Learning the Right Lessons?
By Symi Rom-Rymer
In a recent poll, 30% of Israeli Arabs, out of 700 questioned, don’t believe the Holocaust happened. As the Associated Press reported earlier this week, Yad Vashem is trying to change that. The poll’s creator, Sammy Smooha, insists that the high rate of denial has more to do with a repudiation of Israel’s policies than with true Holocaust negation. But as the article points out, for many Israeli Arabs, accepting the Holocaust is equivalent to acknowledging Jewish claims to Israel. In an effort to place the issue of the Holocaust within its proper historical framework, rather than within the flashpoint of Middle East politics, the museum is launching a new initiative aimed at Israeli Arabs educators.
This is not the first time that the museum...