Years ago a French anti-Semite asked to meet my friend Issam Sartawi, Yasser Arafat’s specialemissary in Paris. He offered him the help of the anti-Semites in the fight against Israel.Sartawi interrupted him: “Sir,” he said, “Take your papers and get out!”
“The guy disgusted me,” he said when he told me about it the next day.
I remembered this the other day, when I read the statement by the Arab intellectuals, whoconvinced the Lebanese government to cancel a meeting in Beirut of Holocaust deniers from allover the world. Among the signatories were Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian national poet,Edward Said, the well-known Palestinian-American professor, Adonis, the great Lebanesepoet, Elias Sanbar, the Palestinian historian, and other esteemed figures from all over theArab world.
It was a resounding slap in the face for the anti-Semites. They would like to adopt thePalestinian cause, because since the Holocaust, anti-Semitism is not longer respectable,while the Palestinian struggle for freedom is respected by decent people around the world.
On the Palestinian side, the temptation to accept the offer is great. “The enemy of my enemy ismy friend,” says the old adage. The anti-Semites fight against the Jews, the Jews supportIsrael, Israel oppresses the Palestinians. The conclusion seems obvious – but is manifestlyfalse. Because, objectively speaking, anti-Semitism is the worst enemy of thePalestinians.
The whole Zionist movement came into being as a reaction to anti-Semitism. The notoriousDreyfus affair drove Theodor Herzl into writing “Der Judenstaat”, the founding document ofthe movement. It was anti-Semitism, which had become the hallmark of all national movementsin Europe, that prevented the assimilation of the Jews in the modern nations and convincedthem to form their own, separate, Jewish national movement. Without anti-Semitism, therewould have been none of the great waves of Jewish immigration to Palestine.
The Holocaust did not create the Zionist enterprise, but it gave it an immense impetus.Without the (belated) awakening of world’s conscience, the State of Israel would not havecome into being at the time and in the form it did.
During the last few years we have witnessed another great wave of immigrants from the formerSoviet Union, largely prompted by Russian anti-Semitism.
The historian Isaac Deutscher compared our conflict to a man jumping from the window of aburning apartment and landing on the head of a passerby. If the Jews had not jumped from theburning European apartment, they would not have landed on the head of the Palestinian people.
In this respect, the Palestinian struggle differs from any other fight for freedom. When theblacks were fighting for their rights in South Africa, the whole world detested the racistapartheid regime. All the peoples who revolted against colonial oppression could rely on thesympathy of well-meaning people around the world. But the Palestinians had to fight thevictims of the Holocaust, who enjoyed world sympathy. As they themselves like to say, they are”the victims of the victims”.
All Israeli governments have exploited the memory of the Holocaust in order to gain sympathyin their fight against the Palestinians. Begin called Arafat an “Arab Hitler”. Even today theHolocaust is being used to prevent any criticism of Israel in Europe. Every foreign dignitarywho comes to Israel in order to preach against its treatment of the Palestinians is taken to”Yad Vashem” and shuts up.
No wonder the Palestinians see the Holocaust as an instrument directed against them, and manyof them view it solely in this light. That may be understandable, but it is not wise.
Edward Said has said that the Palestinians will never understand Israel’s actions if they donot study the history of the Holocaust. That is very wise counsel. Without knowing aboutanti-Semitism in general, and the Holocaust in particular, Israeli behavior cannot beunderstood – much as without knowing about the expulsion and ongoing occupation,Palestinian behavior cannot be understood. Of course, the expulsion of hundreds ofthousands cannot be compared to the murder of millions, but disaster is disaster and pain ispain.
It’s good that the Arab world has told the Holocaust deniers, as Sartawi told his guest: “Takeyour bag and get out!”