Few days speak so profoundly to the soul of Israel than HolocaustMemorial Day. As the country sat in silence on Thursday to remember 6 million Jews exterminated by the Nazis, the same refrain was, as always, repeated by many: never again.
But for some across Israel, as the war in Gaza continues to ravage the Palestinian people and wipe out entire families, never again had come to hold another meaning.
As the country’s most powerful politicians, including the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, attended a ceremony on Thursday morning at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, three Holocaust survivors in their 80s stood at the entrance holding a sign aloft: “If we have lost our compassion for the other, we have lost our humanity.”
About 40 miles (64km) away in a square in central Tel Aviv, thousands, including descendants of Holocaust survivors, stood holding photos of Palestinian children who had been killed since the war began. Dozens more lined the roads of the city dressed in black, holding out empty pots to symbolise the starvation of those in Gaza.
In recent months, particularly since the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel collapsed in March, the country has been rocked by protests. These demonstrations have loudly called for an end to the war in the name of saving the remaining Israeli hostages left in Gaza, 24 who are still believed to be alive, and to bring back the bodies of the 35 dead. Yet starkly absent has been mention of the suffering and devastation being brought upon the civilians of Gaza by Israel’s relentless onslaught….
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