Are the Palestinians Finally Recognizing the Horrors of the Holocaust?

Holocaust denial and even the praise of the slaughter of six million Jews during WWII are widespread within Palestinian society. However, there are indications that this phenomenon is beginning to change, although some critics remain skeptical.

Holocaust denial and even the praise of the slaughter of six million Jews during World War II are widespread within the Arab world, including among Palestinians. This year, Jerusalem Online News reported in an interview with the head of Palestinian Media Watch Itamar Marcus that Zayzafuna, a PA-funded magazine, featured a young Palestinian girl who presented four historical heroes from her perspective. The first three were Muslim, yet the one non-Muslim personality featured was none other than Adolph Hitler.

In the literary piece, the young Palestinian girl asks Hitler if he is the one who killed the Jews. Hitler answered, “Yes, I killed them so you would all know that they are a nation that spreads destruction all over the world. And what I ask of you is to be resilient and patient, concerning the suffering Palestine is experiencing at their hands.” The young Palestinian girl thanked Hitler for his advice. Despite receiving complaints from the U.S. government, this piece is still online to date.

Unfortunately, this type of propaganda about the Holocaust is widespread within Palestinian society. However, a group of 27 brave Palestinian students decided that despite the fact that the Holocaust is a taboo subject among their people, they would visit Auschwitz in Poland together with Professor Mohammad Dajani Daoudi, the director of the American Studies Program at Al Quds University.

“In my community you see a lot of ignorance of the Holocaust, denial of the Holocaust. People don’t want to recognize the suffering of the other,” Dajani told the Seattle Times. “I felt that I did not want to be a bystander, and wanted to bring more awareness and consciousness among Palestinians of this issue.” Following a wave of criticism where these students were called traitors and a variety of other names, most of the 27 students have decided to remain silent for their own protection. The professor who led the trip has been advised to take a low profile, go on vacation abroad, and stay away from the university campus.

However, one courageous Palestinian attendee of this trip has chosen not to remain silent. “I was born in Jerusalem in an Arab culture that, to put it mildly, ignores the Holocaust and avoids discussing it,” Zeina Barakat, one of the 27 Palestinian students that traveled to Auschwitz, wrote in the Atlantic. “As a young girl, I had to overcome social and educational restrictions to learn more about these closed chapters of history. Not only were books on the subject unavailable, but we were told that our responsibility as Palestinians was to memorize only what teachers told us, so as to reinforce our collective memory of loss and grievance and support our national identity and quest for a homeland.”

“For the last decade—ever since I enrolled in the American Studies program at al-Quds University in Jerusalem, received my master’s degree, and then moved to the other side of the desk to became a lecturer—Professor Dajani has been my teacher and mentor,” Barakat explained. “Learning about the Holocaust—and its universal message about the threat of intolerance and genocide—has been a central theme of our work. Together, we co-authored with Martin Rau a book in Arabic on the Holocaust to create awareness of this most tragic event among Palestinians. We distributed the book both inside and outside the university, delivered lectures to civic groups, and showed films on the Holocaust in our workshops. More than once, we took our students to Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Finally, the time came to travel to Auschwitz-Birkenau.”

“As a doctoral student, it is impossible for me to make believe that there was no human tragedy perpetrated against millions of Jews and non-Jews during the Second World War,” Barakat declared. “The Holocaust is a fact, and we all have a sacred responsibility to ensure that it never happens again to Jews or any other group. I believe our trip made a big crack in the Palestinian wall of ignorance and indifference about the Holocaust. The recent statement by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas recognizing the Holocaust as the “most heinous crime” against humanity in modern history made another crack. Perhaps one day soon this wall will collapse.”

“The “Holocaust was a reflection of a racist ideology as expressed in ethnic cleansing, which the Palestinian people reject,” the PA president was reported in saying in Arutz Sheva. “Indeed, the Palestinian people, afflicted and oppressed, are the first to demand the end of racism against other nations.”

When Palestinian Authority chairman Abu Mazen recently recognized the horrors of the Holocaust after writing a PhD thesis denying the Holocaust, Yad Vashem, Israel’s national holocaust museum, gave him the benefit of the doubt: “Holocaust denial and revisionism are sadly prevalent in the Arab world, including among Palestinians,” Yad Vashem told Haaretz. “Thus, the statement that the ‘Holocaust is the most heinous crime to have occurred against humanity in the modern era,’ coming from Abbas, might signal a change, and we expect it will be reflected in PA websites, curricula and discourse. Acknowledging the crimes of the Holocaust is fundamental to anyone who wants to confront history honestly. Yad Vashem encourages anyone who wants to learn about this seminal event to visit our websites and YouTube channels in Arabic and other languages.”

However, other voices within Israel were more skeptical. Famous Israeli scholar Mordechai Kedar wrote in Arutz Sheva, “Arab media never talk about the role of the Palestinian Mufti in the extermination of Hungary’s Jews. On the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, I was interviewed in Arabic by the BBC about Abbas’s statement that the Holocaust was ‘the worst crime in human history.’ During the interview, I criticized Abbas for not condemning the Palestinian Mufti’s complicity in that horrible crime. Though the interview was broadcast, the part about Haj Amin al-Husseini was cut.”

“I would like to ask Rabbi Marc Schneier (the one who prompted Abbas to recognize the Holocaust): After Mahmoud Abbas condemned the destruction of European Jewry, did you remind him about the role of the Palestinian Mufti in facilitating the Nazi death machine,” Kedar pondered. “Does President Abbas find these actions reprehensible?”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes that the answer is in the negative. He argued that one cannot call the Holocaust the most heinous crime and in the same breadth, embrace Hamas, a terrorist organization that denies the Holocaust. “I think probably what he’s trying to do is damage control,” Netanyahu told Haaretz. “What President Abbas is trying to do is placate Western public opinion that understands that he delivered a terrible blow to the peace process by embracing these Hamas terrorists. I think he is trying to wiggle his way out of it.”