Holocaust

Instead of Holocaust Museum, Detour Signs Direct Israel’s Herzog to The Hague

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Original article by COMMON DREAMS STAFF republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Human rights activists of Amnesty International hold traffic boards showing the way to the International Criminal Court for the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog on March 10, 2024 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The President of Israel is in Amsterdam to open the Holocaust Museum. (Photo by Pierre Crom/Getty Images)

“How is it possible that such a sacred space is being used to normalize genocide today?” asked one Dutch Jewish organizer behind the protest.

Human rights activists in The Netherlands greeted Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Sunday with large protests and directed him towards the International Criminal Court at The Hague over his nation’s alleged war crimes against the Palestinian people in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Herzog was in Amsterdam to attend the opening of the new National Holocaust Museum, but demonstrators said Herzog’s presence needed to be challenged given the large scale death and destruction that Israel’s military has unleashed in Gaza over the last five months.

As Al-Jazeera reports:

Dutch Jewish anti-Zionist organization Erev Rave, which organized the demonstrations at the musuem’s opening with the Dutch Palestinian community and Socialist International, said that while it is important to honor the memory of Holocaust victims, it cannot stand by while the war in Gaza continues.

“For us Jews, these museums are part of our history, of our past,” said Joana Cavaco, an activist with Erev Rav, addressing the crowd before the museum’s opening ceremony. “How is it possible that such a sacred space is being used to normalize genocide today?”

A pro-Palestinian Dutch organization, The Rights Forum, called Herzog’s presence “slap in the face of the Palestinians who can only helplessly watch how Israel murders their loved ones and destroys their land.”

Along Herzog’s route through the city, members of Amnesty International—which has accused Israel of apartheid and backed the findings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which said policies in Gaza may amount to genocide—carried fake detour signs pointing the motorcade towards the nearby ICC.

As the president of Israel, Amnesty International Netherlands said Herzog “is the political symbol of the humanitarian disaster in Gaza. It is unfortunate that Herzog was invited after his controversial statements. That is why we are taking action.”

Amnesty and other rights groups have documented numerous incidents in Gaza and the West Bank that they say may amount to “war crimes,” including the indiscriminate bombing of civilians areas, the use of prohibited weapons like white phosphorous, attacks on hospitals and emergency medical personnel, the blocking of life-saving food, water, and other supplies, and other acts of “callous disregard for Palestinian lives.”

At a square nearby the museum where Herzog gave his speech, reportsReuters, demonstrators crowded the streets and chanted slogans like “Cease-fire Now!” and “Stop Bombing Children!” as they held signs that read “Jews Against Genocide” and “The Grandchild of a Holocaust Survivor Says: Stop Gaza Holocaust.”

Ahead of Sunday’s opening, the Jewish Cultural Quarter that operates the new museum, said in a statement that it was “profoundly concerned by the war and the consequences this conflict has had, first and foremost for the citizens of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.”

The statement said the museum stands “for a just and resolution for all those directly involved” and the impact the ongoing violence and hatred is having beyond the Middle East:

The reduction to black-and-white opposites and apparently incompatible arguments – oppressed against oppressor, good against bad, truth against lie. This polarization has spread hatred toward Jews and Islamophobia. It takes courage to speak out against injustice. It takes courage to recognize that the real world is complex and contradictory, and that our empathy need not be confined to one side.

At the heart of the National Holocaust Museum’s mission is the desire to build a just society in the Netherlands by signalling the danger of dehumanizing and excluding those who live among us. That is the message in our presentation, our educational program and our events.

The group said Herzog had been invited to attend the opening prior to the Hamas-led attack on October 7 of last year, but that the fighting since has only further revealed the importance of remembering and learning from the past.

That “the war continues to rage,” the statement concluded, “makes our mission all the more urgent.”

Original article by COMMON DREAMS STAFF republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Israeli President Herzog Opens Holocaust Museum In Amsterdam … ›

With Genocide in Gaza, the Word ‘Never’ Has Been Stripped From ‘Never Again’

Continue ReadingInstead of Holocaust Museum, Detour Signs Direct Israel’s Herzog to The Hague

Survivors mark 79 years since the liberation of Auschwitz

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/survivors-mark-79-years-since-the-liberation-of-auschwitz

People light candles by the monument at the Birkenau Nazi death camp in Oswiecim, Poland, January 27, 2024

SURVIVORS of Nazi death camps marked 79 years since the Red Army’s liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau at a modest ceremony in southern Poland on Saturday.

About 20 survivors of various camps set up by Nazi Germany across Europe laid wreaths and flowers and lit candles at Auschwitz’s Death Wall, where thousands of inmates, mostly Polish resistance members and others, were executed.

Later the group, along with state officials and other participants, gathered for a ceremony by a brick women’s barrack at nearby Birkenau that has recently undergone conservation.

The group prayed and lit candles at the monument in Birkenau, near the crematoria ruins, to remember around 1.1 million camp victims, mostly Jews.

Events were also held in many other countries to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which commemorates the Nazis’ killing nearly six million European Jews and countless others.

…

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/survivors-mark-79-years-since-the-liberation-of-auschwitz

Continue ReadingSurvivors mark 79 years since the liberation of Auschwitz

Israel: a wolf in sheep’s clothing

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/israel-wolf-sheeps-clothing

Israeli soldiers move near the Israeli-Gaza border as seen from southern Israel, January 8, 2024

From working closely with Apartheid South Africa to develop its nuclear weapons to supplying the far-right terrorists in Nicaragua with their famous Uzis, Israel has always been a malevolent force internationally, writes JOHN GREEN

WHEN the state of Israel was created in 1948, albeit under dubious circumstances involving the expulsion of thousands of Palestinians from their traditional homes, it enjoyed global sympathy and goodwill.

As the horrendous facts of the Holocaust became better known at the end of the war, a haven for the Jewish people was widely seen as an appropriate and justified solution to prevent such horrors from happening again.

That goodwill has, over time, become strained and misused. Israel’s role in oppressing the Palestinians but also in aiding and abetting some of the most reactionary forces in the world has more than tarnished its image.

The latter role, though, has been kept largely hidden from the public eye. Israeli co-operation with reactionary forces began very soon after its establishment as a state.

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Continue reading at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/israel-wolf-sheeps-clothing

Continue ReadingIsrael: a wolf in sheep’s clothing

‘Stop Vetoing Peace,’ Rabbis Tell Biden at UN Security Council Protest

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Original article by JULIA CONLEY republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Rabbis hold a peace action at the United Nations Security Council in New York on January 9, 2024.  (Photo: Jews for Racial & Economic Justice)

“The U.N. was created in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust, with the very intention of ensuring ‘Never Again,'” said Rabbis for Ceasefire. “We are here as Jews, as rabbis, to urge the U.N. to follow through.”

After arriving at the United Nations headquarters on Tuesday, ostensibly for a scheduled tour, three dozen rabbis and rabbinical students made their way into the U.N. Security Council’s chamber to stage the latest high-profile demonstration demanding the United States end its opposition to a cease-fire in Gaza.

The rabbis—whose action was organized by Rabbis for Cease-fire, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Jewish Voice for Peace, and IfNotNow—displayed banners with messages for U.S. President Joe Biden: “Biden: The World Says Cease-Fire,” and “Biden: Stop Vetoing Peace.”

The protest came weeks after the U.S. alone vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for Israel to end its bombardment of Gaza, which has killed at least 23,210 people, injured more than 59,100, and left thousands more missing and feared dead under rubble, as the population of the enclave faces starvation and disease stemming from Israel’s blockade.

“[President Joe] Biden and the U.S. must stop vetoing peace and end Israel’s bombing and starvation of Gaza,” said IfNotNow.

In addition to vetoing the Security Council measure last month, the U.S. abstained from voting on a resolution to increase humanitarian aid to Gaza and opposed a U.N. General Assembly resolution calling for a cease-fire.

The country’s isolated stance was starkly illustrated by the latter vote, with 153 nations supporting the cease-fire, including longtime U.S. allies like Canada, France, and Spain backing the resolution, and only nine countries joining the United States.

“Since the Biden administration is consistently, single-handedly blocking the U.N. from taking any meaningful action for a cease-fire, we are organizing 36 rabbis and rabbinical students from seven different states to come to the U.N. themselves, and say, ‘We’re speaking for the people, this is a moral call,'” Sophie Ellman-Golan, communications director for Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, told HuffPost.

Organizers said at a press conference after the protesters were escorted out of the building that six of the rabbis had gained access to the U.N. General Assembly floor, where they displayed one of the banners to the assembled leaders.

HuffPost reported that one of the rabbis signaled the beginning of the protest during the tour by blowing into a traditional shofar horn, while Rabbis for Cease-fire founder and lead organizer Alissa Wise quoted the biblical Book of Isaiah.

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks,” said Wise. “Nation shall not lift up swords against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore.”

The groups called on the U.S. and all U.N. members to:

  • Reaffirm and recommit to the goals of the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, taking meaningful action to stop the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza;
  • Hold another Security Council vote to pass a resolution for cease-fire that includes lifting the siege and hostage exchange; and
  • Bring to the General Assembly a resolution calling for appropriate accountability measures in line with international law, including an immediate arms embargo.

“The U.N. was created in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust, with the very intention of ensuring ‘Never Again,'” said Rabbis for Cease-fire. “We are here as Jews, as rabbis, to urge the U.N. to follow through on this noble mission. Never again means never again for any of us.”

An organizer said as the rabbis assembled that “the U.N. is the appropriate place for meaningful action for cease-fire and accountability for Israel’s war crimes.”

The demonstration came two days before the International Court of Justice, the U.N.’s top judicial body, is set to hold a hearing on South Africa’s lawsuit claiming Israel has committed acts of genocide in Gaza. Turkey, Malaysia, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation have all expressed support for South Africa’s claim, while Jordan indicated last week it had filed documents to submit a Declaration of Intervention at the court, backing the lawsuit.

More than 900 worldwide civil society groups have joined a call for other governments to submit Declarations of Intervention to bolster South Africa’s case.

The Biden administration said Tuesday that South Africa’s case is “meritless,” despite the country’s detailed, 84-page complaint highlighting specific calls from Israeli officials to wipe out the population of Gaza and force them to leave the enclave.

“The U.S.,” said Rabbis for Cease-fire, “is standing in the way of the international community taking action to save lives.”

Original article by JULIA CONLEY republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue Reading‘Stop Vetoing Peace,’ Rabbis Tell Biden at UN Security Council Protest

Saluting Gary Lineker: challenge state racism. Don’t conform to it

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/saluting-gary-lineker-challenge-state-racism-dont-conform-it

THE BBC has reportedly rebuked Gary Lineker for describing the government’s anti-refugee rhetoric as “language not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the ’30s.”

The famous footballer and presenter’s tweet has enraged Tory MPs, some of whom have called for him to be sacked. But he is not the first to have called out the grim historical precedent.

It was child Holocaust survivor Joan Salter who confronted Home Secretary Suella Braverman earlier this year, pointing to exactly the same parallels between Nazi demonisation of Jews and the language she uses when attacking refugees.

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This Tory administration is extremist. Braverman admits she thinks it more likely than not her plans breach the European Convention on Human Rights, which we as a country are obliged to respect: she doesn’t care.

But the countering voice for a more compassionate, principled approach is absent from Westminster. Labour scaremongers over boat crossings as well to claim the Tories have lost control.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/e/saluting-gary-lineker-challenge-state-racism-dont-conform-it

Continue ReadingSaluting Gary Lineker: challenge state racism. Don’t conform to it