Channels

Photo: Eliad Levy
Pullout objectors hit Yad Vashem
Photo: Eliad Levy

Chilling protest at Yad Vashem

Pullout objectors post photographs of 25 homes bearing names of evacuated Gaza, northern West Bank communities at Holocaust museum; Yad Vashem officials: Keep Holocaust out of political debate

Disengagement may be over, but not the protest: Pullout objectors added a new “commemoration display” to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum Thursday morning, “in memory of the 25 Gush Katif and northern West Bank communities destroyed by enemy (of the Jewish people) Ariel Sharon.”

 

The display includes 25 photographs of homes, with a note placed on each photo bearing the name of one of the evacuated Gaza and northern Samaria communities.

 


Anti-pullout display at Holocaust Museum (Photo: Eliad Levy)

 

Officials estimate that the protesters entered the museum compound early Thursday, before it opens to visitors, and placed the display where communities destroyed in the Holocaust are presented.

 

A Yad Vashem guard discovered the display Thursday morning and it was promptly removed.

 

‘Needless provocation in bad taste’

 

Museum officials told Ynet that fortunately the site was not vandalized, as those who placed the display brought a readymade sign and did not spray-paint anything on the wall. Still, the officials said, they view the incident with severity.

 

“We are talking about a needless provocation in bad taste that undermines the memory of the Holocaust, and we condemn it,” an official said.

 

The Yad Vashem management filed a police complaint in the wake of the incident and called on Israelis to “refrain from using expressions and terms from the Holocaust in this political debate.”

 

Thursday’s event joins several other cases where Holocaust terminology and elements were used in the disengagement debate.

 

‘Playing into the hands of Holocaust deniers’

 

Former Gaza Beach Regional Council Spokesman Eran Sternberg slammed the anti-pullout protest and said “there is no doubt any comparison to the Holocaust is misplaced.

 

Still, he noted “the indifference of some parts of Israeli society, who celebrate…the destruction of dozens of communities and synagogues leads to harsh protests on the one hand and acts of desperation on the other hand.”

 

Meanwhile, Minister for Diaspora Affairs Michael Melchior said those who “compare the evacuation to the horrors of the Holocaust are playing into the hands of Israel haters and Holocaust deniers, and serve the interests of those who claim the Holocaust is a relative term.”

 

“We must stop with this terrible comparison, which causes great damage to the war on global anti-Semitism,” he said.

 

'Psychos have upper hand'

 

Knesset Member Chemi Doron also blasted the protest display, saying it appears “the psychos have the upper hand within the settler population.”

 

“Those nuts never realized the meaning of the Holocaust to the Jewish people,” he said. “I’m certain this mad act was not undertaken by Gush Katif evacuees, but rather, by crazed elements from Judea and Samaria who enjoy too much understanding from the State.”

 

Knesset Member Zevulun Orlev also had harsh words, saying the “radical people, who desecrated Yad Vashem, deeply hurt the feelings of Holocaust survivors and cheapened the memory of the Holocaust.”

 

“Religious Zionism condemns those people and calls on them to cease from their terrible acts, which cause huge damage to Gush Katif settlers and the National-Religious public,” he said.

 


פרסום ראשון: 09.01.05, 12:29
 new comment
Warning:
This will delete your current comment