MK compares Trump, Regev comments to Nazis'
Knesset Member Issawi Frej (Meretz) causes a storm at a Knesset assembly marking the Holocaust Remembrance Day after comparing slogans used in Nazi Germany to those used by Donald Trump and Culture Minister Miri Regev (Likud).
Things got heated on Tuesday during a special deliberation marking the International Holocaust Remembrance Day when Issawi Frej (Meretz) claimed that slogans that were used during the Nazi regime are "repeated today by Donald Trump, or even here, by Miri Regev."
The claims stirred up several Knesset members and holocaust survivors in attendance, and a few of them even left in protest. Knesset members Oded Forer (Yisrael Beytenu) and Oren Hazan (Likud) were removed from the hall after being called to order three times.
"Let's go back to January 30, 1933, the day Adolf Hitler was sworn as chancellor of Germany", Said Frej in his speech. "Unfortunately there are too many similarities between 1933 Germany and 2017 in a lot of places in the world, and not even far from here in our neighbor Syria.
Frej later spoke directly to the Holocaust survivors in the hall, saying that "If what I said hurt anyone's feeling, I am sorry, but I don't think that I crossed any red lines. I'll say it again: we must learn from the lessons of the Holocaust. If we do not, we risk being further influenced by the propaganda that is propagated by many regimes today, and nothing will change. If there was no racism, there wouldn't be a Holocaust, so let us learn from that."
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) issued a statement on behalf of the government, saying "The storm that happened here today outlines the anger that alongside Holocaust denial there is a phenomenon that is no less of a problem, one of disrespectful use of Holocaust expressions and analogies."
After the deliberation, Frej said that "The Holocaust has a unique place in human history, but we shouldn't ignore the fact that its horrors were not internalized and that genocide still takes place in different places in the world. In my speech today at the assembly, I sought to deliver a message, one saying that we must remember not only the Holocaust's victims but also its lessons.
"I of course did not intend to offend any of the survivors, and if I did I apologize. It is strange that what I said met with populist criticism specifically from Knesset member Forer, whose party leader Lieberman asked to 'trial Arab Knesset Members like in Nuremberg' as if we are Nazi murderers."
Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein (Likud) said at the assembly's opening that "The Holocaust was a monstrous travesty whose scale, cruelty and methodicalness is almost incomprehensible, and especially because of that it is so important for all of us to stand in front of the mirror that it presents to us, for all its difficulty and embarrassment."
"The world is revealed to us not once to be a dark display cruelty, racism and hatred. The demonstrations of hateful accusations and bloodshed that surround us—in Nice and Berlin, Istanbul and Jerusalem, Damascus and Aleppo—cast a dark shadow on humanity."
"We have hope that the demonization towards Israel and the Jewish people, that even in 2017 is worrisome in scope, will be replaced by a hint of sanity, understanding, solidarity and humanitarianism." Edelstein added.
"We must stand tall against the horrors of the Nazi regime, try and learn from it and condemn, without embellishment, any sign of neo-Nazism, Holocaust denial or anti-Semitism. If we do not stand guard we cannot say in perfect confidence, with all our good will, that this monster will never rear its head again."
Knesset Member Itzik Shmuli (Zionist Union) said in turn that "A quarter of Holocaust survivors waived medication this year, a third of them live in poverty and most suffer from loneliness. The State of Israel should be ashamed. You're speaking to me about heritage? We will never forget the past, but by God let's at least help the ones who are still alive."
