Het shockeerde Nederland enkele jaren geleden, dat leraren op met name 'zwarte' scholen zo'n moeite hadden met het lesgeven over de Holocaust dat sommigen het onderwerp maar oversloegen. Ook voetbalden Marokkaanse jongeren destijds met kransen die tijdens de dodenherdenking waren neergelegd. Sindsdien is er veel discussie over hoe jongeren van Arabische komaf te onderwijzen over de Holocaust en hun negatieve beeld van Joden te overwinnen. Eén manier is om een vergelijking te maken met islamofobie, zoals een docent uitlegt:
When teaching Holocaust studies to Dutch Muslim teenagers in Amsterdam, Mustafa Daher says he first has to defuse his pupils' own hostility toward Jews and Israel.
"If I don't capture their interest, then I have done nothing. So I use the rising Islamophobia to help them connect to the persecution of the Jews," the seasoned educator says.
"For example, I tell them that when the Nazis suspected someone was Jewish, they would pull down his pants to see if he was circumcised. Then I remind my Muslim students they are also 'snipped.' So they, too, would've ended up in a concentration camp," says Daher.
"For example, I tell them that when the Nazis suspected someone was Jewish, they would pull down his pants to see if he was circumcised. Then I remind my Muslim students they are also 'snipped.' So they, too, would've ended up in a concentration camp," says Daher.
Om eerlijk te zijn vind ik het triest dat dit nodig is om begrip voor de Jodenvervolging bij te brengen. Wellicht zouden moslims ook vervolgd zijn door de Nazi's als er hier zoveel hadden gewoond, maar feit is dat de Joden werden vervolgd, en de Nazi's hen systematisch probeerden uit te roeien. Deze genocide stond niet op zichzelf maar stond in een lange traditie van Jodenvervolging en Europees antisemitisme. Dit is - gelukkig - de moslims nooit overkomen, en het ziet er niet naar uit dat de vooroordelen en soms zelfs haat tegen moslims deze vormen aan zal nemen. Mustafa Daher zou zijn leerlingen moeten vertellen over het specifieke karakter van antisemitisme, de oorzaken en de wijdverbreidheid van dit verschijnsel.
Leraren worden, wanneer zij over de jodenvervolging onderwijzen, veelvuldig geconfronteerd met niet zo frisse vergelijkingen met het Israëlisch-Palestijns conflict:
Judith Whitlau, who teaches groups about the Holocaust at the Dutch Theater in Amsterdam, says she has to contend with another analogy.
"Some [pupils] point to media reports from the occupied territories, and they want to know what exactly Israel itself is doing to internalize the Holocaust's lessons as it preaches others should do."
"Some [pupils] point to media reports from the occupied territories, and they want to know what exactly Israel itself is doing to internalize the Holocaust's lessons as it preaches others should do."
Wat Israël doet om de lessen van de Holocaust te internaliseren is te zorgen dat Joden zich tegenwoordig kunnen verdedigen, en er een plek is waar Joden altijd naartoe kunnen wanneer zij in gevaar zijn, maar dat is om één of andere reden niet de les waar deze jongeren op doelen. Niet alles wat Israël doet in de bezette gebieden is gerechtvaardigd, maar dit is op geen enkele manier te vergelijken met de systematische volkerenmoord van de Nazi's. In de afgelopen 7 jaar kwamen circa 5.000 Palestijnen om, voor een groot deel strijders c.q. terroristen. In Auschwitz werden dagelijks duizenden Joden vergast.
Wat mij betreft zouden leraren wel wat confronterender mogen zijn, en benadrukken dat dergelijke vergelijkingen een goede illustratie van het probleem zijn. Het is bepaald ongepast om naar aanleiding van de grootste volkerenmoord in de geschiedenis de beschuldigende vinger richting de nakomelingen van de slachtoffers te wijzen, en van hen perfect moreel gedrag te eisen. Bovendien speelden de Palestijnen en Arabische staten zelf ook niet echt een fraaie rol tijdens de Holocaust, steunden belangrijke leiders zoals de Palestijnse moefti Haj Amin Al Hoesseini de Nazi's, en oefenden de Palestijnen druk uit op de Britse machthebbers om de immigratie van Joden te stoppen, wat in 1939 ook gebeurde.
Maar ik ben waarschijnlijk niet echt in de wieg gelegd voor onderwijzer, en mis de takt die deze mensen nodig hebben.
Ratna
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Last update - 22:21 01/01/2008
For Dutch educators, Islamophobia can be a teaching aid for Holocaust studies
By Cnaan Liphshiz and Ruthie Pliskin, Haaretz Correspondents
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/940592.html [incl. video]
The Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority this week hosts a week-long seminar for 21 teachers, the first run by the museum for Dutch educators, with one day devoted to discussions about teaching Holland's Muslim minority about the Shoah.
When teaching Holocaust studies to Dutch Muslim teenagers in Amsterdam, Mustafa Daher says he first has to defuse his pupils' own hostility toward Jews and Israel.
"If I don't capture their interest, then I have done nothing. So I use the rising Islamophobia to help them connect to the persecution of the Jews," the seasoned educator says.
"For example, I tell them that when the Nazis suspected someone was Jewish, they would pull down his pants to see if he was circumcised. Then I remind my Muslim students they are also 'snipped.' So they, too, would've ended up in a concentration camp," says Daher.
Judith Whitlau, who teaches groups about the Holocaust at the Dutch Theater in Amsterdam, says she has to contend with another analogy.
"Some point to media reports from the occupied territories, and they want to know what exactly Israel itself is doing to internalize the Holocaust's lessons as it preaches others should do."
But not all the teachers in the group have Muslim students. Franca Verheijen teaches at an affluent school in Leiden, some 35 minutes by train from Amsterdam. There, drawing parallels between Islamophobia and anti-Semitism can be counterproductive.
"If I make this connection, some students usually reject the analogy, saying that unlike the Muslims, the Jews never engaged in terrorism," she says.
Another charged issue for the teachers is the question of complicity. Some 100,000 Dutch men and women belonged to the country's Nazi party during the war, openly collaborating with German authorities.
Despite this, Meir Villegas Henriquez from the Hague-based Jewish non-profit Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI), said he wouldn't want to see a whole chapter in the school curriculum on Dutch Nazis.
"We're here to educate, not blame," the delegation organizer said.
Other participants in the seminar - which is partly funded by the Dutch government's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies - were also hesitant about the issue.
"For many people this is taboo and we can't afford to waste our two weekly hours [for history] on it," said Wout Claessens from the eastern Netherlands.
One advantage Dutch teachers have over colleagues abroad, they all agreed, was the diary of Anne Frank, the world-famous manuscript written in hiding in Amsterdam by the young girl who later died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Her story, which is mandatory reading in Dutch elementary schools, is still very useful in helping young pupils connect to the Holocaust, the teachers said. According to Henriquez, Frank's image is so indelibly etched into the Dutch psyche, that it can sometimes overshadow current problems.
"When our organization, CIDI, released its annual report last month on a 64-percent hike in anti-Semitic incidents, the study received less exposure than the decision to fell the tree outside Anne Frank's hiding place," he complained.
"Her story is a big frame of reference, but the Netherlands still has a Jewish population which is facing some challenges."
Last update - 22:21 01/01/2008
For Dutch educators, Islamophobia can be a teaching aid for Holocaust studies
By Cnaan Liphshiz and Ruthie Pliskin, Haaretz Correspondents
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/940592.html [incl. video]
The Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority this week hosts a week-long seminar for 21 teachers, the first run by the museum for Dutch educators, with one day devoted to discussions about teaching Holland's Muslim minority about the Shoah.
When teaching Holocaust studies to Dutch Muslim teenagers in Amsterdam, Mustafa Daher says he first has to defuse his pupils' own hostility toward Jews and Israel.
"If I don't capture their interest, then I have done nothing. So I use the rising Islamophobia to help them connect to the persecution of the Jews," the seasoned educator says.
"For example, I tell them that when the Nazis suspected someone was Jewish, they would pull down his pants to see if he was circumcised. Then I remind my Muslim students they are also 'snipped.' So they, too, would've ended up in a concentration camp," says Daher.
Judith Whitlau, who teaches groups about the Holocaust at the Dutch Theater in Amsterdam, says she has to contend with another analogy.
"Some point to media reports from the occupied territories, and they want to know what exactly Israel itself is doing to internalize the Holocaust's lessons as it preaches others should do."
But not all the teachers in the group have Muslim students. Franca Verheijen teaches at an affluent school in Leiden, some 35 minutes by train from Amsterdam. There, drawing parallels between Islamophobia and anti-Semitism can be counterproductive.
"If I make this connection, some students usually reject the analogy, saying that unlike the Muslims, the Jews never engaged in terrorism," she says.
Another charged issue for the teachers is the question of complicity. Some 100,000 Dutch men and women belonged to the country's Nazi party during the war, openly collaborating with German authorities.
Despite this, Meir Villegas Henriquez from the Hague-based Jewish non-profit Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI), said he wouldn't want to see a whole chapter in the school curriculum on Dutch Nazis.
"We're here to educate, not blame," the delegation organizer said.
Other participants in the seminar - which is partly funded by the Dutch government's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies - were also hesitant about the issue.
"For many people this is taboo and we can't afford to waste our two weekly hours [for history] on it," said Wout Claessens from the eastern Netherlands.
One advantage Dutch teachers have over colleagues abroad, they all agreed, was the diary of Anne Frank, the world-famous manuscript written in hiding in Amsterdam by the young girl who later died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Her story, which is mandatory reading in Dutch elementary schools, is still very useful in helping young pupils connect to the Holocaust, the teachers said. According to Henriquez, Frank's image is so indelibly etched into the Dutch psyche, that it can sometimes overshadow current problems.
"When our organization, CIDI, released its annual report last month on a 64-percent hike in anti-Semitic incidents, the study received less exposure than the decision to fell the tree outside Anne Frank's hiding place," he complained.
"Her story is a big frame of reference, but the Netherlands still has a Jewish population which is facing some challenges."
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