Recently, some Israelis and Jews opposed to Netanyahu’s government have noticed that the images coming out of Gaza resemble, to some extent, images that conveyed faces from the Jewish Holocaust. The densely populated civilian areas punished indiscriminately - killed by weapons as well as starvation - being pushed from one area to another like objects stripped of their humanity, devoid of any ties to land, desire, or choice; the children who have turned into skeletons; the places erased and reverted to a state before their formation; the poisoned or polluted environment whose viability for life is now in doubt... all of this and more brings to mind forms of apocalyptic catastrophes, of which the Holocaust stands as the most prominent.
Moreover, the cry of “Never Again”, born out of the horrors of the Holocaust, is being challenged by the genocide in Gaza - perpetrated in part by descendants of Holocaust victims - as well as by other genocides that have taken place or are taking place in various countries. This cry is now exposed to expiration and a weakening credibility. Such a realization implies that much of what humanity thought it had achieved - or imagined it had - remains unresolved and still on the agenda, albeit with diminished urgency and waning determination.
Just as in the 1940s, when the Holocaust unfolded, the influential world yawns or turns its gaze away from what is happening, since the events occur in a distant “over there.” And just as European Jews were burned for no reason beyond being Jews, the people of Gaza are being killed and starved merely for the act of killing and starving them, after the Israeli war - as a form of self-defense - has exhausted its stated purposes. Many Israelis now, including some military leaders, describe what’s happening as “Netanyahu’s war.”
What is happening in Gaza is not a Holocaust, but it contains an unmistakable Holocaust-like element that those who deny it are willfully ignoring. Thus, the battle over Gaza’s imagery, its connection to images from the Holocaust, the meanings those images carry, and the universal and human dimensions embedded within them, is a battle that deserves to be fought politically, and must be fought morally.
This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an easy battle to win. But winning it is not out of the question, especially if accompanied by a persistent, long-term Palestinian effort targeting Western youth environments and betting on the transformation of their views into political and parliamentary outcomes, even if delayed.
In such a complex and multi-layered project, the issue of the Holocaust occupies a prominent place. There is a direct connection with both parties to the conflict. Netanyahu comes from a Zionist tradition - represented by figures like Menachem Begin and the historian Benzion Netanyahu, Benjamin’s father - that exaggerates the political exploitation of the Holocaust, using it as a scarecrow for critics, a tool of political blackmail, and an iron wall separating Jews - past, present, and future - from others. According to this tradition, the uniqueness of the Holocaust allows it to be a purely Jewish monopoly, not to be exported or shared with non-Jews.
Beyond Netanyahu and the political instrumentalization, there is also an intellectual position expressed by Israeli historians who rejected the representation of non-Jewish victims in the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, arguing that such inclusion would undermine the specificity and uniqueness of Jewish fate. Some also rejected presenting Nazi crimes against Jews as “universal crimes against humanity,” because that would prioritize the “abstract” over the “particular,” and the idea of the “universal” over the reality of the “Jewish.” After all, those who perished in the Holocaust did so, they argue, solely because they were Jews.
Arguments like these often relied on the fact that many of Israel’s critics, both Arab and non-Arab, refused to acknowledge or internalize the Holocaust experience. Some even denied it happened at all.
Today, it is critically important to prevent Netanyahu and his allies from monopolizing the Holocaust. It is also important to point to a connection, however complex, between the Holocaust and the genocide in Gaza, as well as other genocides. This is not a simple or guaranteed battle, but it is a battle worth fighting.
There are many obstacles, among them is the question of how willing Jews themselves are to accept that Israel is not the exclusive representative of the Holocaust, and that there are partners in the human tragedy that followed, with Palestinians foremost among them.
Yet, there is also a Palestinian - and to some extent, Arab - challenge, and the way this challenge is met can improve the chances of fighting this broader battle.
In this regard, there must be a development of clear condemnation of the disastrous October 7 operation, an operation with unquestionably genocidal intent. That day must be criticized and repudiated, and there must be a disavowal of the anti-Semitic and exterminationist ideas carried out by the October 7 forces and their extensions. The slogan “Death to the Jews”, a central slogan of the Houthis, did not contribute even slightly to the credibility of their so-called defense of Gaza.
Certainly, it is of utmost importance to close the chapter of a war that has effectively ended, as Hamas is now fighting Hamas’ war in Gaza, in the same way Netanyahu is fighting Netanyahu’s war. The faster that chapter is closed, the faster a new page can be opened, one focused on leaving violence behind, not diving into or glorifying it. This, in turn, would help disable Israel’s extermination machine, which continues unabated in killing and starving the people of Gaza.
