U.N. caught in Gaza dispute over study of Holocaust

Wednesday 09th September, 05:18 AM JST

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sabiwabi at 11:16 AM JST - 9th September

Great for the Palestinians, there is no reason why they should undergo this indoctrination. The holocaust should be taken out of ALL schools. The holocaust is an historical event in which all investigations have an outcome that is enforced by law. An investigation cannot, by law, go against the official version; go figure!
TheQuestion at 11:25 AM JST - 9th September

Hamas rejects any attempt to introduce the Holocaust into the curriculum as “a kind of normalization with Israel and an attempt to bridge the psychological gap between Israel and the Palestinians,” he said.

Because the last thing anybody would want is for Palestine and Israel to normalize relations, or heaven forbid bridge the gap between the two.
sabiwabi at 11:40 AM JST - 9th September

I wonder whether and how the Palestinian Holocaust is taught in Israeli schools. Or whether the UN schools also teach about the Jewish blood libel.
jeancolmar at 11:51 AM JST - 9th September

The Holocaust happened and it is stupid to deny it. It is particularly stupid for Palestinians to deny it, for if any people have a right to identify with Jews under Hitler it is the Palestinians under Israeli apartheid. The Palestinians also ought to realize that Israel exists largely because of the Holocaust. To a great extent the Palestinians can blame Hitler for their troubles (and ours).

What Palestinians (and the rest of us) ought to demand is that the whole truth of the Holocaust be told whenever the Holocaust is brought up. The Holocaust did not kill 6 million people but 11 million people. Hitler killed at least 6 million Jews, which is hideous enough, but he also killed 5 million other people. The other 5 million are invariably unmentioned or underplayed whenever the Holocaust is brought up. Many of those were Leftists, homosexuals, Gypsies, Slavs and the like, which suggests that they same people who sympathize with the Jew see the other deaths as somehow either unimportant or desirable. Whatever the case may be, this has played into the hands of the rightist-racist branch of Zionism that brings up the Holocaust whenever the world objects to Israel's Nazi-like outrages against the Palestinians.

Perhaps the Palestinians, once they get the entire story of the Holocaust (available from the Holocaust Museum online) they will most identify with the Gypsies. They lost a greater percentage of their people than the Jews and they have been the most discriminated against and neglected people in the Western world, mainly in Europe.

Arab Holocaust denial is something new and dangerous. It won't lead to Palestinian liberation. It will only nurture tyrants.
sabiwabi at 12:56 PM JST - 9th September

JC, I agree with you that Hitler is partly to blame for the creation of Israel and that roughly half of the people who died in the camps were Jews. But it is stupid to believe that 11 million people died in the camps, the death toll is about 100 times lower, and most of them died from disease (especially typhus), not gassing.

What Palestinians (and the rest of us) ought to demand is that the Holocaust be freely investigated and discussed, without imprisoning those who discover or mention contradicting evidence.
Helter_Skelter at 03:21 PM JST - 9th September

Mein Kampf is a best seller in the Muslim world. Muslims played a major role in the Holocaust, including Hitler's coveted Muslim Waffen SS. They have successfully ethnically cleansed a million Jews from Islamic nations in the last half century. They continue to target and murder Jews (and every other religion) throughout the world.

So why would they even bother to deny the Holocaust? Simply for political reasons - in order to delegitimize Israel. Otherwise, they would be celebrating the genocide of six million Jews. Their collaboration with the Third Reich is a part of their proud and illustrious history.
skipthesong at 07:39 PM JST - 9th September

I am by no means a denier of the Holocaust, but I must ask, as others have, why must we learn of only the Jewish side of the Holocaust and why just the Holocaust? I have only recently learned that Stalin and Mao killed a lot more people in recent times; after the Holocaust. I never learned about either one in High School nor Pol Pot....

also, I don't this is the best time to bring up such a course.
Cicada at 10:12 PM JST - 9th September
the Holocaust

Why the definite article? Was there only one "holocaust"? For example, in Ruanda and Cambodia the killing was far more efficient.

I found an answer to this question -- interesting short discussion of the term at http://www.thefreedictionary.com/holocaust

Only 31 percent of the Panel approves the sentence "In East Africa five years of drought have brought about a holocaust in which millions have died". In a 1987 survey, just 11 percent approved the use of holocaust to summarize the effects of the AIDS epidemic. This suggests that other figurative usages such as the huge losses in the Savings and Loan holocaust may be viewed as overblown or in poor taste.

The primary definition is:
1. Great destruction resulting in the extensive loss of life, especially by fire.
so I guess only 31% of the Panel approves an extension to cover "lack of water".

When capitalized Holocaust refers specifically to the destruction of Jews and other Europeans by the Nazis and may also encompass the Nazi persecution of Jews that preceded the outbreak of the war.
LockeVsRousseau at 02:48 PM JST - 11th September

this dilemna exposes the u.n. as fundamentally bereft of the guiding principles it was founded with and offers an illuminating paradox:modern day europe jails individuals who deny the holocaust, but nearly all european governments offer unconditional support of an arab pseudo-state whose leaders deny the nazis' attempt at genocide and who forbid children in so-called palestine to learn of it.