    My Visit to the Holocaust Memorial

    By Dan Desmond

    Since the Camp David talks collapsed and freedom for Palestinians seemed
    more remote than ever, I have begun to see virtually everything with
    reference to the plight of the Palestinian people. When I see a swimming
    pool I think of all the swimming pools and lush green lawns in Jewish
    settlements throughout the Occupied Territories mocking their
    Palestinian neighbors who have little if no water. When I see a
    helicopter, I think of the helicopters used to evacuate sick Israeli
    settlers to good hospitals and Palestinians who often die at IDF
    roadblocks for want of medical care.

    I visited the Holocaust Memorial in Miami Beach for well over an hour
    today reading the names of the victims and the history of the Holocaust.
    Most prominently at the memorial are the words "Never Again" yet there
    were several historical accounts that could be directly translated to
    present day Palestine. For example, a picture of a little girl with
    wide, fearful eyes had the caption "What to expect, what to fear, what
    to hope for," could easily have been a Palestinian girl who like her
    countrymen have no hope for the future and are fearful of the Israeli
    occupying forces.

    Also a picture of Jewish leaders being publicly executed with the
    caption "Public hanging of Jewish leaders. As a warning to the Jewish
    population to comply with all orders, the Nazis selected community
    leaders for public executions." This, of course brought to mind the
    current Israeli campaign of assassination of Palestinian leaders as an
    example to the Palestinian populace.

    There were several pictures detailing the Warsaw Ghetto uprising; "For
    twenty-seven days, young Jewish fighters withstood the onslaught of the
    well armed Nazi SS men. With makeshift arms and bombs, they fought
    against all odds until German fire destroyed the ghetto." This is
    remarkably similar including the makeshift arms and bombs, to the
    Palestinian fighters in the West Bank and Gaza. I guess its hard for us
    as American to see this since all freedom fighters in the Occupied
    territories are actually referred to as "terrorists."

    And the "Jewish resistance partisans who lived in forests and performed
    acts of sabotage against the Germans" who looked, and according to the
    caption behaved remarkably like "terrorists" with semiautomatic rifles
    slung over their shoulders.

    One section that really caught my eye read "While the world
    watched......while the world listened......and remained silent......."
    In the current situation, the last line should be changed to "and the
    American Media condoned....." But everything else is identical.

    The point of this is to say that we cannot lament the past suffering of
    one group of people while at the same time condone the current suffering
    of another with editorials and public pronouncements defending of all
    things, assassinations.

    The second experience I had today that brought to mind the tribulations
    of the Palestinian people was a rereading of "Letter From Birmingham
    Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. In virtually every passage, if you
    substitute "segregation" with "occupation," "Negro" with "Arab" and
    "White" with "Israeli" you have a serious condemnation of Israeli
    injustices against Palestinian people.

    I'll start with the passage that so clearly explains why we should all
    be interested in the freedom of a people we have never met. I will
    substitute in quotation marks appropriate nouns.

    I cannot sit idly by in "Miami" and not be concerned with what happens
    in "Palestine." Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We
    are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single
    garment of destiny.

    You deplore the demonstrations taking place in "The Occupied
    Territories." But your statement, I'm sorry to say fails to express a
    similar concern for the conditions that brought about the
    demonstrations. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place
    in "the Occupied Territories" at this time, but it is even more
    unfortunate that the "Israeli" power structure left the "Palestinian"
    community with no alternative.

    Virtually the entire letter can be seen in this light as a call for
    Palestinian freedom and justice. I suggest you reread it yourself.

    Given our understanding of these two injustices carried out on our
    fellow man and their obvious similarities to the current plight of the
    Palestinian people, why then do we cheer for the oppressor? Why do we
    say "Never Again" yet condone the very same oppression? Is it because we
    don't believe the Palestinian people are really being oppressed with the
    help of our editorial support and tax dollars? Or do we believe that
    they somehow collectively brought it on themselves as a nation?

    If you know as I do that all people are equal, regardless of race or
    creed, and you know that Israel is terrorizing an entire nation just
    because of who they are as people, then you must come out against it.
    You must declare everything about the Occupation as immoral and illegal
    and call on the US government to terminate all support of Israel until
    all racist policies such as the Jewish only "Right of Return" and laws
    forbidding Arab ownership of land in most of Israel are terminated.