Dit is een nobel initiatief, dat alle lof verdient. Het volgende is echter onjuist:
""Unfortunately, we are paying the price for the immense pain suffered by the Jews during the Holocaust. There is no comparison between our suffering and that of the Jewish people in the Holocaust, but everyone should understand that we are suffering too, as a result of what the Germans did to the Jews."
Nee, de Palestijnen betalen de prijs voor hun eigen onwil een compromis te accepteren. De inwoners van Naalin betalen de prijs voor de tweede intifada, toen honderden Palestijnen zich in bussen, op pleinen, en in restaurants in Israel opbliezen. Men betaalt de prijs voor het blijven vechten tegen een sterkere vijand, in plaats van te gaan onderhandelen. Niet alles wat Israel doet is rechtvaardig, maar dat betekent niet dat dat is veroorzaakt door de Holocaust.
Het Israelische wantrouwen in de Palestijnen komt door een lange geschiedenis van geweld en pogingen Joden te vermoorden, die teruggaat tot de pogroms door de mufti in gang gezet van de jaren '20 en '30 van de vorige eeuw. Vanwege het aanhoudende Arabische 'verzet' zetten de Britten de Joodse immigratie naar Palestina stop, notabene nadat Hitler aan de macht was gekomen en zijn plannen steeds duidelijker werden. Na de oorlog en de Holocaust wilde de moefti zoiets ook wel in Palestina uitvoeren, en zette daartoe een legertje op.
Het is gemakzuchtig de Holocaust als oorzaak van de Israelische agressie aan te wijzen, en de eigen rol zo buiten beschouwing te laten. Maar misschien is dit vooralsnog een brug te ver. Zolang de Palestijnen hun eigen rol blijven ontkennen zal het echter moeilijk blijven tot echte verzoening en toenadering te komen.
RP
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Naalin holds Holocaust exhibit
'Unfortunately, we are paying price for pain suffered by Jews,' says member of village committee Roi Mandel
Published: 01.27.09, 20:47
As the world commemorated the Holocaust Tuesday, a small village in the West Bank held a surprising exhibit memorializing the most tragic event in modern Jewish history.
Naalin, a village that has become the symbol for the Palestinians' battle against Israel's construction of a separation fence in the West Bank, erected a display of photographs purchased from Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and invited the public to learn more about the persecution of the Jews.
Residents gaze at Holocaust images in Naalin (Photo: Khaled)
Mohammad Amira, a member of the village's Land Defense Committee, said hundreds of people visited the exhibit by early afternoon. He said many had praised the initiative.
"People are surprised at what they see here; there are people who are seeing images of the suffering in the Holocaust for the first time. There are people who didn't know anything about Jewish history," Amira said.
Regarding the decision to present the exhibit to residents of Naalin, many of who have been harmed by the construction of the separation fence, Amira said, "We thought the public should understand the pain and suffering the Nazis caused the Jews.
"Unfortunately, we are paying the price for the immense pain suffered by the Jews during the Holocaust. There is no comparison between our suffering and that of the Jewish people in the Holocaust, but everyone should understand that we are suffering too, as a result of what the Germans did to the Jews."
'Jewish pain has strength'
Khaled Mahmid, who heads the Arab Institute for Holocaust Research and Education in Nazareth, said he believes the Arabs "must understand the Holocaust – the power and strength that the Jews' pain has."
He added, "All violence Palestinians perform on the Israelis is not effective, causes suffering, and summons Holocaust anxiety among the Jews."
"The Holocaust," Mahmid said, "was a horrible and methodical murder of six million innocents, which affects all of the citizens of Israel even today. The Palestinians need to understand that the Jews have a defense mechanism deriving from the horrid murder in the Holocaust."
He said the two-state solution would only have a chance to succeed if the Palestinians made an effort to understand this "profound pain", and relinquished all acts of violence "that stirs existential anxiety in the Jews." Mahmid added that the violence exhibited by both sides is a direct result of the Holocaust.
Regarding the exhibit Mahmid said, "The Koran orders us to acknowledge the Holocaust and understand it. The Jews must remember that many of them were saved during the Holocaust thanks to their brothers in the Arab lands. We must overcome Hitler's affects together."
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