Wednesday Edition | Why Israel refused Palestinian solidarity with Holocaust victims

Source: Middle East Eye
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/how-israel-has-appropriated-holocaust-service-zionism

By Joseph Massad
Published May 29, 2022

Israeli Zionists have used the genocide for propagandistic purposes in asserting their 'right' to historic Palestine

The joint Israeli-Gulf NGO Sharaka recently boasted of organising an Arab delegation to Auschwitz to commemorate the Holocaust. It included activists, politicians and media “influencers” from Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, occupied East Jerusalem, the UAE and Bahrain.

Founded in late 2020 after the signing of the Abraham Accords, Sharaka aims "to build bonds between young Israeli and Gulf leaders". Around 100 Palestinian citizens of Israel also participated in the Holocaust commemoration. While the Arab delegates who spoke to the media failed to mention Israel’s ongoing colonial oppression of the Palestinian people, they did speak about how in commemorating the Holocaust, they aimed to strengthen Arab-Israeli relations and see “Arabs coming together with Israelis voluntarily”.   

Since World War II and the establishment of Israel in 1948, Palestinian Arab history and Jewish history have been inextricably linked. Israeli Zionists have appropriated events in Jewish history, including the Holocaust, for propagandistic purposes to assert their "right" to Palestine - a land to which they had laid their suspect colonial claim half a century before the genocide.

By appropriating the Holocaust, Israel asserts that any acknowledgment of the genocide is an acknowledgment of Israel’s “right to exist as a Jewish state”, while any attempt to deny this right is to deny the Holocaust...

Read more: Why Israel refused Palestinian solidarity with Holocaust victims

♦♦♦

Who’s winning the war for American public opinion: Israelis or Palestinians?

Source: Desert News
https://www.deseret.com/faith/2022/5/27/23142831/american-public-warming-to-both-israelis-palestinians-new-research-shows-pew-data-opinion-conflict

By Mya Jaradat
Published May 28, 2022

The latest data from Pew Research Center shows that a majority of Americans view both Palestinians and Israelis in a favorable light

While the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians seems intractable, Americans’ views on both parties is not, according to new data from Pew Research Center.

The report shows the public is increasingly warming to both parties in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with growing numbers reporting they view the two peoples favorably. Pew also found that more than half of America’s youngest adults view Israelis and Palestinians favorably — a departure from the views of older generations. 

“That’s a positive development, not a negative development,” said Leonard Saxe, director of Brandeis University’s Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, who said it might suggest that young people don’t hold negative stereotypes about Muslims.  

Overall, 67% of Americans report seeing Israelis in a positive light, up three percentage points from 2019 and 52% say that they see Palestinians favorably, a 6% increase from 2019.

Among 18- to 29-year-olds, there was less of a gap: 56% reported holding favorable views of Israelis and 61% said the same of Palestinians. While, at first glance, those numbers seem to suggest that Palestinians hold an edge in the war for public opinion, Becka Alper of Pew Research Center said she wasn’t sure that the difference was large enough to be significant...

Read more: Who’s winning the war for American public opinion: Israelis or Palestinians?

♦♦♦

Europe will always back Israel’s right to exist

Source: The Times of Israel
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/europe-will-always-back-israels-right-to-exist/

By Roberta Metsola
Published May 24, 2022

President of the European Parliament: We firmly support a 2-state solution, with the secure State of Israel living beside an independent Palestinian State

This week I had the privilege of visiting Israel for the first since I was elected president of the European Parliament in January 2022. It will not be my last visit. I wanted to come early in my mandate to send a signal of our willingness to engage. To underline the European Parliament’s commitment to furthering our ties and to underscore that the European Union and Israel share more than history.

I came to Jerusalem to bring the message of Europe to the people of Israel. I wanted to underline that the ties between our peoples are deep and the bond we share is one that has been forged in the horror of our common history. A bond made in suffering and in salvation, and whose strength lies in its openness, honesty, straightforwardness – even criticism – but a bond that has and will withstand the test of time.

I am an optimist, but I am not blind to the challenges you confront. To the threats – some existential – you face; of the difficulties in supporting a vibrant democracy. It is inconceivable that Israel’s right to exist is still put into question. Let me be clear: Europe will always back Israel’s right to exist.

To ensure that we educate and counter toxic narratives. Ignorance promotes fear and, distrust. Ignorance promotes hate. And education is the best weapon to fight prejudice, to combat extremism.

I had the honor of visiting Yad Vashem on Monday. It was an emotional reminder of lives lost, of children murdered simply because their grandparents were Jewish, of memories forever saved. It pains me to say that, today we are seeing antisemitism on the rise. We know that that is a warning sign for humanity. It matters to all of us.

Read more: Europe will always back Israel’s right to exist