Learning from the Holocaust
Luke Macaulay
junior
I attended the Washington Seminar over fall break, and had an incredible time making new friends and learning about international humanitarian issues. During the trip we visited the Holocaust Museum and a lobbying group named Partners for Peace. The museum presented an honest and horrifying view of the atrocities committed in Nazi Germany, while Partners for Peace made me aware of the discrimination Palestinians face in Israel.
Upon returning to campus, I was appalled by the violent actions of the Israeli government towards Palestinians. Furthermore, I was even more surprised by the biased media reporting on the violence in Israel.
When I visited the Holocaust Museum I was horrified by the Nazi's disregard for human life. From "medical experiments" like high pressure tests to the testing of wetsuit insulation by placing prisoners in cold water baths until death, the disgust I felt was unbearable at times. Then we moved on to the scale model of the Auschwitz gas chambers. The display, showing the enormous scale of the killing, made me truly wonder how humans were capable of such barbarity.
Looking at the current situation in Israel, I cannot understand how a Jewish government can justify the killing of hundreds of Palestinians. In the last month at least 126 Palestinians (35 percent under the age of 15) have been killed, while seven Israelis have died. The Jewish government of Israel supports this killing. Israel, formed as a place of refuge for Jews after World War II, is now involved in killing people based on their religious background. How can Israel, after facing the horrors of the Holocaust, justify the killing of Palestinians?
The media coverage of this has also been extremely biased in support of Israel. On Oct. 13, a Palestinian mob killed two Israeli soldiers in Ramallah. On the same day a U.S. destroyer was bombed off the coast of Yemen. The New York Times placed both events under the same headline, leading one to connect the Palestinian mob with the bombing of the U.S. destroyer hundreds of miles away in Yemen. There was one sentence in the article saying that there was no proof of connection between the two incidents. This clearly seems like an attempt to attribute extraneous attacks by terrorists to the Palestinians.
In the same article there was a picture of Palestinian rioters with Israeli blood on their hands. The violence is not justifiable, but there have not been any graphic pictures of dead Palestinians gunned down by Israeli soldiers in the New York Times since that incident. The bias is clearly seen considering that over one hundred Palestinians have died since Oct. 13. As a result, we look at Palestinians as a rock-throwing mob and not as a civilized people.
It seems that influential Jewish lobbying groups in Washington and Jewish control of several important media organizations have resulted in widespread support of Israel by the United States. How can our nation support this widespread killing of Palestinians when we so loudly denounce the cruelty of the Nazis during the Holocaust? As a people who claim to fight for equality and denounce discrimination, we should reconsider the $3 billion a year aid to Israel, which accounts for 20 percent of the annual Israeli budget. When we look at the horrors of the Holocaust we must say no to the continuance of Israeli violence based on religious differences.
Luke Macaulay
junior
Zahm Hall
Nov. 16, 2000
All Viewpoint Stories for Monday, November 20, 2000
