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Hamas terrorist: "Unscrupulous violence" – but not to be equated with Nazi genocide
Photo: Mahmud Hams / AFP
In an open letter published in The New York Review of Books, a group of Holocaust and anti-Semitism researchers warned in no uncertain terms against the political instrumentalization of the Holocaust.
It was with "dismay and disappointment" that they took note of statements by leading politicians and well-known public figures who "invoke the memory of the Holocaust to explain the current crisis in Gaza and Israel". "Israel's leadership and others are using the image of the Holocaust to portray Israel's collective punishment of the Gaza Strip as a struggle for civilization against barbarism, thereby promoting racist narratives about the Palestinians."
The letter was signed by 16 prominent historians, including Omer Bartov (Holocaust researcher at Brown University in Rhode Island), Debórah Dwork (director of the Center for Holocaust Studies at New York University) and Jane Caplane (professor emeritus of European history at Oxford).
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In a recent interview with SPIEGEL, Bartov warned against the rhetoric of extreme Israeli politicians, in which he even recognized declarations of intent for ethnic cleansing. The only German signatory of the letter is Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, long-time director of the Center for Research on Anti-Semitism at TU Berlin.
In the open letter, the researchers condemn the "ruthless violence of the October 7 attacks," but at the same time describe the Israeli airstrikes and the invasion of the Gaza Strip as "devastating."
Supposed battle of good against evil
They are particularly concerned about historical analogies, which they consider misleading. US President Joe Biden, for example, said that Hamas had committed "a barbarism as consequential as the Holocaust." Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan wore a yellow Star of David with the inscription "Never again" during his speech to the UN General Assembly.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Hamas as "new Nazis" to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz; In front of the Israeli parliament, Netanyahu had spoken of a "battle between the children of light and the children of darkness." Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Mast questioned the existence of "innocent Palestinian civilians" in a speech, declaring, "I don't think we would throw around the term 'innocent Nazi civilians' so lightly in World War II."
It is "understandable," the letter continues, that after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, when terrorists massacred more than 1200,<> people, many Jews "had to think of the Holocaust and earlier pogroms." In the days that followed, the images of the massacre revived "deep-seated collective memory of genocidal anti-Semitism." In the Nazi genocide, however, "a state – and its willing civil society – attacked a tiny minority, which then escalated into a continent-wide genocide."
References of the October 2023 massacre to the Holocaust are "intellectual and moral errors," especially because politicians should dampen emotions in the current situation, not inflame them: "The recourse to the memory of the Holocaust obscures the view of the anti-Semitism to which Jews are exposed today and dangerously misrepresents the causes of violence in Israel-Palestine."
False "Holocaust Narrative"
The expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1948, the occupation of the West Bank by Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967 and the blockade of the Gaza Strip from 2005 onwards have led to an "ever-worsening spiral of violence". Ultimately, the conflict can only be resolved politically: "There is no military solution for Israel-Palestine. The use of a Holocaust narrative that 'evil' must be defeated by force will only perpetuate a state of oppression that has lasted far too long."
The scholars also call for more "clarity about anti-Semitism" in order to be able to recognize and combat it properly: "The claim that 'Hamas are the new Nazis,' while the Palestinians are collectively blamed for Hamas' actions, imputes hardened, anti-Semitic motives to those who defend Palestinian rights." Those who invoke the Holocaust to devalue demonstrators who demand a "free Palestine" end up promoting the "conflation of anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel."
With their letter, the 16 researchers are engaging in a debate that is being conducted in the academic world – especially at US universities – with the same bitterness and increasing hostility as it is with the general public. For example, the international section of Fridays for Future around Greta Thunberg had been accused of massive anti-Semitism in recent weeks; It criticized a lack of empathy with the victims of Hamas terror in combination with the claim that Israel is committing a "genocide" in Gaza. At pro-Palestinian demonstrations, anti-Semitic slogans had been heard again and again, denying Israel's right to exist.
All this led to a climate in which even Jews living in Germany no longer feel safe. The letter reads: "We reaffirm that everyone has the right to feel safe wherever they live and that combating racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia must be a priority."
In such a climate of growing uncertainty, the signatories now hope for a more balanced culture of debate: "We must openly deal with the simultaneous realities – the resurgence of anti-Semitism, the widespread killing in Gaza and the escalating displacement in the West Bank."
Those who invoke the past must do so "in a way that illuminates the present and does not distort it," the scientists write. This is the only way to create the basis for the establishment of peace and justice in the Middle East.