[Sustain] German Protesters Dare To Compare Israelis To Nazis

[Eric Brooks]

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/46234,opinion,gaza-european-protestors-dare-to-mention-the-holocaust

German protestors dare to compare Israelis to Nazis
Protestors against the Israeli incursion into Gaza demonstrate in 
Dusseldorf, Germany
European guilt about the Holocaust is receding in the face of Israeli 
aggression – and there’s nothing anti-semitic about it
By Neil Clark
FIRST POSTED JANUARY 6, 2008

As a Jew, it's very moving to see so many people who are so outraged at 
Israel's actions," said the comedian Alexei Sayle after Saturday's 
10,000-strong anti-war protest in London. He would certainly be moved by 
the reaction of the people of Europe to Israel's military aggression.

Last weekend thousands of Europeans took part in anti-Israel 
demonstrations. In Paris, around 25,0000 demonstrators, many wearing 
Palestinian headscarves, marched through the city chanting slogans such 
as "Israel killers" and "We are all Palestinians". In the Netherlands, 
thousands marched through Amsterdam, criticising the Israeli attacks and 
the Dutch government's failure to condemn them. One banner declared: 
"Anne Frank is turning in her grave. Oh Israel!"

Protestors have not been afraid to compare Israel's treatment of the 
Palestinians to the Nazis' treatment of the Jews. In Stockholm, 
protestors set fire to an Israeli flag painted with a swastika. In 
Madrid more than 1,000 people marched, many carrying banners equating 
Zionism with Nazism. One banner declared: "This is not a war but a 
genocide".
Anti-Israel protestors in Belgrade

Some of the biggest demonstrations were in countries where for 
historical reasons, people have previously felt particularly inhibited 
about expressing criticism of the Jewish state. In Salzburg in Austria 
around 2,500 people took to the streets. In Germany there were sizeable 
demonstrations in several cities: around 10,000 people protested in 
Frankfurt, a further 7,000 in Berlin. In Dusseldorf protestors held up a 
doll representing a bleeding baby with the placard "Made in Israel".

The significance of these protests cannot be underestimated. For most of 
the first 60 years of its existence, Israel got an easy ride from 
Europeans due to European guilt over the Holocaust. But as revulsion 
over Israel's treatment of the Palestinians grows, the 'Holocaust card' 
- long used by Zionists in order to stifle legitimate debate over 
Israel's actions - no longer has the same impact.

Zionists will, of course, claim that the growing European opposition to 
Israel is a sign that the continent is reverting to anti-semitism; the 
staunchly pro-Israel commentator Melanie Phillips has already dismissed 
the anti-Israel protestors as "leftists, Jew-haters, Muslims and useful 
idiots".

But the most striking thing about the demonstrations to date has been 
the absence of anti-semitism. Anger is rising across Europe, but it is 
anger directed against the state of Israel - not Jews in general; in 
fact in some demonstrations, such as the one in London, Jewish groups 
themselves took part.

"Everybody is somebody's Jew. And the Palestinians are the Jews of the 
Israelis", the Jewish writer and holocaust survivor Primo Levi once 
famously remarked. It seems an increasing number of people across Europe 
are coming to the same conclusion.
FIRST POSTED JANUARY 6, 2008

-- 
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate 
themselves." – Che Guevara