that? The words should fall like acid into your ear drums. It should be an impossible sentence. And yet, not so. We are witnessing it today in Gaza – the world’s largest open-air prison, home and hell to 2.3 million brutally repressed human beings – carried out by the Jewish State of Israel. Genocide.

If the word seems excessive, then listen to leading Israeli politicians in their own words. Israeli government minister Amichai Eliyahu endorses using a nuclear bomb against Gaza – and told the Times of Israel that the whole Gaza Strip should be conquered and resettled.

A senior member of Likud and recent minister Galit Distal Atbaryan said Israel must invest all its energy “in one thing: erasing all of Gaza from the face of the Earth.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the coded word Amalek in a recent speech. He said: “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember.”

Netanyahu was sending a message of genocidal intent from the Prophet Samuel:

“I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant called the people of Gaza (over 1 million of whom are children) “human animals”. It was he who ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza, cutting off water, food, fuel and electricity.

Moshe Feiglin, a former deputy speaker of the Israeli Knesset, calls for a “non-nuclear” Hiroshima. The President of Israel says anyone left in the north of Gaza is either a terrorist or a terrorist sympathiser. Israel has so far slaughtered over 4000 terrorist babies and children.

Unlike the Six Million, these victims are in our midst, are right here, right now. Hundreds of jurists and genocide scholars worldwide have signed letters declaring Gaza a genocidal siege. Israeli Holocaust scholar Raz Segal calls it a textbook case of genocide.

Many thousands of Jewish people all over the world are putting their bodies on the line, and are raising their voices to say Not In Our Name. Four hundred Jewish Americans were arrested in the US Capitol, hundreds more in Grand Central Station New York, hundreds in Wall Street, hundreds of Jewish Voices for Peace protesters in Canada. Heroic Israeli Jews are doing the same at great personal risk within the borders of the Jewish State.

It now appears clear that the Highest Stage of Zionism is Genocide for the Palestinians. The Oslo Accords, signed exactly 30 years ago, was a hollow promise of a two-state solution. PLO/Fatah renounced war with Israel in 1993 and what have they got in return? Blockades, dispossession and repression. Settlers are stealing more land and shooting Palestinians at will in the West Bank, hospitals are being bombed in Gaza, refugee camps flattened under heavy bombardment.

Hamas today is the bitter fruit of US-Israeli betrayal of the Palestinians.

When he spoke at the UN in September this year, Netanayahu showed a map of a “New Middle East”. Absent from the map was Palestine – Gaza, the West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights were all incorporated into Greater Israel.

Mekomit, an Israeli news site, released a leaked Israeli Ministry of Intelligence “concept paper” a couple of weeks ago. Key points: drive the Gazans to the southern end of the Strip. Clear an opening at Rafah. Establish tent cities in the Egyptian Sinai. In other words: kill or ethnically cleanse 2.3 million Palestinians, ending their long life in Gaza. Netanyahu’s office says it only represents “initial thoughts”.

Where will it end? What depths of depravity will the Western World, including influential parts of the Jewish community, tolerate?

Silence is complicity.

Worse, the Western World is sending bombs, bullets, shells and missiles to enable the dark night of the Palestinian people to get darker. We are witnessing the unmasking of America, the scraping out of the last flesh of decency from the dark heart of Europe and the settler colonies like New Zealand, Canada, Australia. We’re turning a blind eye to what Al Jazeera is showing us daily. We are turning a deaf ear to the screams of dying children.

I was taught a long time ago that if we deny evil, we deceive ourselves; and there ends up being no truth, no decency in us. We become empty nobodies. We become our own punishment. Look at what Israel itself has become.

If Gaza becomes a charnel house for the Palestinians, it won’t just desecrate all memorials to the Six Million, it will be a collective and eternal stain on our entire generation.

On the front page of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is displayed the oft-quoted words of Pastor Martin Niemoller urging us to not ignore the persecution of others because, as he himself found out when the Gestapo sent him to Sachsenhausen, then Dachau concentration camps, your turn may soon follow. I would update his poem with just one stanza:

Then They Came for the Palestinians

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Palestinian.

Eugene Doyle is a community organiser and activist in Wellington. He received an Absolutely Positively Wellingtonian award in 2023 for community service.  His first demonstration was at the age of 12 against the Vietnam War.

19 comments on “The Holocaust should be a lesson not a template ”

  1. UncookedSelachimorpha 1
    12 November 2023 at 3:05 am

    Well, that is one side of the story. And very much only one side.

    The fighting in Gaza is terrible – but it isn't the holocaust. Both sides are fighting and are committed to continue to fight.

    Reply
  2. joe90 2
    12 November 2023 at 7:25 am

    Netanyahu’s office says it only represents “initial thoughts”.

    More initial thoughts..

    5Pillars

    @5Pillarsuk

    While the world debates the legality of what Israel is doing in Gaza, Israeli leaders themselves have been crystal clear about their intent. But is anyone listening?

    https://twitter.com/5Pillarsuk/status/1722564050154840439

    Reply
  3. barry 3
    12 November 2023 at 9:01 am

    Netanyahu is recruiting for Hamas, but he doesn't care because it keeps Israelis living in fear and voting for him, and those like him. Hamas doesn't care either, as they know they will win in the end and the sacrifices are necessary.

    Likud and Hamas need each other. The more suffering they inflict, the better for their movements.

    Reply
    • bwaghorn 3.1
      12 November 2023 at 9:38 am

      Doodling round on you tube yesterday I found Netanyahu telling me that before the jeep returned to Isreal it was an uninhabited wasteland,? And that Palestine never actually existed, till they all came back to suckle on the teeth of Isreal!(my words)

      Any truth in it?

      Reply
      • barry 3.1.1
        12 November 2023 at 10:28 am

        At the beginning of last century Palestine was occupied by the Ottoman empire, but the Turks never colonised as much as the British. The majority of the population were arabs. There were muslim arabs, and christian arabs and jewish arabs. Hebrew was only spoken in worship/study, (like latin or coptic in christian churches). Most of Palestine would have been like the west bank now (at least the areas undisturbed by Israeli settlers) with olive trees, and small farms. The different religious groups squabbled but mostly tolerated each other and lived in relative harmony.

        The jewish immigrants (mostly from Europe) during the British occupation after WW1mostly did not like what they found and set about changing it to look more like Europe. One group's "wasteland" is another's paradise.

        Reply
        • bwaghorn 3.1.1.1
          12 November 2023 at 10:49 am

          One group's "wasteland" is another's paradise.

          Aaagh I see, if you not a progressive aspirational ring the death out of it kinda winner you don't exsist

          Reply
        • Visubversa 3.1.1.2
          12 November 2023 at 11:10 am

          If you go back to the so called "Crusades" of the 13th Century etc, the "infidels" who the European Christianists were seeking to remove from the "Holy Lands" were not the Jews. They were Arabs.

          Reply
          • SPC 3.1.1.2.1
            12 November 2023 at 11:17 am

            A bit misleading given what happened with the First Crusade 1096-1100CE

            https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/opinion/sunday/the-first-victims-of-the-first-crusade.html

            Reply
            • Visubversa 3.1.1.2.1.1
              12 November 2023 at 12:59 pm

              Except – that was not in the "Holy Lands".

              Reply
              • SPC …
                12 November 2023 at 1:02 pm

                They killed Jews at Jerusalem when they arrived. The non Christian civilians Jewish and Moslems.

                It began that way and continued.

                Reply
            • adam 3.1.1.2.1.2
              13 November 2023 at 3:07 am

              Pay walled link.

              So did it say Orthodox Christians were the first to get it in the neck by the western crusaders? Because they dressed different, and the Greek was hard to understand.

              Reply
              • SPC …
                13 November 2023 at 2:07 pm

                A later crusade sacked the Byzantine capital and looted the treasury and reduced the population from 500,000 to 50,000 (they had done something similar just before – sacking and looting a city and been excommunicated for it, so did that an established kingdoms for themselves in Anatolia instead of attacking Moslems in Palestine).

                However the first crusade occurred because a Byzantine Emperor asked the west for help, so no.

                Reply
                • adam …
                  16 November 2023 at 12:11 am

                  The writer from the New York Times is an idiot. When the first crusaders came out of Byzantine into the holy lands, it was Orthodox Christians who they slaughtered on mass all the way to Jeruslium. The crusaders were classic idiots.

                  Yes, they killed the Islamic leaders and military in the area as well. At this point many in the population were still Christian. They paid more tax, but not much. Plus the wars between Byzantine and Abbasids, made the boarder feel more flexible than they were.

                  The fourth crusade is a text book operation in abject stupidity.

                  Reply
    • SPC 3.2
      12 November 2023 at 11:24 am

      Sure Hamas and Likud both want to be government of a nation from the river to the sea.

      Thus neither are part of the/a peace process.

      The problem is they each have support from sectors of the two populations.

      Reply
  4. Adrian 4
    12 November 2023 at 10:17 am

    My father was in Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine with the NZEF in WW2 and said of all the peoples around that area the Kiwis got on very well with the Palestinians as they were generally the friendliest, most honest and trustworthy of all the people of that area. They are being badly served by the UN.

    Reply
  5. SPC 5
    12 November 2023 at 11:12 am

    The President of Israel says anyone left in the north of Gaza is either a terrorist or a terrorist sympathiser. Israel has so far slaughtered over 4000 terrorist babies and children.

    The only thing I can find on the net related to the words is this

    "Being in the north of the Gaza Valley puts your lives in danger," it said, adding that "anyone who does not go to the south of the Gaza Valley and chooses not to stay in the northern area" will be considered "as an associate of the terrorist organization."

    Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee confirmed that the statements written on the flyers belonged to the Israeli army.

    https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/civilians-who-dont-leave-northern-gaza-to-be-considered-associate-of-terrorists-israel/3028638

    The President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, is from the Labour Party not Likud.

    And the article claim is untrue.

    Reply
  7. adam 7
    13 November 2023 at 3:00 am

    War begets war

    Fun times for worshipers of death

    Scum rises to the top

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN5FgiwYGp0

    Reply
  8. georgecom 8
    13 November 2023 at 9:22 pm

    might be wise for the leaders of Israel to remember what the Nazis did in Warsaw during ww2. some real similarities. regardless of the wrong on both sides, and there are wrongs and atrocities committed by both sides, if the Jewish leaders expect the world to have sympathies for them given what they went through in ww2 and their desire for a homeland, then they should apply the same to Gaza in 2023.

    An alternative is that the religious and hardline leaders of Hamas, Israel and Hezbollah are 'retired' and those who want to give peace a chance replace them.

    Reply

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  • MICHAEL BASSETT: A new Ministry – at last
    Michael Bassett writes – Like most people, I was getting heartily sick of all the time being wasted over the coalition negotiations. During the first three weeks Winston grinned like a Cheshire cat, certain he’d be needed; Chris Luxon wasted time in lifting the phone to Winston ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • Luxon's Breakfast.
    The Prime Minister elect had his silver fern badge on. He wore it to remind viewers he was supporting New Zealand, that was his team. Despite the fact it made him look like a concierge, or a welcomer in a Koru lounge. Anna Burns-Francis, the Breakfast presenter, asked if he ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago

  • LINDSAY MITCHELL:  Oranga Tamariki faces major upheaval under coalition agreement
     Lindsay Mitchell writes – A hugely significant gain for ACT is somewhat camouflaged by legislative jargon. Under the heading ‘Oranga Tamariki’ ACT’s coalition agreement contains the following item:   Remove Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 According to Oranga Tamariki:     “Section ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • BRIAN EASTON:  Peters as Minister
    A previous column looked at Winston Peters biographically. This one takes a closer look at his record as a minister, especially his policy record. Brian Easton writes – 1990-1991: Minister of Māori Affairs. Few remember Ka Awatea as a major document on the future of Māori policy; there is ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • Cathrine Dyer's guide to watching COP 28 from the bottom of a warming planet
    Is COP28 largely smoke and mirrors and a plan so cunning, you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel? Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: COP28 kicks off on November 30 and up for negotiation are issues like the role of fossil fuels in the energy transition, contributions to ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago

  • Top 10 news links at 10 am for Monday, Nov 27
    PM Elect Christopher Luxon was challenged this morning on whether he would sack Adrian Orr and Andrew Coster.TL;DR: Here’s my pick of top 10 news links elsewhere at 10 am on Monday November 27, including:Signs councils are putting planning and capital spending on hold, given a lack of clear guidance ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago

  • Gordon Campbell on the new government’s policies of yesteryear
    This column expands on a Werewolf column published by Scoop on Friday Routinely, Winston Peters is described as the kingmaker who gets to decide when the centre right or the centre-left has a turn at running this country. He also plays a less heralded but equally important role as the ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    4 days ago

  • The New Government’s Agreements
    Last Friday, almost six weeks after election day, National finally came to an agreement with ACT and NZ First to form a government. They also released the agreements between each party and looking through them, here are the things I thought were the most interesting (and often concerning) from the. ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    4 days ago

  • How many smokers will die to fund the tax cuts?
    Maori and Pasifika smoking rates are already over twice the ‘all adult’ rate. Now the revenue that generates will be used to fund National’s tax cuts. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The devil is always in the detail and it emerged over the weekend from the guts of the policy agreements National ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago

  • How the culture will change in the Beehive
    Perhaps the biggest change that will come to the Beehive as the new government settles in will be a fundamental culture change. The era of endless consultation will be over. This looks like a government that knows what it wants to do, and that means it knows what outcomes ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    4 days ago

  • No More Winnie Blues.
    So what do you think of the coalition’s decision to cancel Smokefree measures intended to stop young people, including an over representation of Māori, from taking up smoking? Enabling them to use the tax revenue to give other people a tax cut?David Cormack summed it up well:It seems not only ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago

  • 2023 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #47
    A chronological listing of news and opinion articles posted on the Skeptical Science  Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Nov 19, 2023 thru Sat, Nov 25, 2023.  Story of the Week World stands on frontline of disaster at Cop28, says UN climate chief  Exclusive: Simon Stiell says leaders must ‘stop ...
    Skeptical Science
    5 days ago

  • Some of it is mad, some of it is bad and some of it is clearly the work of people who are dangerous ...
    On announcement morning my mate texted:Typical of this cut-price, fake-deal government to announce itself on Black Friday.What a deal. We lose Kim Hill, we gain an empty, jargonising prime minister, a belligerent conspiracist, and a heartless Ayn Rand fanboy. One door closes, another gets slammed repeatedly in your face.It seems pretty ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago

  • “Revolution” is the threat as the Māori Party smarts at coalition government’s Treaty directi...
    Buzz from the Beehive Having found no fresh announcements on the government’s official website, Point of Order turned today to Scoop’s Latest Parliament Headlines  for its buzz. This provided us with evidence that the Māori Party has been soured by the the coalition agreement announced yesterday by the new PM. “Soured” ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • The Good, the Bad, and the even Worse.
    Yesterday the trio that will lead our country unveiled their vision for New Zealand.Seymour looking surprisingly statesmanlike, refusing to rise to barbs about his previous comments on Winston Peters. Almost as if they had just been slapstick for the crowd.Winston was mostly focussed on settling scores with the media, making ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago

  • When it Comes to Palestine – Free Speech is Under Threat
    Hi,Thanks for getting amongst Mister Organ on digital — thanks to you, we hit the #1 doc spot on iTunes this week. This response goes a long way to helping us break even.I feel good about that. Other things — not so much.New Zealand finally has a new government, and ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago

  • Thank you Captain Luxon. Was that a landing, or were we shot down?
    Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.Also in More Than A FeildingFriday The unboxing And so this is Friday and what have we gone and done to ourselves?In the same way that a Christmas present can look lovely under the ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago

  • Cans of Worms.
    “And there’ll be no shortage of ‘events’ to test Luxon’s political skills. David Seymour wants a referendum on the Treaty. Winston wants a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Labour’s handling of the Covid crisis. Talk about cans of worms!”LAURIE AND LES were very fond of their local. It was nothing ...
    Bowalley Road
    6 days ago

  • Disinformation campaigns are undermining democracy. Here’s how we can fight back
    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Misinformation is debated everywhere and has justifiably sparked concerns. It can polarise the public, reduce health-protective behaviours such as mask wearing and vaccination, and erode trust in science. Much of misinformation is spread not ...
    Skeptical Science
    6 days ago

  • Peters as Minister
    A previous column looked at Winston Peters biographically. This one takes a closer look at his record as a minister, especially his policy record.1990-1991: Minister of Māori Affairs. Few remember Ka Awatea as a major document on the future of Māori policy; there is not even an entry in Wikipedia. ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    7 days ago

  • The New Government: 2023 Edition
    So New Zealand has a brand-spanking new right-wing government. Not just any new government either. A formal majority coalition, of the sort last seen in 1996-1998 (our governmental arrangements for the past quarter of a century have been varying flavours of minority coalition or single-party minority, with great emphasis ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    7 days ago

  • The unboxing
    And so this is Friday and what have we gone and done to ourselves?In the same way that a Christmas present can look lovely under the tree with its gold ribbon but can turn out to be nothing more than a big box holding a voucher for socks, so it ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    7 days ago

  • A cruel, vicious, nasty government
    So, after weeks of negotiations, we finally have a government, with a three-party cabinet and a time-sharing deputy PM arrangement. Newsroom's Marc Daalder has put the various coalition documents online, and I've been reading through them. A few things stand out: Luxon doesn't want to do any work, ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • Hurrah – we have a new government (National, ACT and New Zealand First commit “to deliver for al...
    Buzz from the Beehive Sorry, there has been  no fresh news on the government’s official website since the caretaker trade minister’s press statement about the European Parliament vote on the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement. But the capital is abuzz with news – and media comment is quickly flowing – after ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 week ago

  • Christopher Luxon – NZ PM #42.
    Nothing says strong and stable like having your government announcement delayed by a day because one of your deputies wants to remind everyone, but mostly you, who wears the trousers. It was all a bit embarrassing yesterday with the parties descending on Wellington before pulling out of proceedings. There are ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago

  • Coalition Government details policies & ministers
    Winston Peters will be Deputy PM for the first half of the Coalition Government’s three-year term, with David Seymour being Deputy PM for the second half. Photo montage by Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: PM-Elect Christopher Luxon has announced the formation of a joint National-ACT-NZ First coalition Government with a ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago

  • “Old Coat” by Peter, Paul & Mary.
     THERE ARE SOME SONGS that seem to come from a place that is at once in and out of the world. Written by men and women who, for a brief moment, are granted access to that strange, collective compendium of human experience that comes from, and belongs to, all the ...
    Bowalley Road
    1 week ago

  • New Zealand welcomes European Parliament vote on the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement
    A significant milestone in ratifying the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was reached last night, with 524 of the 705 member European Parliament voting in favour to approve the agreement. “I’m delighted to hear of the successful vote to approve the NZ-EU FTA in the European Parliament overnight. This is ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Further humanitarian support for Gaza, the West Bank and Israel
    The Government is contributing a further $5 million to support the response to urgent humanitarian needs in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, bringing New Zealand’s total contribution to the humanitarian response so far to $10 million. “New Zealand is deeply saddened by the loss of civilian life and the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

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