What’s missing in Holocaust education? Hamas
Giving a passionate speech at the Holocaust Education Trust dinner in London recently, the British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer proclaimed that studying the Holocaust will become a critical, vital part of every single student’s identity. Not only will the Holocaust remain on the national curriculum, but Starmer pledged to build the Holocaust memorial next to Parliament. “Boldly, proudly, unapologetically.”
“We will not shy away from this. We will not be silent. We will not look the other way…. We will call out antisemitism for what it is: hatred pure and simple.”
Fighting words. One cannot fault Sir Keir Starmer’s sentiments, nor question his sincerity. It is imperative that the greatest catastrophe to befall the Jewish people be taught to every student in Britain.
“And not just studying it, learning from it too. And above all, acting on its lessons, ” he added.
The British Prime Minister said he intended to fight the “resurgence of antisemitism”.
But where does current antisemitism come from? Starmer will be well acquainted with antisemitism on the far left, exemplified by Jeremy Corbyn, which he appeared to fight hard in order to expunge it from the Labour Party.
In tolerating intimidating ‘hate marches’ on the streets of London, however, with their real-time consequences for local Jews, it appears that Starmer’s government has not put its money where its mouth is.
Moreover, what has Starmer done about about the antisemitism of political Islam, as exemplified by the jihadists of Hamas ? In the short time it has been in power, the Labour government has taken short-term measures to impede Israel’s ability to defend itself. Arguably, it has done more to embolden a worldwide campaign of anti-Jewish racism masquerading as anti-Zionism, than at any other time.
The problem with Holocaust education is that it is stubbornly Eurocentric. It is necessary to understand the connection, often erased for reasons of political correctness, between the Nazis, their Arab sympathizers and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the 1930s, Arabs were active collaborators with the Nazis. The Palestinian Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al Husseini, played a leading role in inciting the genocide of Jews. His legacy of Nazi-inspired antisemitism inspires much Arab opinion today.
The Mufti helped stage a pro-Nazi coup in Iraq in 1941 and incited the anti-Jewish massacre known as the Farhud, making no secret of his wish to exterminate the Jews in his sphere of influence. As Hitler’s guest in Berlin, the Mufti raised SS units of Muslim troops and broadcast poisonous anti-Jewish propaganda. For reasons of realpolitik, he was never tried at Nuremberg for war crimes, though he could easily have been.
The Mufti was, according to the scholar Matthias Kuentzel, the linchpin of the Nazis’ great war against the Jews and the Arabs’ small war against Israel. Nazis fought alongside Arabs in the 1948 war and Nazis became military advisers to Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt.
In the 1950s, Islamized antisemitism, influenced by European ideas of Jewish conspiracy and control, became entrenched in the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology. Hamas is none other than the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Its ideology is to destroy Israel through terrorism. Its aim is genocidal – a never-ending series of October 7 massacres.
Failure to grasp these inconvenient facts leads to a partial understanding of the Holocaust.
As a result, Arabs are misleadingly portrayed as “innocent bystanders” to the Holocaust who “paid the price” for a European problem through the creation of Israel.
Holocaust education needs to teach about the direct link between Nazism and the genocidal ideology of Hamas.
Lessons cannot be learned if the Holocaust is viewed in a vacuum, divorced from its impact on politics today.
