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Yehuda Bauer

ByYehuda Bauer, Yehuda Bauer

Opinion

Preserving historical integrity: a call to avoid politicising the Holocaust

We are academics concerned over a growing tendency to ignore fundamental tenets of scholarship in order to attack Israel

December 8, 2023 09:44
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 15: Members of Columbia University's faculty hold a protest in support of Palestine and for free speech on the Columbia University campus on November 15, 2023 in New York City. The university suspended two student organizations, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Jewish Voices for Peace, for violating university policies. The tense atmosphere at many college campuses has increased as student groups, activists and others have protested both in support of Israel and Palestine (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
4 min read

As researchers dedicated to studying the destruction of European and North African Jewry, antisemitism, and genocide, we are increasingly concerned over the growing tendency of academics to politicize the Holocaust and to use that tragedy as a weapon with which to attack Israel—the Jewish State. The statement in the Open Letter on the Misuse of Holocaust Memory (with similar pieces such as this and this) suggesting that "the memory of the Holocaust obscures our understanding of the antisemitism that Jews face today, and dangerously misrepresents the causes of violence in Israel-Palestine," is at best a half truth. Scholars should refrain from willfully ignoring relevant documentation and contexts, and where such disregard occurs, it is essential to identify and unequivocally reject this approach.

History does not repeat itself, and we would agree that the events of October 7, however horrific, are distinct from the Holocaust. Hamas, whatever its murderous ideology and the unimaginable atrocities it has committed, should not be seen as a modern-day reincarnation of the Nazis. In contrast to the popular tendency to view the Holocaust and that Black Shabbat as almost equivalent, comparative analysis in history entails the recognition of both similarities and differences. While the two terrible events share certain similarities, such as the chilling brutality of the killings, the underlying ideological hatred, and even the voices that deny these crimes, fundamental differences between the two events are immense.

Presenting utterances of certain Israelis as somehow indicative of all of Israeli society while knowingly ignoring statements by Israel’s detractors that minimize, "contextualize" or altogether deny the horrific crimes committed on October 7, and even advocate mass murder, does not constitute an objective account of history and could be understood as tolerating Hamas's calls for the destruction of the Jewish people. This is especially so when the diametrically opposed approaches of Israel and Hamas with regard to the preservation of civilian life are deliberately ignored or falsified. One side intentionally targets civilians, while the other seeks to minimize civilian casualties, although its efforts – to our regret – have not always been successful. We deeply regret the civilian casualties in Gaza, but fair-minded observers should also blame Hamas for its cynical use of ordinary Gazans as human shields. Historians are entitled to personal political opinions; but polemics are no substitute for a reasoned consideration of the facts at hand.

Internationally respected scholars of the Holocaust may excel in their field, but that does not necessarily make them experts on the complex history and intricacies of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The present crisis highlights the stark contrast between a country striving, however imperfectly, to uphold democratic and humanist values and a terrorist organization fostering an ideology that unabashedly seeks to quash them, rejecting religious tolerance, gender equality, and open discourse. Understanding the long-standing Israeli–Palestinian conflict calls for more nuance than is present in the open letter.

Topics:

Holocaust