The Israeli Holocaust museum and memorial Yad Vashem has fired one of their guides for having the audacity to compare the trauma experienced by the survivors of the Holocaust with those of the Palestinians during the war of 1948. Note that it wasn't a comparison between deaths, or specific acts of atrocities, but an amorphous "trauma". A totally subjective experience.
He said he did so because the ruins of the Arab village, today a part of Jerusalem's Givat Shaul neighborhood, can be seen as one leaves Yad Vashem. "Yad Vashem talks about the Holocaust survivors' arrival in Israel and about creating a refuge here for the world's Jews. I said there were people who lived on this land and mentioned that there are other traumas that provide other nations with motivation," Shapira said. "The Holocaust moved us to establish a Jewish state and the Palestinian nation's trauma is moving it to seek self-determination, identity, land and dignity, just as Zionism sought these things," he said.
These are some pretty reasonable sentiments. There is nothing radical or anti-semitic in such statements. It's a shame that Yad Vashem is wielded as a political tool. You can read my first hand take on Yad Vashem here.
Haaretz article:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1080456.html
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