March of the Living vs. Durban II

The March of the Living is a hybrid educational event. Each year, thousands of Jewish teenagers visit Poland to learn about the Holocaust. The end reaches an emotional peak with a march of young Jews to a former concentration camp. The vitality of self-confident and powerful young Jews is contrasted with the Nazi effort to exterminate. The 'hybrid' part is where politics intrudes. Rather that make it exclusively about Holocaust education, the youngsters are given Israeli flags and a healthy dose of Zionist brainwashing as well. The theme is 'from Shoah to Tkumah' (Holocaust to Revival) with the birth of the State of Israel linked to the mass murder of 6 million Jews.

This linkage bothered me since 8th grade, when I got into a fight with my history teacher. I asked her in class why she kept on using the figure of 6 million, when the number of innocent people killed in Europe was so much larger. I had read on my own that many Russians, Poles, Gypsies, Communists and others were killed in large numbers, and couldn't understand why that was being treated as a minor detail in a Jewish saga. (I went to school in Tel-Aviv. And my sources did not mention homosexuals.)

(She answered me: "you are here today to learn about OUR history, which is more important to us than THEIR history.")

This incredibly manipulative use of historical memory bothered me then, and it bothers my friend (Ploni Cohen) today. This year, the March of the Living is being hijacked to protest Durban II, the controversial UN sponsored conference against racism.

Irwin Cotler, a Canadian lawmaker and former Justice Minister, will lead the march of about 10,000 young people from around the world. Cotler, an internationally recognized human rights advocate, will leave conferences countering the anti-racism forum in Geneva, for the march. Honorary march co-chairs are Daniel Kurtzer, Lord Greville Janner, Jennifer Laszlo-Mizrahi, Tal Brody and Daniel Ayalon.

Was that clear enough? Conferences organized against the conference against racism will use the symbolism of the Holocaust to make their point. Note also that one of the march co-chairs is Daniel Ayalon, member of Knesset for Israel Beiteinu, Israel's racist, neo-fascist king-making party.

PC writes:

"...these folks are taking teenagers and using them as political pawns in the worst way, it's disgusting and simply reinforces the idea that the State of Israel and Zionism is rooted in the holocaust, which is false, and reinforcing this trope in the worst possible ways while manipulating young people."

This is the kind of crap that suggests to Israel's enemies that attacking the history of the Holocaust makes sense. Hey - Israel brought that history into the mud pit of the Arab-Israeli conflict, so no one should be surprised when someone flings mud at it.

The Holocaust is a ball and chain on the Jewish ankle, keeping us locked in a prison of our own design. Until Holocaust education is seperated from state sponsored apologetics for Israel and 'anti-anti-racist' work, count me as disgusted.