Oppose Israel killing Palestinians, Iranians and Lebanese but promote events the genocidal supremacist state uses to justify their crimes. That seems to be the NDP position.
Leah Gaza, Avi Lewis, Don Davies and other NDP leaders recently marked an Israeli government organized commemoration instigated to justify ethnically cleansing Palestinians. The NDP brass all posted about Yom HaShoah (Israel Holocaust Remembrance Day), which was selected to coincide with Yom Hazikaron (Israeli soldier memorial day) and Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Israeli independence day). Yom HaShoah was chosen to begin a ten-day celebration of the creation of a Jewish supremacist state in Palestine. According to an AI summary, “Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day), and Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Independence Day) are consecutive, deeply interconnected modern Israeli holidays in spring that transition from profound mourning to national celebration. They honor the six million Holocaust victims, the 24,000+ fallen soldiers/victims of terrorism, and celebrate Israel’s founding, respectively.”
While the NDP leadership posted about the overtly Zionist commemoration, Canada already has an official Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27. The United Nations chose that date to mark the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.
At Yom HaShoah commemorations in Ottawa and Toronto the Israeli ambassador/consul spoke. At previous commemorations speakers argued it was anti-Jewish to oppose Zionism or Israeli crimes.
An important part of Yom HaShoah internationally is the March of the Living, which was effectively created by the Israeli government. As part of the just passed commemoration of that day at Auschwitz, Israeli soldiers paraded through the death camp to the cheers of genocide supporters. Scores of Canadian teenagers wearing Israeli flags participated in the March of the Living commemoration in Poland. As part of the trip they usually then travel to Israel to mark Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’Atzmaut. The aim of the March of Living is to “challenge a new generation of Jews with two of the most significant events of Jewish history — the Shoah (The Holocaust) and the birth of the State of Israel. It is achieved by bringing Jewish teenagers to many of the key places where these events took place, in order to understand the world that was destroyed and how Israel was established.”
Asserting that Israel uses the Nazi holocaust to justify its violence and dispossession shouldn’t be controversial. Over the past few years representatives of Canada’s holocaust museums and Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism promoted pro-genocide positions. A year into the genocide in Gaza Naomi Klein, Avi Lewis’ wife, wrote a Guardian article on “How Israel has made trauma a weapon of war”. It discusses the “Holocaust industry” and describes how “the particular stories that Israel tells about Jewish victimhood provides the rationale and cover story for the shattering violence and colonial land annexation now on such stark display.”
In his 2000 book The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering, Norman Finkelstein, whose grandparents perished in Nazi death camps, detailed how Hitler’s destruction of European Jewry was weaponized against Palestinians. Since the book was written, Israel lobbyists’ reliance on antisemitism/Nazi Holocaust claims to undermine Palestine solidarity has grown substantially. As Israel’s violence grows, supporters turn to evermore more distant Nazi crimes to defend the indefensible.
It’s a smart strategy. It’s a way to generate sympathy for Israel and instil fear among intellectuals of challenging Zionism as public support craters. Only 22% of Canadians have a favourable view of Israel according to a recent Leger poll commissioned by the anti-Palestinian Postmedia. At the same time the public is concerned about anti-Jewishness. So, it’s sensible for apartheid and genocide supporters to drive the discussion to where they can have success.
But should a left party boost this ideological stick? As Israel destroys much of Lebanon and Iran while pursuing its genocide in Gaza and land theft in the West Bank, should a ‘pro-Palestinian’ political party throw a bone to those promoting Greater Israel and genocidal Jewish supremacy? Or could the NDP at least limit it to the official Canadian Holocaust Remembrance Day?
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