Donning the Yellow Star is inappropriate
Photo: AP
Protest without yellow Star of David
Despite justness of protest, donning yellow Star of David is inappropriate
There is no dispute: The Holocaust survivors protesting the disparagement and deprivation that has lasted for years are absolutely right.
They are right because for decades Israel's governments have neglected the care of survivors who could barely make ends meet. They are right in their argument that the authorities today are not doing enough either – if at all – to assist them in their final years.
Sticking to Plan
Yael Branovsky
Organizers of mass protest scheduled for Sunday afternoon say 'Holocaust survivors have had enough of promises and foot-dragging.' In spite of reports on improvement in government's allowance plan proposal, survivors stick to their plan to march from Knesset to Prime Minister's Office
Why isn't the State responsible for these matters? After all, a sum of NIS 200 million would suffice to solve the problems of the majority of these people, the last survivors of the camps and the Holocaust.
The demands of the survivors are just, yet it is difficult to agree with their mode of protest. Thousands if not hundreds of thousands – who do not comply with the definition of Holocaust survivors have "jumped on the wagon" of the Holocaust survivors' suffering. The inevitable conclusion is that the people running the public relations campaign are the ones who inflated the numbers in order to spark a greater protest.
As an Auschwitz survivor I naturally support the protest of my partners to the suffering and torture of those days, yet I am opposed to the idea that several of them are planning to don the "striped pajamas" that characterized the camps and to wear the yellow Star of David.
Two years ago, when a handful of Gush Katif residents used the yellow Star of David to express their protest against the disengagement, I thought that their conduct was inappropriate. I don't think the situation is any different where Holocaust survivors are concerned.
The truth should be said, Israel's governments have harmed the Holocaust survivors, yet wearing the "pajamas and yellow Star of David" is a measure that must not be exploited. These are the symbols of the death camps. Even if the conduct of the authorities is inappropriate, they must not in any way be mentioned in the same breath as those who murdered six million of our people.
