I say this as a holocaust Survivor that the genocide in Gaza,
is not happening in my name and in our name.
The way that the Israeli government is using the memory of the Holocaust
in order to justify what they're doing to the Gazans is a complete insult
to the memory of the Holocaust it's an outrage.
When I saw the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations
putting on a yellow star it was stomach turning.
Somebody who had to wear a yellow star like myself
and my entire family I'm insulted by that.
What distinguishes the Jewish Holocaust is its industrial scale
and industrial methods being applied.
And what has been happening to Gaza is similar in that
the scale of the bombing and the indiscriminate nature of the bombing
the complete lack of care about children and women
being the majority of the victims
amounts to Industrial scale of genocide.
The painting of the Palestinian people as worthless almost 'animal like'
by the description of some of the leaders that dehumanisation
enables the population of Israel to tolerate what's going on.
The way that Palestinian people who were arrested were treated
having to take their clothes off,
and parading them it's part of the humiliation.
In the West Bank the way the checkpoints are organised
the way you are forced to wait for hours for no reason
in order to go to school or go to work etc
all this amounted to humiliation similar to to what we experienced.
The sort of determination and consistency with which they
are setting about to destroy the whole of Gaza is very similar
to the kind of cruelty and determination of the fascist regimes.
Some of the actions of the Nazi state in dehumanising
and completely cruel large scale killings etc, if it is repeated
I don't see why you couldn't make the parallel it can only be helpful
in understanding what's going on to make the parallel
I don't think there should be any taboo against that.
I think I particularly find painful to see the children because I remember
after the war you know we played in The Ruins like they do now but particularly of their losses
to suddenly lose parents and siblings and so on you know there was a boy in the same rescue
homes where I was he was traveling on a tram with his parents this boy moved to the front
to stand behind the tram driver because he was interested in how he was working the levers and
so on at the next stop an aroc cross raiding party came on and asked for papers and the parents were
identified as Jews and arrested straight away the son was separated at the front and they
had to make a an immediate decision whether to say something to him and involve him or
let him perhaps escape the net and that's what they decided so they were taken down from the
tram and sent to aitz they never said goodbye to their son and they perished in in aitz so
that was the end of the family now can you imagine the psychological state of that boy
who suddenly found himself on his own in this way not saying goodbye to his parents and I
think this kind of thing this separation and and the sense of complete inability to intervene or
in any way exert any kind of positive influence on events this kind of separation and and and
destruction of families in this manner is again something that repeats in Gaza now I [Music]
think I heard that some families divide the children and leave some with one branch and
and some with the other so that at least somebody should survive from the family
there's an echo ex of the same experience what happened to the Jewish people the guest chamers
and the industrial scale of extermination and also the sort of invisible aspects the incredible
emotional pain cause is so horrendous taken together that it seems to me inconceivable that
it should be repeated anywhere in the world that is why we say not in our name and never again and
this is why I was so totally shocked particularly by those who I know have gone through the same
themselves repeating it on on on another people I take as a extreme example one of my cousins late
cousin she died some years ago who was a young girl taken to aitz from Transylvania because she
was young and strong she was was put to work and she worked in a warehouse sorting clothes and one
day she was sorting her parents' clothes meaning that they had already been taken to the guest
chamber I think it's difficult to understand the emotional experience of doing of being in that
situation yet she came back to Israel and first to Romania and then Israel and she was as racist as
the rest of them against the Palestinians now how it's beyond understanding how you can um do that
and and with the background that she had I think this is to do with the extreme propaganda and the
dehumanization Zionism was a very unfortunate and sad development for the Jewish people it broke
a much longer Trad of always being on the side of the oppressed not the oppressor and and the
charitable nature of the Judaism and the humanity that they Advocate into a kind of exceptionalism
and nationalism everything is the je not the single peace for other people only for us and
in Practical terms Impossible Project of taking over another people's country which led to All
the Troubles that followed also I agree with my cousin late cousin very bright guy who said well
if we claim that there is a people who tend to be the um victims of other people's discrimination
Etc then the last thing you want to do is to collect them up into one place as a Target and
I think he was right and I think current events prove it Zionism started to Proclaim that the only
safe place for Jews is in Israel and what we are seeing today is the worst the most dangerous place
for Jews is Israel quite a number of my family from Romania ended up in Israel so when I visited
them that was my first brush with Zionism I was completely shocked how despite their experiences
during the Holocaust they were um racist basically against the Palestinians and couldn't understand
it and I can't understand it to this day fully how that could happen but they were it was not
denying it and I found that atmosphere of racism was prevailing genely in Israel and and I turned
strongly against that later on I saw the repeated brutality of action against Palestinians and it
became more and more horrifying and the very cruel attack on Gaza was the ultimate and the use of the
Holocaust background as a cover for all this was just unbearable I mean it was criminal I I felt
and this is when I became more active in trying to protest today's marches are having a very hopeful
aspect it is so large so persistent so Global that eventually the Western leadership which are trying
to deny what is actually going going on will be forced to face up to it and I think we are not
far from that there was no parallel to that in the Jewish Holocaust experience in fact there
was great abandonment there were some very few very brave people who risk everything to be on
the right side of history and to rescue as as as much as possible but the majority of people
were too afraid and look the other way I felt it completely incomprehensible really how you
can do anything but totally condemn quite clear genocide and anybody who doesn't do that it will
be Revisited on him or her to to look back on to be on the wrong side of history and and seriously
guilty and that goes for the UK government to Kama and the shadow cabinet and some of the church
leaders the chief rabbi completely identifies with Israel and Zionism I think it's important to stand
up against this conflation that is propagated between jewishness and Zionism if you do not stand
up and criticize it and divorce you have from it then it sort of bches all Jews basically and
and I think it's essential to show that uh from a point of view of the morale of the people that is
being victimized in the name of the Jewish people that this is not supported universally by Jewish
people at all but it's simply the Zionist and Israeli establishment which does it which are not
too far from fascistic attitudes I think fascism thrives on indifference and and the general public
being intimidated or looking the other way out of self-preservation a and comfort and it's essential
that is not practiced that a certain degree of risk even taken and always making a stand against
Injustice the time will come and history will judge these events if you are just indifferent
if you do not take a stand you acquire um degree of guilt without any doubt and it's important that
when that judge judgment comes you are found to be on the right side of history that you had not been
for sake of comfort and advancement or whatever you had not been inactive you have to assert
yourself against the evils around you knowing how the mass media ignores the most important
events it makes it incredibly important to have forums like double news to bring a much more
balanced picture to the public join the future of Journalism join Double Down News on Patreon