November 9, 2015
The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission has denounced Israeli Member of Knesset Hanin Zoabi, of the Arab Joint List Party, for drawing parallels between Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and the horrific pogroms of Kristallnacht. Speaking at an alternative Kristallnacht commemoration event in Amsterdam, held by far-left Dutch group Platform Stop Racism and Exclusion, the MK compared Hitler’s genocidal campaign against the Jews to current Israeli policy, accusing the Jewish state of ethnic cleansing modeled after the Third Reich. During her speech, Zoabi stated, “During Kristallnacht thousands of Jewish businesses and synagogues were burned, while the Germans remained silent. Today, as the homes of Palestinians are burned, as churches and people are burned alive— the majority in Israel remains silent,” and “Kristallnacht didn’t suddenly fall from the sky, come out of nowhere, it was the result of a development over time. We can see a similar development happening in Israel over the last several years.”
Dr. Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, issued the following statement:
“Hanin Zoabi has crossed many red lines in vilifying Israelis and Jews, and this outrageous and hateful comparison between Israel and Nazi Germany is yet another example of her extremist anti-Israel invective. To claim that Palestinians live under conditions similar to those of 1938 German Jewry and to draw parallels between Nazi actions and the situation today is a gross distortion of reality and is deeply hurtful to the victims, to the survivors and their families, and to the entire Jewish community. There can be no comparison between Israel’s government and citizens and the Nazis’ premeditated, mechanised annihilation of six million Jews and millions of others. To cynically exploit the destruction of Jewish businesses, synagogues and homes, and the death of Jews in Germany and Austria, for the sole purpose of demonising and delegitimizing Israel is an insult to all Jews and should be condemned in the strongest possible terms.”
For more information, please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on 03 9272-5677