Zoabi: Israel like Germany of 1930's - remaining silent as Palestinian homes burn
Joint List MK Haneen Zoabi, speaking at Dutch Kristallnacht memorial event, criticizes on Israeli public for "remaining silent" on Palestinian oppression.
By JPOST.COM STAFFUpdated: NOVEMBER 8, 2015 21:45MK Haneen Zoabi at the High Court of Justice(photo credit: NOAM MOSKOVICH)
Joint List MK Haneen Zoabi spoke about racism in Israel at a Kristallnacht commemoration event in Amsterdam Sunday, according to a Channel 10 report.Zoabi spoke at an alternative commemoration event hosted by local left-wing Jewish activists and pro-Palestinian organizations in the Dutch capital, ushering in much criticism from the local Dutch Jewish and Israeli community."It is my honor to speak on behalf of the Kristallnacht victims...on behalf of all the Jews in history who have resisted oppression." Zoabi said.The Joint List MK drew a comparison between Germany of the 1930's and modern Israel, saying, "During Kristallnacht thousands of Jewish businesses and synagogues were burned, while the Germans remained silent. Today, as the homes of Palestinians are burned, as churches and people are burned alive- the majority in Israel remains silent."The event in Amsterdam was organized by Platform Stop Racism and Exclusion, a far-left group that is shunned by local Jews for its members’ perceived animosity toward Israel and sympathy for Hamas.Zoabi’s attendance at the event was announced last week.Zoabi currently is under investigation in Israel for saying in an interview for a Hamas publication, “Hundreds of worshipers should go up to al-Aqsa to confront an Israeli conspiracy there. Thousands of our people’s ascents there would turn these events into a real intifada.” She later said her words were “not a call to amplify the attacks.”The Dutch group that invited her wrote on its Facebook page that in previous years it “paid attention to racism in the world (Germany, Austria, Greece) but not in Israel. Given recent events, discussing racism in Israel is unavoidable.” Zoabi will speak on “Israeli discrimination against Palestinians,” the text read.The event where Zoabi will speak is in commemoration of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass” pogrom in 1938 against Austrian and German Jews. Many Holocaust historians view Kristallnacht as the opening shot in the Nazi-led campaign against the Jews.The far-left group, previously known as NBK, has been commemorating Kristallnacht since 1992, often with the Jewish community. But in 2010, the Central Jewish Board of the Netherlands broke its ties with NBK because of the group’s perceived attempt to tie the Holocaust with the Arab-Israeli conflict.
NBK activist Miriyam Aouragh in 2004 organized a commemoration service in Amsterdam for Ahmed Yassin, a Hamas leader whom Israel killed that year. In 2009, NBK’s Kristallnacht commemoration featured a speech by Yassin Elforkani, an imam who in 2009 said that Jews in Damascus used blood to make matzah.
