Israeli leader urges education for youth

Silent Auschwitz and survivors’ testimony keep Holocaust alive

On the blood-stained soil of Auschwitz in Poland, Colette Avital, MK, Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament and Chairperson of the Lobby for Holocaust Survivors in a candid interview spoke to Tejinder Singh about the Holocaust, birth of Israel, the pains of growth and vision for future.

Today, January 27, 2008, is third anniversary of UN Holocaust Remembrance Day. It took 60 years for the world body to acknowledge this sanguinary systematic annihilation of human beings. How do you feel about it today?

Its better late than never. It took a lot of time, almost 60 years before United Nation decided to adopt this resolution and it was not easy for UN to adopt it. The fact is that for 60 years they did not recognise the special conditions and special holocaust of the Jewish people which is unprecedented in history. I think today it is very important as it’s not just a question of remembering the past and giving recognition to the special history of Jews. It’s a question of educate the younger generation to know that this happened and should not happen again. The ceremony to mark the day is important but much more important is the message.

The question is whether it will be used to educate the younger generation to be more tolerant to accept other religions, to know that human life is sacred and you can not take human life as if its nothing. You can not think that one people is superior and one people is inferior. We all live on the same planet. If my skin is white or black or if I am a Christian or a Muslim or a Hindu or a Parsi, I have right to believe in the God I have chosen to believe in. This should be very much the part of educational system everywhere.

What will you say to a set of statements with “denial” of this Holocaust?

Its true because many people like (President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad (of Iran) and the leader of Venezuela and some in Muslim world say that the holocaust did not exist and that we invented it in order to make the world feel guilty towards us and in order to pay a heavy price. This is a terrible thing. It’s adding insult to injury. So one of the reasons that we have this group that goes to Auschwitz with political leaders from so many countries to show them what happened there and we are accompanied by a man who is a survivor of Auschwitz. Because as long as they are alive and they can say that I was here and this is what happened. Now the people understand and in many countries there is legislation against Holocaust denials. I believe that the younger generation today needs to know what the facts of the history are and not to deny and say it never happened.

How did Holocaust contribute to the making of Israel?

State of Israel was in the making because in 1917 there was Balfour declaration and then League of Nations, the predecessor of United Nations decided to give the British a mandate to prepare Palestine to become a Jewish Homeland. There was a lot of basis in creating Israel but at the end of second World War it became very clear what had happened in Europe. That was something that brought about determination on the part of not only Jews in Israel but also other powers in the world to actually accede to the demands of the Jews to have their own state. Although it was not the origin, it greatly contributed to the creation of the state of Israel, the process becoming much more faster, much more crucial and much more necessary because it was clear that the state of Israel was going to take in all the refugees from the concentration camps and it also became clear to the world that the Jews who were fleeing away from Europe when they knew what was happening, no country wanted to give them refuge including US. So the creation of Israel was seen by many powers as something very urgent and very necessary in order to solve the Jewish problem.

How do you assess the condition today and the ongoing struggle for peace?

The state of Israel was created on its ancient homeland but in the past hundred years there has been an ongoing conflict for the people who lived in the country, the Palestinians and some of the neighbours who did not want to accept the Jewish state. Slowly some of the Arab states did accept over time the existence of the state of Israel and even made peace with it, like Egypt, Jordon. With the Palestinians it has been an existential conflict because you have two people who claim the same land. I think as long as Palestine – Israel conflict is not resolved there will be no peace between us and other neighbours. But I think after seven years of Intifada now, there is a leadership in Palestine that wants to make peace with Israel and the rest of the Arab world also has started changing. Not all of them but majority of Arab states are willing now to live in peace with Israel if Israel resolves the problem with Palestinians.

What is your vision for the future?

My vision about the future and hope is that the state of Israel will continue to develop and be a state that is characterised by justice. My vision is that finally after so many years of war and conflict, we will be able not only to live in peace like everybody else here in Europe but also to normalise our lives. Because the purpose of Zionism at the time was not just to have a country of our own but to live normal lives in many senses. Like in Europe, many of the Jews did not have access to certain professions while they always lived in fear. My biggest vision and my biggest prayer is that we will be able to live normal lives.

What are your comments on the fear of ordinary citizens?

Depends more or less what happens. There was a time a few years ago when it was very difficult to go out in Israel as there were so many suicide bombers who came to cafes and blew up innocent people including children. In cafes, supermarkets and buses! We built a sort of security fence and that improved the situation and you know most Israelis don’t want to be prisoners in their own homes so they take the risks and they do go out. But it’s also true that in past two years, Israel is much more safe today.

What has come out of this ongoing pain?

People react very differently to pain. There are two ways: Some who react to pain wanting revenge and others who say I have suffered and now I don’t want others to suffer like me. The second one is probably nobler. In Israel and in Palestine, we have a group of parents who lost their children in wars, in terrorist attacks and they work together: bereaved parents, Israeli and Palestinian have formed a joint group together and have a strong message. They go everywhere and say we have paid the price but we don’t want you to pay the price. I think this is what should happen.

Finally, you are part of the democratic institution of Israel and what do you think is needed today to make it better?

I think it’s a great democracy. The only thing that sometimes we push democracy a little bit too far. The fact is that when the state of Israel was created it was the wish of its founding fathers to have every group in the population represented in the Knesset. It was a very good idea except that it translated into so many political parties that it became sometime very difficult to rule the country. In the beginning at least there were two big groups so that makes the country manageable but when you have multiplicity of small parties, its very difficult to keep the democracy because part of the democratic regime should be stability. When you have so little political parties that are trying to overthrow the government all the time, and you depend to form a coalition on small political parties then price you pay is very high. So we are very much in need for some political reforms to make the threshold a little bit higher. We all think it should be two and half percent and we are trying to see what kind of political reforms we can make to make political life more stable.

“Enough is Enough,” warns Morgantini

On the occasion of “40 years of occupation and no end in sight” for the Palestinian people, Luisa Morgantini, the Vice President of European Parliament last week spoke at length to Tejinder Singh (Tito), strongly denouncing the Israeli’s indiscriminate attacks against civilians as representing a serious breach of the principles of the Geneva Convention amounting to a war crime and called for an international UN force to protect civilians.

The Italian firebrand MEP said: “It’s very important to have one (UN force) but not forever. We need international UN peacekeeping troops to be sent to Gaza and West Bank. The international community has a duty to protect civilians, to stop the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, put an end to house demolitions and the destruction of infrastructure.”

Calling the situation as “a tragedy for both Palestinians and Israelis if there is not a rapid solution,” Morgantini said, “This month is 40 years of occupation and the Israeli occupation of West Bank and Gaza is extremely cruel and has really taken away freedom of Palestinian people with the Wall which in the beginning was build for security reasons, blocking the people; it’s a Wall that penetrates deep inside the Palestinian territories and takes away land from what should be a Palestinian state, the fertile land of the villages.”

Portraying a factual image of Israel as a “divided society,” she said: “On the other hand, Israeli society is facing a lot of problems including corruption, imagine President of the country being accused of rape, one of the ministers also accused of rape and many accusations of corruption.”

Stressing the importance of mutual trust and recognition to find a lasting solution to the ongoing sanguinary crisis, Morgantini called the international community “to recognise the democratically elected government of Palestine and to support the efforts made by all Palestinian political forces and President Mahoumud Abbas in their efforts to stop Palestinian militia groups firing rockets on Israeli towns and people.”

Accepting the fact that there are elements in Palestinian society that need taming she said, “Launching rockets is an criminal act on civilian population but the Israelis are responding to these acts through collective punishment, killing children, families, destroying homes and above all putting Palestinians in the jails.”

The Palestinian elections were held in a free and fair democratic manner and the outcome must be respected by law-abiding democratic governments argued Morgantini saying, “After 40 years the occupation continues, we have been talking about a two-state two-people solution since 1980 and we still have not even recognised a democratically-elected Palestinian government,” she said, calling for the EU to “show that it truly believes in international law.”

About the upcoming Quartet meeting, MEP said, “The real player in Middle East is United States. If it’s true what Condoleezza Rice is saying now that Palestinian state should exist along with Israel, then I am sure that Israeli government will accept and start to discuss seriously on negotiations.” “Normally Israelis say that there is no partner on Palestinian side for peace talks but as a matter of fact, President Abbas has been elected by the Palestinians on a clear platform: no violence, Palestinian state and peace with Israel. So Abbas is quite ready to have negotiations and Palestinian government is ready too now. The only way is to convince the Israeli government that it’s in their interests that they have to make peace.” “Palestinians have a Unity government based on a programme that clearly states that the government recognise agreements signed by PLO with recognition of occupied territories and a cease fire,” she said.

Asked to comment on Israel’s withholding of Palestinian customs duties, Morgantini urged the EU and the Quartet to force Israel to return the funds confiscated from Palestine. MEP lambasted Israel saying, “It is unacceptable that Israel is still withholding Palestinian tax and customs revenues and aggravating the Palestinian humanitarian crisis.” “The funds must be immediately transferred,” she demanded.

She commented, “In the European parliament while discussing Darfur, members are demanding sanctions against Sudanese government. What about sanctions against Israeli government which is violating human rights everyday and there are 11,000 Palestinian prisoners among them 370 children and 200 women?” Saying, “Gaza is a total prison,” Morgantini cited the instance of the border opening with Egypt “for only 74 days out of 365 days last year.”

Morgantini demanded the need for using Article two of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, according to which, in the case of violations of human rights the agreement should be suspended and she pointed that there was “no doubt about the human rights violations committed by the Israeli government.”“Enough is enough,” MEP Morgantini concluded urging the Europeans to step out of “guilt consciousness of the Holocaust,” and step forward for values of “justice and freedom for everyone” and to be “very honest with the Israeli government.”


Written for New Europe, the European Weekly on June 9, 2007 - Issue : 733