Invoking the Holocaust to support Gaza genocide is an abuse of history

Urusula von der Leyen is fond of the hypocritical ”never again” slogan.
Dati Bendo European Union

Telling the full truth about the Holocaust is a duty for citizens of Europe, the continent where that monstrous crime occurred.

Telling the full truth must include denouncing how the Holocaust is being abused to provide cover for Israel as it commits a genocide in Gaza and various other acts of aggression.

This week, the European Union will abuse the Holocaust.

It is marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day by hosting a conference along with several pro-Israel lobby groups.

The event illustrates the EU’s duplicity and depravity.

Over the past few months, some EU representatives have been proposing a visa ban on what are often described as “violent Israeli settlers.”

All of Israel’s settlement activities in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights involve the theft of Palestinian or Syrian land. All of them are war crimes under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Sanctions should, therefore, target Israel, the state building and expanding the settlements, not just a handful of thugs.

The EU is now implicitly saying that settlers can be divided into different categories. Giving legitimacy to some settlers is thereby permissible.

Welcome, dear settler

This week’s conference will feature Dani Dayan, a resident of the Maale Shomron settlement in the West Bank. He is a former chair of the Yesha Council, an umbrella group for settlements.

A profile published by the Tel Aviv daily Haaretz in September noted that “he is still totally committed to the settlement worldview: apartheid, occupation, expulsion and exclusion of Palestinians, Jewish supremacy.”

Dayan is today head of Yad Vashem.

Habitually labeled Israel’s official memorial to the Holocaust, Yad Vashem is really an insult to the victims of the Holocaust.

It is located next to Deir Yassin, a Jerusalem-area village where Zionist forces carried out a massacre during the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Erecting the memorial at that site is a clear example of how Israel abuses the Holocaust to conceal its own obscenities.

The EU’s declared partners at this week’s conference include the American Jewish Committee, one of the most influential pro-Israel outfits.

Daniel Schwammenthal, head of the AJC’s Brussels office, has repeatedly tried to justify attacks on Gaza’s hospitals.

In a statement issued last week, Schwammental contended that “a ceasefire can only be reached when Hamas is defeated.” That is an unambiguous call for even greater destruction to be inflicted on Gaza.

Never again?

Nobody will be surprised if Katharina von Schnurbein, the EU’s coordinator against anti-Semitism, chants the “never again” mantra when she speaks at this week’s conference.

As the participants have been carefully chosen, it’s a safe bet that nobody will dissect or even question that vacuous slogan.

Von Schnurbein is a civil servant from Germany, the state which bears responsibility for the Holocaust.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Germany regarded the Jews as subhuman – Untermensch. In the 2020s, Israel sees Palestinians as “human animals.”

Far from being outraged about the present-day holocaust being perpetrated in Gaza, von Schnurbein encourages that holocaust. So does the current German government, which is ostentatiously supporting Israel in the case taken against it by South Africa at the International Court of Justice.

Von Schnurbein has managed to rise above the rules applying to EU officials.

Her formal job description makes no mention of Israel and limits her work to fighting anti-Jewish bigotry in Europe. Yet she has gone way beyond that mandate by effectively acting as an agent of Israel.

That is not a conspiracy theory. Her own biographical note on Twitter says she is “standing” with Israel.

Von Schnurbein has received a number of awards from pro-Israel lobby groups who praise her “voice of conscience.” Under EU rules, she is obligated to seek permission from the Brussels hierarchy before accepting any honors.

When I made a freedom of information request for any such approvals, the European Commission (the EU executive) rejected it on data protection grounds.

That was absurd. The request related to the professional activities of an EU representative with a relatively high profile, not to her private life.

The most plausible reason why von Schnurbein can get away with her behavior is that she enjoys support from the top.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, has offered her complete endorsement to Israel’s holocaust in Gaza. Von der Leyen is another German fond of the “never again” slogan.

While some of the EU’s governments were disgruntled by how she embraced Israel without consulting them, Von der Leyen appears to have actually been emboldened by that “controversy” and there is much speculation that she will enjoy a second term in her current position.

Von der Leyen had a little-noticed meeting with Tony Blair in October.

After I made a freedom of information request, the European Commission acknowledged that the discussion with Blair touched on “important partner countries” but refused to divulge further details.

It is a fair guess that Israel was one of the “important partner countries.”

Blair backed Israel to the hilt when he was Britain’s prime minister. He later became a “Middle East peace envoy,” to use the shorthand of British newspapers.

The shorthand could not erase how Blair and his buddies in Washington caused massive bloodshed and instability in the Middle East by launching an invasion of Iraq.

It is fitting that Ursula von der Leyen should listen to Blair’s advice. Both can affect an air of solemnity while they give the nod to brutality.