Israel
Leading Holocaust scholars sign letter warning against politicisation of Shoah
Signatories include Yahuda Bauer and Havi Dreifus
December 8, 2023 15:33
By, Olivia Gittel
1 min read
Signatories include Yahuda Bauer and Havi Dreifus
December 8, 2023 15:33ByOlivia Gittel, Olivia Gittel
Leading Holocaust scholars have signed an open letter warning against the “growing tendency” of academics to use the tragedy of the Holocaust “as a weapon with which to attack Israel.”
Published today in the JC, the letter asks that academics “recognise the horrendous attack on Israel on October 7 within its complex historical contexts”.
The signatories, which include Yahuda Bauer and Havi Dreifus, who both work with Yad Vashem, wrote the letter in response to a different letter published by the New York Review on November 20.
The letter was written response to a different missive published by the New York Review on November 20 in which scholars deplored the use of the Holocaust to justify Israel’s actions. It accused Israeli politicians of using the Holocaust to frame "Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza as a battle for civilization in the face of barbarism, thereby promoting racist narratives about Palestinians.” It went on to suggest the “memory of the Holocaust obscures our understanding (of antisemitism)”.
The writers of the letter published by the JC today said this statement was “at best a half-truth”. They implored scholars to “refrain from wilfully ignoring relevant documents and context”.
This comes after several prominent articles have claimed Israel has leveraged the Shoah to justify its actions in Gaza, including a piece published in the Guardian entitled “Israel must stop weaponising the Holocaust.”
The letter goes on to say that not all history scholars are “experts on the complex history and intricacies of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
The signatories ask academics to examine the multiple contexts of the conflict, including not just Israel’s 75-year existence, but “the preceding 2,000 years of historical context.”
The letter states: “Any argument that sees the establishment of Israel as the root cause of the conflict is problematic” and can “encourage genocidal calls for its (Israel’s) destruction.”
The letter says there is a “stark contrast” between Israel, which is striving “to uphold democratic and humanist values” and Hamas.
The letter also states that “It is a distortion of the record to argue that Palestinians have only been innocent victims without agency or responsibility.”
The signatories go on to warn against “relativism” which equates all forms of discrimination.
“Insisting that every condemnation of antisemitism must be accompanied by statements about other issues is counterproductive.” The letter states that antisemitism in “Islamicist, white supremacist, and 'progressive' circles, is a distinct and pressing struggle that merits its own dedicated focus and attention.”
The letter is signed by leading scholars of the Holocaust from institutions in Europe, Israel, the US, and Canada.