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the holocaust
Auschwitz Museum Decries Israeli Mayor's 'Sick' Call to 'Empty' Gaza
"We do hope that Israeli authorities will react to such shameful abuse, as terrorism can never be a response to terrorism."
Dec 18, 2023
The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland on Sunday decried what critics called genocidal remarks by the mayor of an Israeli town who said all of Gaza should be ethnically cleansed of Palestinians and turned into a museum like the notorious Nazi death camp.
"The whole Gaza Strip needs to be empty. Flattened. Just like in Auschwitz," Metula Mayor David Azoulai said in a radio interview on Sunday, according toThe Times of Israel. "Let it be a museum for all the world to see what Israel can do. Let no one reside in the Gaza Strip for all the world to see, because October 7 was in a way a second Holocaust."
In response, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim, southern Poland wrote on social media that "David Azoulai appears to wish to use the symbol of the largest cemetery in the world as some sort of a sick, hateful, pseudo-artistic, symbolic expression."
"Calling for acts that seem to transgress any civil, wartime, moral, and human laws, that may sound as a call for murder of the scale akin to Auschwitz, puts the whole honest world face-to-face with a madness that must be confronted and firmly rejected," the museum added. "We do hope that Israeli authorities will react to such shameful abuse, as terrorism can never be a response to terrorism."
Last month, the museum posted a statement from the International Auschwitz Council—whose members include Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum director Piotr Cywiński—supporting Israel's war on Gaza, which according to Palestinian and United Nations officials has now killed, maimed, or left missing more than 70,000 people, mostly women and children.
Numerous Israeli political and military leaders—as well as journalists, pundits, celebrities, and others—have made statements that critics have called incitement to or supportive of genocide in response to the Hamas-led attacks that killed more than 1,100 Israelis and others on October 7.
In a televised October speech, far-right Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked Amalek, the ancient biblical enemy of the Israelites whom God commanded the Jews to exterminate. Israeli President Isaac Herzog asserted that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, while Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed to "eliminate everything" there.
Last month, Israeli Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter declared that "we are now rolling out the Great Nakba," a reference to the ethnic cleansing, sometimes by massacre and death march, of over 750,000 Arabs from Palestine during the establishment of the modern state of Israel 75 years ago.
Members of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, have called for Gaza to be "wiped off the map," bombed with nuclear weapons, and burned to the ground.
Numerous U.S. politicians, including Republican presidential candidate and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, have echoed Israeli calls for genocidal violence against Palestinians.
Tlaib Denounces MTG Resolution Against Her as 'Deeply Islamophobic'
"I will not be bullied, I will not be dehumanized, and I will not be silenced."
Oct 26, 2023
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib hit back at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Thursday after the Georgia Republican introduced an "unhinged" resolution to censure the Michigan Democrat—and only Palestinian American in Congress—for participating in a recent peaceful Capitol sit-in supporting a Gaza cease-fire.
Greene's
privileged resolution—which requires House consideration within two legislative days—seeks to censure Tlaib "for antisemitic activity, sympathizing with terrorist organizations, and leading an insurrection at the United States Capitol" on October 18.
That day, thousands of Jewish protesters and allies rallied in and outside the Capitol to demand members of Congress push for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed nearly 7,000 Palestinians, wounded over 17,000 more, destroyed or damaged nearly half of all homes, and displaced more than 1.4 million people.
"This type of Israel-hating, America-hating behavior from a sitting member of Congress is unacceptable and she does not represent anything America stands for," Greene said on Tuesday while introducing a separate motion to censure Tlaib. Rep. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.)—whose third-biggest campaign contributor during the 2022 election cycle was the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)—introduced his own censure motion against Tlaib earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Rep. Rebecca Balint (D-Vt.) moved Thursday to force a vote on her July motion to censure Greene "for her racist, homophobic, transphobic, antisemitic remarks, and unhinged conspiracy theories."
Since Tlaib chairs no committees, there would be consequences should Greene's resolution pass.
Earlier this week, Greene accused Tlaib and "the communist left" of seeking to "bring Jihad to America."
Tlaib, who was one of the speakers at the rally outside the Capitol, said in a statement that Greene's "unhinged resolution is deeply Islamophobic and attacks peaceful Jewish anti-war advocates."
"I am proud to stand in solidarity with Jewish peace advocates calling for a cease-fire and an end to the violence. I will not be bullied, I will not be dehumanized, and I will not be silenced," she continued. "I will continue to call for cease-fire, for the immediate delivery of humanitarian aid, for the release of hostages and those arbitrarily detained, and for every American to be brought home."
"I will continue to work for a just and lasting peace that upholds the human rights and dignity of all people, and ensures that no person, no child has to suffer or live in fear of violence," Tlaib added.
On Thursday, Tlaib, seven progressive Democratic colleagues—Reps. Jamaal Bowman (N.Y.), Cori Bush (Mo.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), André Carson (Ind.), Summer Lee (Pa.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Delia Ramirez (Ill.), and Al Green (D-Texas)—and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) voted against a bipartisan House resolution expressing unconditional support for the Israeli government.
The measure does not mention Israel's mass slaughter, displacement, deprivation, and terrorizing of Gazans.
Greene's resolution also baselessly claims that Tlaib "celebrated the Holocaust," a charge also leveled in a video shared by the far-right congresswoman. The short clip takes a quote by Tlaib—that she gets a "calming feeling" when she thinks of the Holocaust—wildly out of context. What Tlaib actually said was:
There's kind of a calming feeling I always tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out... in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time, and I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right, in many ways.
The video also notes that Tlaib calls Israel an "apartheid" state—as do many Israelis and diaspora Jews, as well as human rights groups, experts, and world leaders.
Jewish Voice for Peace Action, the sister organization of Jewish Voice for Peace—which has led numerous protests across the U.S. during the war, including on October 18—weighed in against Greene's resolution Thursday.
"Believe it or not, a self-described 'Christian nationalist' who believes in 'Jewish space lasers' doesn't have the best interests of Jewish people at heart," JVP Action political director Beth Miller said in a statement.
"On October 18, over 500 Jews and allies sat on the floor of a congressional... office building in prayer and song to demand an immediate cease-fire to save Palestinian and Israeli lives, and to prevent an imminent genocide of Palestinians in Gaza by the Israeli government," she continued. "Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is one of the leading anti-war voices in Congress right now, and has the support of progressive Jews across the country."
"Clearly," added Miller, "Marjorie Taylor Greene is politically threatened by Palestinians and Jews coming together to work for peace and justice."
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