Last year, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, I sat down with the CEO of a famous business company for a work meeting. When the siren sounded, I stood still.
I replied, "It's not because I'm in this situation, but because I respect the memory of more than six million people."
Not in all Arab localities, by the way, public address systems are enabled.
Holocaust Martyrs 'and Heroes' Remembrance Day is a groundbreaking event not only in the history of the Jewish people, but also in the history of the Palestinian Arab Arabs, and especially for the two million Arab citizens of the state.
Some of them live with the feeling that the Holocaust affected their lives and their future very significantly, mainly because of the fear that the Holocaust led the State of Israel and the Zionist movement to take steps against them, out of the need to defend themselves in advance.
Arabs in Israel are first exposed to the subject of the Holocaust in high school, as part of the curriculum.
From the way the Holocaust is perceived among Israeli Arabs, it is clear that one element is missing from this study: the Holocaust is not studied as a significant historical event, one of the most cruel in human history.
It seems that the one who decided on the curriculum acted from a place of exposing the adult Arab students, to mark “V”.
The officials in the Ministry of Education, who decided to include the subject in the curriculum, did so out of duty.
Because they need a matriculation certificate, and it is better not to delve into the issue so as not to provoke over-identification of the Arabs, since the biggest fear is an Arab demand - which in fact is already present - for recognition of the Palestinian narrative of which the Arab citizens are an integral part.
The subject of the Holocaust is a human issue, not only Jewish and certainly not only Israeli, but the State of Israel appropriates the event almost totally, thus creating antagonism among Arab society, so much so that some see Israel's activity around the Holocaust as a form of exploitation. Nada.
It is possible that correct information would have refined the issue and brought the Arab public closer to the memory of the Holocaust, as well as activities in the Arabic language.
And it is possible that the military regime under which the Arab citizens of the State of Israel lived in the first two decades of the establishment of the state, and events such as the massacre in Kafr Qassem, and the sense of discrimination experienced by Arabs in all spheres of life The core of the lack of participation in the events of the state day.
The primary key is the exit of the Jewish public from the paranoia and daily fear that any non-Jew is an enemy, whose goal is to eliminate the Jewish people.
Seemingly, more than 70 years of coexistence were supposed to create a sense of actual historical partnership, even on the level of Holocaust remembrance.
After all, on a personal level, many Holocaust survivors, who came and lived in areas where there was a considerable concentration of Arab population, especially in the Galilee, maintained and developed good and even excellent personal ties.
But these ties remained at the superficial level, and did not develop to a stage where the Jewish Holocaust survivor told his and his family's difficult experience to his Arab friend.
Perhaps to prevent the Arab from voicing his narrative and confronting the pain that separates him from his land, or between him and his refugee brother who lives in Lebanon, Jordan or Syria.
Another reason for this is the fact that the Arab public also brings with it a very heavy emotional charge, and a narrative that conflicts to some extent with the Jewish narrative, according to which Holocaust survivors sought a national home, and thus the Arabs lost the possibility of establishing a state here after the British Mandate ended.
Even if the UN partition proposal were to be accepted into two states, the lesson from the Holocaust should be learned as it should now be taught in every school in the world, regardless of nationality or religion, and even regardless of the State of Israel. obliterate.
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