Alwaght- The occupied Palestinian territories are hosting the 75th of the Holocaust anniversary, with about 50 countries attending the event. The Israeli regime is holding a Holocaust meeting while since last year the Knesset was dissolved three times and despite some signs of normalization with some of the Persian Gulf states, the defeat of the so-called “deal of the century” is being seen. Tel Aviv cannot hide the fact that the anniversary event is overshadowed by these issues.
Sidelines bolder than the main event
Despite its claims of being a secular democracy, the Israeli regime has been seeking to conciliate the secular and religious sides since the foundation of the Union of Israel in 1912. The Nazi Labor camps conveniently fed the Zionist movement’s propaganda to persuade the religious Jews to forsake their long-held belief that a Jewish state should not be formed before the resurrection of the savor. As the so-called Nazi camps located somewhere between Germany and Poland, the presence of Polish president is of great significance for the Israelis as it would strengthen the politico-religious identity given rise to by the Holocaust. But he has chosen to skip the event.
Since 2017, Poland and the Israeli regime involved in severe differences over the Holocaust. In 2017, Poland approved a law criminalizing those who accuse the country of sharing the responsibility of deaths of the Jews in WWII. The law unleashed bitter criticism and insults to the Polish ambassador to Tel Aviv.
The Israelis believe that Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated from the Nazis under the command of a Jewish Ukrainian soldier of the Soviet army named Anatoly Shapiro. This year, Tel Aviv invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the anniversary but did not give him address time. The move drew criticism from him and reports even said he was not traveling to the occupied territories. He traveled with a controversial delay, however.
The absence of the Polish president and lack of a plan for the Ukrainian president to address the event blow life into Zionist identity challenges. Yehuda Bauer, the historian of interest of the Zionists, could not hide his discontent with this year’s Holocaust anniversary problems. He said it is regretful that the Polish president is not attending this year, adding that it is “unfortunate” that the Polish leader will skip the Auschwitz memorial and noting that the rise in anti-Semitism is due to “nationalist revival” following mass migration.
Tel Aviv shaky international position
The cabinet formation crisis as well as the corruption cases of Netanyahu and his wife that overshadow the Israeli politics push President Trump to find political investment on the Israeli PM as a big risk. The US representation in the memorial did not go past Vice-president Mike Pence. That is encouraging Netanyahu this year to embark on a campaign of blame-shifting targeting others to divert the attention of the attending leaders and build consensus among them around the Israeli interests.
A day before the anniversary kicked off, Netanyahu in a television interview said: “So we now have the capacity to defend ourselves, and I think the lesson of Auschwitz is: One, stop bad things when they’re small, and Iran is a very bad thing. It’s not that small but it could get a lot bigger with nuclear weapons, and I think the first thing is stop that.”
On the other hand, Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to meet the Palestinian leaders in the West Bank after the memorial. Fear of outcomes of expected meeting pushed the Israelis to accuse Hamas in Gaza of planning to attack the event, an accusation aimed to influence the results of Putin meeting with the Palestinians leaders. The Israeli security officials keep issuing warnings about possible sabotage actions by Hamas.
To secure an election win, Netanyahu is focused on the step-by-step annexation of West Bank. In mid-December, just a day before Likud party internal election, he said he has plans to build 3,000 new homes and a set of new industrial parks in Israeli settlements in West Bank. The statements played a major role in his winning of the Likud vote. He still clings on this policy and tries to persuade the participating leaders to recognize illegal Israeli settlements in lands seized from the Palestinians.
Concerns about global awakening
Over the past few years, some European states and many world leaders and institutions have taken a negative look at the Israeli policies. One example was the global-level condemnation following Trump recognition of Syrian occupied Golan Heights. A deep gap is in the making between the US and Europe over the Israeli regime and Palestine. Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn ahead of a meeting of the European Council on Foreign Relations said that to encourage peace the EU should recognize a Palestinian state. In 2014, the European Parliament supported the existence of a state of Palestine.
When Trump assumed the power in the US and his administration gave the “deal of the century” some publicity, Palestinians intensified their protests. Their marches in Nakba day (Arabic for misery) that marks the foundation of the Israeli regime in 1948 even widened, faced by the Israeli toughening responses.
Tel Aviv uses its lobbies in other countries to jail prominent historians and philosophers who question or deny the Holocaust, including Roger Garaudy, Robert Faurisson, Paul Fram, and Ernst Zundel. But this inquisition in the West does not prevent the world from questioning the Holocaust.
In September last year, Moroccan demonstrators partially demolished a Holocaust memorial built by Pixelhelper, a German foundation. The government later fully removed it. Last month, Foreign Minister Margot Wallström of Sweden urged the government to increase the budget for migrants saying that Stockholm backs Palestinian rights. She said Sweden recognizes a Palestinian state as part of efforts towards a “two-state” solution.
Concerns about the decline of the European support to Tel Aviv at the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust is observable. Before the event, the Israeli President Reuven Rivlin appeared to chastise Eastern and Central European governments that glorify Nazi collaborators as national heroes and downplay their citizens’ complicity in anti-Jewish atrocities. At the same time, he slammed populist right-wing politicians in Europe who campaign on xenophobic and anti-Semitic platforms, in an apparent reference to parties such as Austria’s Freedom Party and German’s AfD.
As time goes by, the Israeli propagandistic shows and distortion of the historical record by international Zionism near their end. In fact, as the global awareness about the imperialist nature of the Zionist movement increases, Tel Aviv day by day loses the achievements of Holocaust myth.
