OPINION: Holocaust feature rebuttal

It is with surprise and discomfort that I finished reading the article from May 3, 2016 titled  “WORLD VIEW: The Holocaust and hypocrisy” – By Jonathan Power. (https://www.newsroompanama.com/news/panama/world-view-hypocrisy-and-the-holocaust?

The article starts with a detailed historic account on the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany; then it continues with the efforts made by the World and Israel in particular to find and bring to justice to those responsible for such an atrocity, specifically Eichmann, and then he mentions how on May 4 Israeli (Jews) remember the death of the 6 million victims. Up until then it all seems as an innocent historic account that leads us to this commemoration.  But then Mr. Power makes an abrupt change of topic and relates to biblical stories of Moses and the Israelites and their killing of a defeated tribe, a story from Deuteronomy that supposedly took place sometime between the 14th and 13th century BCE.  And as a conclusion he suggests that “Israelis could do well to mention the record of Moses’ ethnic cleansing which is as much a crime against humanity as Eichmann’s” and that “Holocaust survivors will light six torches symbolizing the six million Jews who perished…There should be a seventh.”

As I said, I finished reading it with discomfort because it seems the author had a specific intention to trap readers with an inoffensive account of the history and facts that lead us to the Holocaust Memorial to later surprise us with his bizarre and even offensive remarks.  Bizarre, because nobody with some common sense would dare to compare the modern, efficient and organized annihilation of millions perpetrated by the Nazis just decades ago, so recent that some survivors still remember it, with Biblical stories about tribal battles closer to the Bronze Age.  And offensive, because that suggestion that the Holocaust survivors should light a seventh candle is insulting for them and every Jew.  Worse than that, it seems to be written with the specific purpose to leave those words and their intention open to interpretation – there should be a seventh candle for that tribe from more than a millennia ago, or he meant that 6 million Jews were not enough?

Gabriel Cohen-Henríquez
Member, WJC-Jewish Diplomatic Corps
World Jewish Congress
www.worldjewishcongress.org