There is no Holocaust in Gaza

Let me begin with a statement so sharp, so clear, and so necessary that no one can walk away from it with ambiguity: there is no Holocaust in Gaza. To say otherwise is not only a grotesque distortion of history; it is an assault on the very essence of memory, morality, and truth.

A new kind of darkness is creeping through the streets of the Western world. You see it in the chants, the placards, the graffiti. A new wave of hatred masquerades as activism.

And yet, scrolling through social media, I came across a chilling post: a young “activist,” draped in the now-familiar slogans of “resistance,” claimed that what is happening in Gaza is “a new Holocaust.” She was not alone. The chant is echoing across the streets of Western cities, from Berlin to London, from New York to Paris. They shout “Free Palestine,” they scream “Zionist entity” with glee, and they call for a “Global Intifada” while demanding a “Second October 7.”

But now they have dared to hijack the Holocaust, that sacred, blood-soaked chapter of human history that belongs to no one except the Jewish people. And in doing so, they have revealed the full depravity of their hatred.

A generation raised on smartphones, not history books, dares to weaponize the Holocaust by equating it with a war started by Hamas.

To those who invoke the Holocaust to describe Gaza: shame on you. You trample on the ashes of six million Jews. You spit on the names. You desecrate the memory of gas chambers, of babies thrown alive into fire pits, of skeletal corpses. You degrade history with the same casual cruelty as those who once tore teeth from the mouths of the murdered.

The Holocaust is not a metaphor. It is not a prop for your political theater. It is not interchangeable with modern conflicts. It is the industrialized extermination of an entire people, targeted solely for their identity, carried out with cold bureaucratic precision, without mercy, without exception.

No, Gaza is not experiencing a Holocaust. Hamas is not a Jewish child hiding in a cellar. Hamas is not a grandmother clinging to life in a cattle car. Hamas is not the tattooed arm of a survivor or the broken Hebrew of a displaced refugee. Hamas is the exact opposite: a death cult that butchers Jews for being Jews. October 7 was not “resistance”; it was a pogrom.

In the streets of Berlin, I’ve seen mobs cheer when Israeli hostages are paraded like trophies. History is not repeating; it is being rehearsed. Speak with Levi Salomon, one of Germany’s most courageous Jewish voices and the founder of the Jewish Forum for Democracy and Against Antisemitism (JFDA). Salomon has been crystal clear about the danger we now face. In a recent TV appearance, he didn’t just describe the hatred he hears today; he reminded the world that these chants were already heard years ago. Nothing about this is new.

“Knife in, knife out, knife red, Jew dead.”

Salomon’s warning could not be more explicit: this hate was always there. And Salomon doesn’t just document this hatred from afar. He stands in the middle of it. At demonstrations, he is regularly harassed, physically targeted, and obstructed. Protesters try to block his camera so he cannot record their chants. He has been shoved and insulted; recently, someone threw tea on him and his camera.

Jewish life in Europe is once again being lived behind locked doors. That synagogues are protected like military bases. Jewish schoolchildren must hide their identity lest they be spat on or worse. The myth that antisemitism ended with the Shoah is now as dead as the millions who died in it.

The Western legal systems that once swore “Never Again” have become paralytic. Hate speech against Jews is tolerated in the name of “free expression.” Deportations of violent Jew-haters are blocked by legal technicalities. People with twenty or more criminal charges walk free because Jewish blood isn’t enough to trigger action.

We are told to “educate them.” That with the right curriculum, we can rewire minds soaked in hate. That Holocaust museums will somehow pierce hearts already hardened with genocidal ideology. I do not believe this fantasy. You cannot reason with those who cheered on the burning of people. You do not debate with people who chant “gas the Jews” in the streets. You prosecute them. You deport them. You eradicate antisemitism with the full force of law, or you invite the next atrocity.

There must be no compromise on this. No nuance. No polite discussions. Just as the world had no right to negotiate with the architects of the Final Solution, it has no business tolerating those who call for a second Shoah today.

Let me say this with as much gravity as I can: the war Israel fights today is not just about Hamas. It is a war to defend the very right of Jews to live openly, proudly, and without fear.

Every Jewish child deserves to wear a Star of David without being afraid. Every synagogue deserves to open its doors without a bomb squad. Every Jew in Haifa, Hamburg, Tel Aviv, or Toronto deserves peace, safety, and dignity. And yet they are once again being asked to prove their right to exist.

Enough.

If the world cannot summon the moral clarity to defend the Jewish people now, then it has no claim to the words “never again.” This is not the time for silence. It is the time to choose between barbarism and civilization, memory and erasure, truth and the lie.

Keep alight the flame that no darkness can extinguish.