Hitler quotes will not help the Palestinians

[mota bhai 2,675]

By Fatima Tassadiq

As the death toll in Gaza mounts and Israel shows no signs of relenting, netizens across the world have taken to the internet to express their outrage or support for 'Operation Protective Edge'. Unfortunately, these passionate arguments often degenerate into Islamophobia, anti-Arab racism and anti-Semitism.

As a Muslim and a supporter of the Palestinian cause, I find the collective indictment of the entire Jewish race for the war crimes of Israel deeply disturbing. Skim through the comments section of any major online paper and you will invariably find hundreds of sickening anti-Semitic insults targeting Jews.

These slurs are occasionally peppered with cherry-picked verses from the Quran, misinterpreted and taken out of context to claim that Jews are the eternal enemies of Islam. Most disturbing of all is the citation of alleged quotes by Adolf Hitler and veiled praise for the Holocaust.

The above image was widely circulated amongst Pakistani social media users of late.

The following are some tweets from Pakistanis outraging against Israeli aggression:

Most of such crass anti-Semitism is rooted in the conflation of Judaism with Zionism.

Zionism is a political ideology, which, although a product of a particular Jewish tradition should not be equated with Judaism. This fact has been stressed repeatedly by anti-occupation Jewish activists across the world who are struggling to reclaim their religious identity and faith from the deafening Zionist propaganda.

In the global Jewish community, there is great diversity with regard to stances on Israel, where some doggedly advocating an end to Israeli occupation and apartheid against Palestinians and still others insisting on dismantling the Jewish state altogether.

We, as Muslims, should understand better than anyone else the injustice of attributing a singular nature to a global religion and demonising a community based on the actions of a sub-set. Is it too much to expect that we extend the same courtesy and understanding to those of another faith?

...

Those invoking the spectre of the Muslim ummah up against the much vilified Jew would do well to remember that the daily plight of those living in Gaza is compounded by the Egyptian blockade of the strip. Palestinian refugees in countries like Lebanon and Egypt face major discrimination when it comes to employment and accessing basic government facilities like free education.

...

The Palestinian crisis is a complex ethno-religious political conflict over land and resources. Reducing it to merely a religious clash deflects attention from the violation of the human rights of Palestinians and plays into the hands of Israeli propaganda which claims that the sole reason for Arab opposition to Israel is the Arab hatred for Jews.

Moreover, resorting to anti-semitism delegitimises the Palestinian cause and actually strengthens the very popular Zionist strategy of branding any criticism of Israel as anti-semitism. Making vile references to Hitler only makes it easy for the pro-Israel lobby to deploy the Holocaust to amass sympathy and support for its theft of Palestinian land.

http://www.dawn.com/news/1120657

[Jacque67 7,328]

Very true. I made a similar point earlier but had my comment removed (and restored later with no explanation ).

[mota bhai 2,675]

Very true. I made a similar point earlier but had my comment removed (and restored later with no explanation ).

That is very strange.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Very true. I made a similar point earlier but had my comment removed (and restored later with no explanation ).

You think saying that jews hate modern israelis is the same as this point! LMAO! Now I know you are deluded.

You said the day before that zionists are savages, and that comment was removed, and a warning given by Kathryn that any similar sentiment would result in further admin action,

Then you said that jews hate modern israelis, which is a slightly sanitized version of the previous insult. This confused mods who have no idea about anything and can't figure out anything because Kathryn is gone.

Then, to show that the sentiments were the same, you got CONFUSED about what you wrote, and explained it as the fact that jews hate zionists! When you said they hate modern israelis!

So, does your mother hate all the people on the kibbutz that she met during the best years of her life? Or does she just hate them if they are still alive today?

This is hate speech directed at a large group based indiscriminately on where they were born. And you come on here to make yourself seem righteous, pathetic.

For everyone else, mods have indicated that is okay to express hate for a particular group based on where they are born. They get confused if you identify another group that shares the hate with you, but make it not you exactly (or it could be you exactly but the mods don't know that). Just FYI.

Edited July 21, 2014 by Harpa Timsah

[Merrytooth 5,748]

I have seen this Hitler's quote circulating around Facebook, which gathers thousands of likes from the people of certain faith

[mota bhai 2,675]

Yeah. I have been on a "I don't want to see this" spree on Facebook lately. Some of my Muslim friends have been carpet bombing my feed with the most vile, disgusting pro-Nazi #######. Weird, seeing how they're all otherwise very nice guys.

I have even tried reporting a few things. I got one item removed... someone changed their profile picture to a pic of Adolf Hitler. With commentary saying he wants to make Jews cry. But the other stuff, the much worse (IMO) stuff... no luck. FB reviewed and took no action.

[OriZ 3,157]

I agree, and using Hitler quotes says alot about the source(the users). But on a positive note, it did give me a new drinking game.

Those that A. Either compare Israel to Hitler etc etc or B. Say that Hitler should have finished the job, are nothing but anti semites.

Israeli propaganda which claims that the sole reason for Arab opposition to Israel is the Arab hatred for Jews.

There is no "propaganda" that claims the sole reason for any Arab opposition to Israel is hatred for Jews. That would be crazy to think. There are many people who legitimately oppose some of Israel's actions, and I can respect that.

However, those who think that there is no truth to the fact that part of it is also a new kind of anti semitism, hiding behind the conflict, are also deluding themselves. The facts are, many, many, many of those protesting against Israel have jumped on the bandwagon merely cause they hate Jews. In that sense I can completely see where the writer is coming from in fearing that those people hijacking the Palestinian cause would only delegitimise it, and he is right, it does.