Settlers dressed children with orange Stars of David last year to protest pullout (Archive photo)
Photo: AFP
Holocaust-like ‘tattoos’ to protest pullout
Likening themselves to prisoners of Nazi camps, some protesters of Israel’s Gaza pullout write identification numbers in black ink on their arms after government seals off area, sparking condemnations from settler council and Yad Vashem
GAZA - Some Gaza settlers, including Holocaust survivors, wrote their Israeli ID card numbers on their arms on Thursday to resemble prisoners of Nazi concentration camps in protest of Israel’s planned Gaza pullout, a day after forces closed off the territory to non-residents.
The Yesha Council and the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum condemned the move, calling on protesters of the withdrawal plan to avoid using tactics that involved comparison to the Holocaust.
Staunch right-wingers have already in recent months sported orange clothing and ribbons on their vehicles as symbols of protest against Israel’s plan to evacuate all 21 settlements in Gaza and four of 120 in the West Bank. Orange in the official color of the Gush Katif settlement bloc municipality.
Settlers had started wearing makeshift orange Stars of David sewn on their clothes last year but stopped the trend after politicians and public figures slammed them for dishonouring the memory of Holocaust victims.
The initiative to write identification numbers on arms came a day after Israel sealed off Gaza Strip settlements to non-residents in a bid to stop rightists from joining hundreds who have already flocked to the area to try and fortify it ahead of the pullout, which is set to begin in August.
Security forces also want to avoid further confrontations with ultranationalists, who have in recent weeks engaged in violence with soldiers and Palestinians. Also, thousands of rightists have over the past few months blocked major roads and planted fake bombs in train and bus stations to protest the plan.
Yesha Council slams move
As a result of the closure, several Gaza settlers wrote their identification numbers in black ink on the inside of their arms, near their palms. Some of them are survivors of the Nazi holocaust.
“This is a heartfelt, spontaneous decision because this is how we feel,” said a settler, who asked not to be named. “This is exactly what we felt when they demanded our identification numbers from us. We didn’t think twice and we wrote the number.”
The Yesha Council and other settler leaders have said the initiative was not formally organized and was based on personal decisions.
“Despite the siege the prime minister imposed to try and break out spirits, rise above the flooding of human emotions and avoid any step that has a comparison to the Holocaust,” the Council said.
Chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum Directorate Avner Shalev also slammed the move, saying the protesters should “avoid using slogans and terms taken from the Holocaust to avoid unnecessary comparisons that involve Holocaust denial.”
The memory of the Holocaust, Shalev said, should unite the Israeli people and not the opposite.
