Vatican’s “Justice” and “Peace” Official Compares Gaza to Concentration Camp
For some reason, whenever the words “justice” and “peace” are introduced into Christian discourse about the Arab-Israeli conflict, harsh, unreasonable and fantastic anti-Israel polemic is not far behind.
This was demonstrated most recently by the statements from Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace who recently stated in an interview in an Italian newspaper that the Gaza Strip resembled “a big concentration camp.”
Cardinal Martino’s statement provoked an angry response from Jewish groups and from the Israeli diplomatic corps. According to Reuters Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said, “These remarks are untrue, distort the memory of the Holocaust and are only used against Israel by terrorist organisations and Holocaust deniers.”
The New York Times reports that the Vatican has “sought to downplay the cardinal’s remarks.”
The Vatican spokesman, Rev. Federico Lombardi, called Cardinal Martino’s choice of words “inopportune,” and said they created “irritation and confusion” more than illumination.
While calling the cardinal “an authoritative person,” Rev. Lombardi added that “The more authoritative voice and line would be that of the pope.”
This is not the first time Catholic officials have compared Palestinian suffering to that of the Jews in Europe during the Holocaust.
In 2007, a German bishop compared conditions in Ramallah to the Warsaw Ghetto.
Anyone who thinks there are meaningful similarities between the Gaza Strip and conditions in the death camps of Europe during the 1940s should peruse the pages of Priestblock 25487: A Memoir of Dachau written by Fr. Jean Bernard. Fr. Bernard, a Dachau survivor, tells a story of regular executions, unending work and tremendous deprivation. While there is suffering in the Gaza Strip, it does not approach the suffering at places like Dachau. And while people were killed at Dachau because they were Jews or members of other undesireable populations, the deaths of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is the consequence of the actions of Hamas, an anti-Semitic authoritarian movement that seeks the destruction of the state of Israel, and targets civilians in an effort to achieve this goal.
Nowhere in Fr. Bernard’s book is there any mention of a desire on the part of the victims at Dachau to perpetrate a genocide against anyone. They just wanted to survive. The vast majority of them did not.
More from SNAPSHOTS
USA Today Cartoon Notes Palestinian Calls to Destroy Israel
December 8, 2017
A USA Today cartoon, published on Dec. 8, 2017, detailed the response by many Palestinians to the United States recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. As the cartoon, entitled “Same old Palestinian response,” highlighted, not much [...]
The Hill Omits Turkey’s Support for Hamas
December 5, 2017
Recep Tayyip Erdogan A Hill dispatch about Turkey threatening to cut ties with Israel, omitted key information about Ankara’s support for Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group committed to the Jewish state’s destruction ("Turkey: Recognizing Jerusalem [...]
Palestinian Textbooks Are ‘Significantly More Radical’ Than Before
December 4, 2017
The hatred taught in Palestinian schools is only increasing, according to an Algemeiner article by correspondent Shiri Moshe (“Report: New Palestinian Curriculum Praises ‘Martyrdom,’ Significantly ‘More Radical’ Than Before,” Dec. 3, 2017). Moshe highlighted a [...]
Fatah Official: Iran is Hindering Palestinian Reconciliation
December 4, 2017
Top Hamas operatives Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh The man tasked with leading efforts to reconcile Fatah and Hamas has accused the Islamic Republic of Iran of working to prevent reconciliation between the two Palestinian [...]
Israeli Peace Offers Go Missing in Politico
December 1, 2017
A Politico report about the Trump administration possibly moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, omitted the numerous instances of Palestinian leadership rejecting a Palestinian state if it meant peacefully co-existing [...]
International Business Times Peddles Fake News About Mossad’s Gal Gadot
November 28, 2017
A screen shot from Lebanon's Al Liwaa, which had erroneously used Gal Gadot's photograph to illustrate a story on alleged Mossad agent Collette Vianfi. Al Liwaa apologized, but The International Business Times lags far behind [...]
Official Palestinian Media: U.S. and Israel Are Responsible for ISIS Attack
November 27, 2017
PA President Mahmoud Abbas An Op-Ed in Al-Hayat al-Jadida, an official Palestinian Authority (PA) daily newspaper, blamed the United States and Israel for a Nov. 24, 2017 terrorist attack in which 305 Muslim worshippers were [...]
The Washington Post’s Hollywood Approach to History
November 27, 2017
A Nov. 22, 2017 Washington Post article, “How the Netflix action series ‘Fauda’ shows the human side to the Israeli conflict,” gave a distorted look at the Arab-Israeli conflict. Tellingly, the headline omits the party—Palestinian [...]
Duke University Press Criticized for Publication of Jasbir Puar’s “Right to Maim”
November 22, 2017
Jasbir Puar is the Rutgers University professor who first coined the term “pinkwashing” to denigrate Israel’s progressive record on LGBTQ rights, and who made the baseless claim at a 2016 lecture at Vassar College that [...]