On Yom Hashoa - Pro-Israeli Lobby Shame
On Yom Hashoa - Pro-Israeli Lobby Shame
Today of all days - cheap weaponisation of the memory of the Holocaust by the Australian Pro-Israeli lobby
On Yom Hashoa - the international day of remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust and true antisemitism I am so disappointed to see the continued narrative attacking the pro-humanitarian protests against a brutal regime taking part in a genocide.
At the same time Israeli Government and the pro-Israeli lobby insults Jewish people everywhere by invoking the Holocaust of all sacred things to reframe protest against Israel’s Gaza war as “antisemitic”.
We saw it in the UN where the Israeli Ambassador wore a gold star drawing a disgusted complaint from Yad Vashem, the International Holocaust Rememberence Centre. We saw the same thing months later by a prominent pro-Israel activist, making a buck off selling gold star merchandise.
And I was shocked and incensed to see it today from ECAJ taking the occasion to talk about hostages, terrorist with not one recognition of the Palestinian human life extinguished in Gaza. Then also linking “unsafety” of Jewish students on campus (refuted by 8 University Chancellors last week on reflection against free speech) with ancestral persecution.
Utterly unsconscionable. You know what - only as I write this now do I read that part again. It is utterly disgusting. These people have no shame.
ECAJ also uses the “Never Again” slogan. To quote a Jewish speaker Vivian Porzolt from yesterday’s pro-Palestine rally in Hyde Park - who was quite shocked by the continued exclusive use of the term:
“my parents escaped the Nazi Holocaust … many of my relatives were murdered by the Nazis
For me, never again means never again FOR ANYONE.
It is gravely horrifying for me to see this never again for US - this mental ghetto of horror - I just can’t bear it”
And right wing groups continue to demonise the word “Intifada” - Arabic for “Shaking Off” (oppression).
But apart from “Intifada” this group is complaining against Trade Unions - who have always fought for human rights in the sense of workers. The ACTU issued a statement on Gaza 22 April demanding the Australian Government embargo Israel as complicit in the genocide. What more shaking off oppression could be more relevant in fighting for human rights?
As to the use of the word “shaking off oppression” used in the Arab Spring 2010 in multiple countries as they literally shook off oppressive regimes.
There may be terrible memories on both sides from the 2000-2005 intifada in Palestine - but that is no reason to ban a common word.
The Highland Clearances in Scotland were a brutal oppression with long reaching impacts on the Scottish diaspora and although I find the word offensive privately I don’t propose to ban “clearances” or complain publicly.
The word “intifada” is so common that on a website the english language page word for uprising is directly translated into the common Arabic equivalent as “Intifada”.
An example of this is the Warsaw Uprising story where Jewish people fought against Nazi deportation using all means at their disposal during that terrible truly antisemitic time.
If you go the to English and Arabic translation pages for the Warsaw Uprising story on the National Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington US) website - the common translation of “uprising” is just that - Intifada.
An ironic example of today of all days to illustrate further suppression of free speech and political devaluing of “antisemitism”.
And that group noted the Government allowing use of the word on Yom Hashoah notes they failed the “never again” test. Shocking emotive linkage and weaponisation and as above patently untrue.
As Vivian Porzolt said “Never again means never again for anyone”
