Cleansing: Code Word for Evil

The U.S. Holocaust Museum located in Washington, DC, commemorates its 20^th anniversary this week. It’s a somber occasion that demands reflection by everyone – not just Jews. Adolph Hitler’s reign of terror is beyond comprehension and forever changed the world’s community of Jews.

In fact, one could argue for, and point to evidence of, a lingering effect that still makes the holocaust a pertinent event today. But I am not writing today to commemorate the Holocaust Museum; I’m writing for reflection and to extract lessons that bind me with the rest of mankind in our collective quest for love, coexistence and tolerance.

The evil of genocide, such as the Holocaust, has touched so many people around the world and continues to do so. In Nazi Germany, Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur, and many other genocides, the global community stood idly by, unwilling or unable, to intervene. The guilt is on our collective conscious. I presume that if we couldn’t change that evil with our hands, we should object verbally. If not, we must at least condemn it in silent prayers.

As much as I am angered by what happened to the Jews in Germany in the 1940s, I’m compelled to register my objections to what is happening to the Palestinian people today. The U.N. definition of genocide, according to its Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide - Article II, in part, fits what Palestinians are experiencing at the hands of Israelis. The article reads, “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” but because I am not arguing against the Israelis (I’m advocating for peace), I will not go that far. But I will characterize it as a systematic effort of ethnic cleansing policies to eliminate ethnic Arabs as well as Muslim and Christian groups by forcible displacement, with the intent of creating a territory inhabited by Jews as a homogeneous and of pure ethnicity, religion, culture, and history.

The world, including Israelis (people and government), needs to reflect on the Holocaust in a different way, recognizing the similar evil imposed upon innocent people around the world and not to assign blame or identify enemies, but rather to rid oneself from insecurities, fears, and doubt by joining calls for humanity. We must recognize that in order for evil to end, those primitive concepts of fear of the other, vengeance, and retribution, must give way to logic, good will and hope.

Hitler must cease to be reincarnated in the form of behaviors entrenched in actions for survival, justice or historic rights, be it for Israelis, Palestinians or other groups around the world. Our roll as individuals is to question those who offer options that target and/or hurt ethnic or religious groups wherever they may be.