The abuse of Holocaust memory on display at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies

The abuse of Holocaust memory on display at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies Guest/Cross Post | October 21, 2010 at 4:45 pm | Tags: British Mandate for Palestine, Cross Post, Gilbert Achcar, Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, Mufti, Richard Millett, The Holocaust | Categories: Uncategorized | URL:http://wp.me/pAT9U-3zl

This is cross posted from Richard Millett's Blog (The post by Richard Millett was originally entitled, "Arabs and Israelis facing the Holocaust and the Nakba: A book and talk at SOAS."  "The Abuse of Holocaust memory" refers to the title of a book by Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld - and I think aptly characterizes some of the claims made by Gilbert Achcar in his talk)

On Tuesday two hundred students attended the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) to hear Gilbert Achcar, a Professor of International Relations at SOAS, talk about his new book The Arabs and the Holocaust: the Arab-Israeli War of Narratives.

Achcar claimed:

1. The Arabs bear no responsibility at all for the Holocaust.
2. The Israelis have Nazified the Palestinian people.
3. This Nazification has come about by Israel’s broadcasting of the Mufti’s connections with Hitler during WW2.
4. The Israelis must apologise for the Nakba (the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948) for there to be peace.
5. The Israelis are today still frozen with fear by Holocaust.
6. Any anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the Arab world is purely a result of Israel’s aggression or Israel’s societal shift to the right.

He presented the Arab and Israeli narratives, as he saw them, on the conflict as follows:

Arab – Israel is a Zionist colonial enterprise where the “ethnic cleansing” of 1948 was a defining moment. The expansion of this colonial state continued after the 1967 war and continues to this day with the oppression of the Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza.

Israeli – Zionism was a response to anti-Semitism and Israel was created as redemption for the Holocaust. The Arabs are like the Nazis. There was no ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians and the 1948 War was purely a defensive one.

Achcar didn’t refute the Arab narrative but did refute the Israeli one.

He said that there had been a total lack of sympathy with Nazism throughout the Arab world and no military actions were undertaken by the Arabs with the Axis powers but Israel needs to acknowledge its role in the Nakba and its oppression of the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Arabs must acknowledge the role of the Holocaust on the Israeli psyche.

Mohammad Amin al-Husayni (The Mufti) cleared by Gilbert Achcar of any responsibility at all for the Holocaust