On August 16, 2014 Suzanne Weiss is a long time pro Palestinian Jewish activist and a member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada, published an article titled: “Not In My Name: Condemning the Massacre of Palestinians in Gaza: Statement of Jewish Holocaust Survivors.”
Here are excerpts from the article:
…The Nazis’ goal was to round up, deport and kill all the Jews in France – as was being done throughout Europe. But amid this terrible slaughter, a wave of revulsion grew in France against the attack on the Jews. Through the efforts of both social organizations and individual initiatives, thousands of Jews were hidden. Altogether, three-quarters of the French Jews escaped the Holocaust…
The Jewish children were placed discreetly, away from the towns and sometimes in remote hamlets. Yet they lived in the open, going to school and to church…
The children were saved, in most cases, by the actions not of individual heroes but of entire communities, who hid them not in cellars but in plain view. They were saved by a resistance that embraced not only the guerrilla combatants, but those who set up civilian networks to defy anti-Jewish decrees, and, in a different way, by those who looked the other way, who did not ask questions, and who – even if hostile to the presence of Jews – did not betray them…
The situation in Gaza is unlike that faced by Europe’s Jews under Hitler. The Israeli government has converted the territory into the world’s largest concentration camp, sealed off and subjected to periodic and murderous bombardment. For the people of Gaza, there is no place to shelter their children; no friendly countryside that could provide refuge…
Today, our human dignity is challenged by Israel’s cruelty toward the Palestinians. Palestinians call for a world movement of solidarity. We must speak out for their right to defend their lives and their homelands. We support their call to create economic pressure on Israel with a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS).
The demands of this campaign are: For the right of Palestinians to return to their homeland, equal rights for Palestinians in Israel and an end to the Israeli occupation. Today the boycott campaign is winning increasing support on several continents.
Let us redouble our efforts for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israeli apartheid.
Free Gaza! Palestine shall be free! •