Lessons for Holocaust Memorial Day
Photo: RahelSharon on flickr, used under Creative Commons License
As we commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day today, we thought to share further thoughts on our recent story about the Palestinian youth orchestra that played for a group of Holocaust survivors. Apparently, that performance set off a firestorm of controversy for promoting cross-cultural understanding between Israelis and Palestinians. We’d like to share some thoughts on the subject from an op-ed piece on JPost by David Saranga:
The Holocaust is undeniable. Unquestionable. Irrefutable. If the remains of the bodies aren’t enough to prove it, then one could visit a concentration camp, Yad Vashem in Jerusalem or the Holocaust Museum in Washington and see with his own eyes what it means to be deported, humiliated, tortured and slaughtered.
This is history, no matter how one tries to dissect it.
[...]I still believe there is hope for peace in the region. As long as people like Wafaa Younis exist, there is a chance that one day more Palestinians will stand up and raise their voices, take their future into their own hands and say: “We want to understand why we’ve been taught to hate. We want to get to know our Israeli neighbors and teach them about us in return.”
Maybe all it takes is a simple gesture to make impossible things happen.
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