Tag: Holocaust Survivors

Maus creator Art Spiegelman comes out of the Israeli-Palestinian closet with this image

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Art Spiegelman who was the first person to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize for a graphic novel, has come out of the closet on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. The son of Holocaust survivors, Spiegalman told the story of the Holocaust through his brilliant graphic novel, Maus, which uses allegory to portray Jews as mice and Germans as cats.

Spiegelman has been reluctant to think about Israel. But recently he he came out of the closet, posting on Facebook a collage he had done for The Nation magazine.

He comments that

I’ve spent a lifetime trying to NOT think about Israel—deciding it has nothing more to do with me, a diasporist, than the rest of the World’s Bad News on Parade. Israel is like some badly battered child with PTSD who has grown up to batter others.
But… here’s a collage I did for last week’s Nation magazine.

The image is called Perspective in Gaza (The David Goliath Illusion). Mira Sucharov writes in The Forward,

the Biblical-style art image consists of two panels. On the left is a traditional rendering of David facing Goliath. The right-hand panel presents a shrunken Goliath brought closer to the foreground. Using the tricks of size and perspective to make what is surely not an original political point, it’s a clever play on Spiegelman’s life’s work as an illustrator.

Perhaps what is most profound in Spiegelman’s collage is not the binary view of flipping the David and Goliath metaphor on its head, but rather his use of the word “perspective.” Maybe where you stand is indeed derived from where you sit. But that’s not quite right either, since one Diaspora Jew would depict Israel as a monstrous Goliath while another would cling to the view that Israel remains small and moral David, and one Holocaust survivor sees genocide being committed by their own people while another sees the killing as self-defense against a Philistine-like enemy.

I wonder if this image will be able to reach people in a way that an intellectual argument can’t. Screen shot 2014-09-10 at 3.11.15 PMOriginally posted on RawStory

Why do Holocaust survivors have more empathy for Palestinians than Seth Rogen?

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Happy 50th Day anniversary of Israel’s assault on Gaza!

Guys, I’m really torn. This weekend, two open letters were published which address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One condemns, “the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.” The other one argues that, “Hamas cannot be allowed to rain rockets on Israeli cities.”

I’m trying to figure out which of the two letters is more relevant and helpful. Bear with me, won’t you, as I look at the context and the content of these two letters before coming to an informed decision.

The Authors

The letter Condemning Israel:  40 Jewish survivors of the Nazi Holocaust and 287 children and grandchildren of Jewish Holocaust survivors.

The founding of Israel, as well as its policies, are based on the notion of self-defense and “never again.” The Holocaust almost wiped out the Jews. And it could happen again. That’s why Israel does what it does. If there’s one group of people who you would think this idea would work on it would be the very people who were almost wiped out during the actual Holocaust. And yet, the people who signed they letter realize that their trauma doesn’t justify the policies of Israel. So, that is pretty significant.

The Letter Condemning Hamas: 190 actors, directors, producers and at least one “mogul” in Hollywood.

None of the signatories survived the Holocaust, spent time in Concentration Camps or witnessed the Holocaust. But some of them are important Jewish voices. Seth Rogen, for example, boldly took on the theme of the overbearing Jewish mother in film Guilt Trip. Bill Maher helps bridge the dangerously widening gap between misogynist domestic abusers and islamophobes. Among the non-Jews, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger are known for their commitment to peace over violence on and off the screen, Tom Arnold is really smart, and Kelsey Grammer endorsed Michele Bachmann, whose commitment to Zionism is unwavering (since Jews need to go back to Israel in order for The Rapture to happen after which all the Jews who don’t accept Jesus will burn in eternal damnation.

The Message

The letter Condemning Israel: Israel’s actions are inexcusable, and so is the United States support for Israel:

As Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of the Nazi genocide we unequivocally condemn the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and the ongoing occupation and colonization of historic Palestine. We further condemn the United States for providing Israel with the funding to carry out the attack, and Western states more generally for using their diplomatic muscle to protect Israel from condemnation. Genocide begins with the silence of the world.

We are alarmed by the extreme, racist dehumanization of Palestinians in Israeli society, which has reached a fever-pitch. In Israel, politicians and pundits in The Times of Israel and The Jerusalem Post have called openly for genocide of Palestinians….

….. Nothing can justify bombing UN shelters, homes, hospitals and universities. Nothing can justify depriving people of electricity and water.

The Letter Condemning Hamas: Hamas’s actions are inexcusable, and children are the future.

While we stand firm in our commitment to peace and justice, we must also stand firm against ideologies of hatred and genocide which are reflected in Hamas’ charter, Article 7 of which reads, “There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!” The son of a Hamas founder has also commented about the true nature of Hamas.

Hamas cannot be allowed to rain rockets on Israeli cities, nor can it be allowed to hold its own people hostage. Hospitals are for healing, not for hiding weapons. Schools are for learning, not for launching missiles. Children are our hope, not our human shields.

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6 Holocaust Survivors Who Fight Against Israel’s Treatment of Palestinians

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The lesson of the Holocaust should be “never again” for anyone, including Palestinians.

The Israeli government draws on the experience of the Holocaust to justify many of its policies, especially those relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Many of the people who defend Israel cite the Holocaust as one of the justifications for the founding and aggressive militarism of the Jewish state. For these people, the Holocaust serves as both a reminder of Jewish history and a cautionary tale for the future. When the Jewish people had neither a nation nor a military of their own, they were nearly exterminated; now anything the Israeli state and army does is acceptable because extermination could threaten Jews again.

But some Holocaust survivors cite the Holocaust as the very reason they oppose Israeli policy; specifically, its treatment of Palestinians. These people see that oppressing Palestinians is not just unnecessary and wrong, but hypocritical for a nation founded to provide people with a refuge from oppression. For them, the lesson of the Holocaust isn’t “never again” for Jews. It’s never again for anyone, including Palestinians.

1. Hajo Meyer. Born in Bielefeld, Germany, in 1924, Meyer fled Germany for the Netherlands at age 14, where he went into hiding when the Nazis invaded a year later. Captured in 1944, he was sent to Auschwitz. His parents died after being deported from Germany. When the war ended, Meyer returned to the Netherlands and studied theoretical physics, eventually becoming the director of the Philips Physics Laboratory. He has written several books, including  The End of Judaism. In 2011, Meyer went on a 13-city speaking tour throughout the U.S. and Canada called ” Never Again for Anyone.”

Although initially supportive of the founding of Israel, Meyer grew not only to reject Zionism but to see it as antithetical to Judaism.  Meyer rejects the way the Israeli government exploits the Holocaust and survivors to achieve its ultimate goal of “the maximum territory with a minimum number of Palestinians….They use the Holocaust to implant paranoia in their children.”

Meyer criticizes Prime Minister Netanyahu for using the Holocaust to further Zionism: “And like Netanyahu did the other day in the General Assembly of the United Nations, he used the number on my arm—or the number on our arms—to defend a coming attack on Iran. They have nothing to do with each other… The Zionists have not any right whatsoever to use the Holocaust for any purpose.”

Meyer likens the experience of the Palestinians to that of Eastern European Jews during the Holocaust, “in that they are very often held up at checkpoints, or they are not allowed to move from one place to another.” To Meyer, Israel’s mentality bears comparison to National Socialism; he believes Israel has “given up everything that has to do with humanity, with empathy, for one thing: the state. The ‘blood and soil,’ just like the Nazis. I learned in school about blood and soil, and that’s exactly their idea, too.”

2. Hedy Epstein. Born in 1924 in Freiburg, Germany, Hedy Epstein was sent to England at 14 via the Kindertransport, which brought nearly 10,000 children from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland to England during the months between Kristallnacht and the onset of WWII. After the war, Hedy returned to Germany. Her parents had perished in Auschwitz and Hedy worked on the Nuremberg medical trial. In 1948, she joined her only living relatives, an aunt and uncle, in the United States.

Epstein has been to Palestine five times since 2003, taking part in demonstrations against the Occupation, the wall, and the demolition of Palestinian homes and olive orchards. Epstein’s autobiography, Remembering Is Not Enough was published in 1999.

Continue reading “6 Holocaust Survivors Who Fight Against Israel’s Treatment of Palestinians” →