This meme is a grotesque lie, the kind of propaganda we should be on the lookout for.

in meme •  10 months ago 

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Like much propaganda, one can point to a kernel of truth. It may be fair to compare Israeli citizens' attacks on West Bank Arabs to growing violence against German Jews in the 1930s. And such attacks cannot be justified.

First, compare the status of Arab citizens of Israel to Jewish Germans back then. While Arabs are, I would agree, 2nd class citizens and have lost some ground, there is no long-term program of systematically stripping their rights that I'm aware of. Ironically, they even have their rights protected more in Israel than in Palestinian controlled territory or most, if not all, the Arabic countries, which are overwhelmingly authoritarian and rights-depriving.

Second, despite some explicitly genocidal language from a handful of Israeli officials - for which they should unequivocally be denounced and condemned - it is not Israeli policy to eliminate Arabs from existence, or even Palestinians, as it was Nazi policy to try to eliminate all Jews (at least from Europe).

Third, while Israel can rightly be criticized for being expansionist in the West Bank, it is not the goal of Israel to invade and conquer neighboring countries. Nor even to conquer and occupy all of Palestine, as they removed their troops and settlers from Gaza some years ago.

So why this fallacious equivalency? Because of its double power. The Nazis stand as our archetype of true evil, so comparisons are always made to them when we want to deliver an emotional punch. But of course it's doubly powerful when applied to the Nazis most recognized victims.

I suspect it's not just the claimed hypocrisy that is at work here. The Holocaust holds a unique place in our imagination, and especially in the Jewish imagination. This cartoon plays off that unique horror to turn it back on the victims.

But as horrific as the destruction in Gaza is, it is no Holocaust. As much as the Nakba holds a uniquely powerful place in the Palestinian imagination, and they see contemporary events as a reoccurence of that event, the Nakba is no Holocaust.

There have been other Holocausts. Rwanda, for example. The genocide of the Armenians. Surely others I don't know about, especially as we go deep into history.

But I'll stand on this. As ugly as this war is, and even if the claims of Israeli war crimes are correct - as they very well may be - this is no Holocaust.

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