'Israeli Arab' MK shocked at Auschwitz
'Israeli Arab' MK Mohamed Barakeh, leader of the mixed, Leftist Arab-Jewish Hadash party, was visibly shocked upon visiting the Auschwitz death camp on Wednesday. Hadash Chairman MK Mohammad Barakeh, whose decision to join the delegation has sparked an uproar in recent weeks had trouble concealing his shock upon visiting the extermination camp.Perhaps a visit to Auschwitz ought to be made mandatory for all MK's. Another MK on the trip is Comrade Yuli Tamir (Labor), who, as Education Minister, approved the introduction of references to the 'naqba' (catastrophe) of Israel's formation into school textbooks (since reversed by the current government).
"I knew exactly where I was going," He said and added, "But being here, faced with the embodiment of human evil on the one hand, and the unperceivable misery of the victims on the other hand, things take on a different meaning. Everything is mixed into a human catastrophe."
Barakeh also commented on the piles of children's shoes displayed at the museum and said, "Any such shoe was once worn by a baby. Children are a nationality of their own, a nationality of innocence, and I cannot grasp how human beings could do such an atrocious thing."
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:22 AM
5 Comments:
I grew up knowing everything about the holocaust. Nothing was hidden from me, even at an early age in elementary school. Books, pictures, movies, witness testimonies, lectures, museums.
And yet nothing prepared me for my trip to Poland a few years ago. It took me about 2 months to fully recover emotionally. To see zero Jews in Warsaw except for the dead in the cemetery, to be called a "dirty Jew" by a 10 year old in Krakow, to march into Treblinka, to touch the railroad tracks in Birkenau, to still smell the charred human ashes there in the open pits.
I will never go back, unless it's for the betterment of my children to accompany them.
That he could come to the conclusion he did is a good thing. That having been affected the way he was has potential for positive change. Unfortunately, I believe that it is far more likely that he will be marginalized by the Palestinians. We'll see.
Now I wonder if this MK will read Atlas's info about the Mufti? Because I get the feeling he might like to think that the local Arab population was displaced because of something that happened in Europe/Russia. If he helps research the role of the Mufti, would it alter his view of his current country?
And was he taught about Al-Husseini's role?
I wouldn't bet on it.
You should accompany them and make a video and audio narrative while you're still alive. It must never be forgotten and in a world filled with intense hatred of Jews, that is an urgent task more than ever.
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