Holocaust Survivors On Gaza: Genocide Begins With the Silence of the World

Sunday, August 24, 2014

Abby Zimet, staff writer

 www.common dreams.org

History turns: Even as Israel’s onslaught in Gaza continues – in the latest insanity,obliterating an apartment building housing 44 families to punish one alleged combatant – over 300 Holocaust survivors and descendants have written a stunning condemnation of Jewish attempts to “justify the unjustifiable” and blasted “the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.” Outraged by Elie Wiesel’s recent “abuse of our history” in an ad wherein he supported the assault on Gaza and compared Hamas to the Nazis, the survivors insist “nothing can justify” the murder of over 2,000 Palestinians, many of them children. Like a growing number of other Jews turning against Israel, they condemn both U.S. funding of Israel and Western silence, and call for an end to the siege and blockade of Gaza as well as a total economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel. And they use the word from their own singular experience: “Genocide begins with the silence of the world.” Extraordinary.

“We must raise our collective voices and use our collective power to bring about an end to all forms of racism, including the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people…’Never again’ must mean NEVER AGAIN FOR ANYONE!”