Israel/Palestine...Nazi Germany?

For some time now, despite my many Jewish friends and neighbors, despite my ties with Israel, I have been astonished and appalled by the treatment of Palestinians by Israelis. I have wondered over and over agian at the hatred and the violence perpetrated by one people against another. And I have been shocked that, in light of the Holocaust and the seemingly unending prejudice against the Jewish people, that Israel would now be persecuting another group of people.

In my mind, much of the treatment of Palestinians has been little better than the treatment of South African blacks under apartheid. Palestinians have been forced to use separate transportation, separate facilities, separate neighborhoods...they have even been literally walled off into ghettos. And as if this all wasn't bad enough, a recent series of interviews of Israeli soldiers by psychologist Nofer Shai-Karen has revealed an even darker connection--one to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust itself. The testimony of these soldiers echoes that of Nazi soldiers, and even of Ugandan, Sierra Leonean, and Sudanese troops and rebel forces. 

Soldier "A" testimony: "We decided to turn an old shower in our base [in]to a make-shift detention cell. A Palestinian was brought there, handcuffed and mouth banded so he couldn't talk, or move. We forgot him there for three days..."

Soldier "C" testimony: "The truth is that I love this mess - I enjoy it. It is like being on drugs. If I didn't enter Rafah, to put down some rebellion - at least once a week - I'd go berserk."

Soldier "D" testimony: "What is great is that you don't have to follow any law or rule. You feel that YOU ARE THE LAW; you decide. Once you go into the Occupied Territories YOU ARE GOD".

Soldier "E" testimony: "We drove an APC through Rafah. A man of 25 walked nearby. He didn't hurl a stone at us or anything. Then without any reason "X" shot him in the stomach. We left him lying on the sidewalk."

Soldier "F" testimony: "Some 'tough guys' developed it into 'an ideology', according to which we have to react brutally even for minor events. A woman threw a sandal at me. I kicked her with my foot at her crotch. I broke her. She can't have children any longer. Next time she won't throw sandals at me... and when another woman spat at me she got the butt of my gun in her face. She can't spit now."

Soldier "H" testimony: "After two months in Rafah a new NCO commander arrived. The first patrol, which he commanded, was at 06 hours. Rafah was under curfew. Not a soul was on the street.

Then he saw a young boy, of about 4, playing in the sand in the courtyard of his home. The kid was building a castle in the sand. Suddenly the NCO, a guy from the Engineers Corps, ran to chase the kid. We followed.

"He captured the kid and broke his elbow. Broke the kid's elbow! Damn me if I'm not telling the truth! Then the NCO treaded on the kid's stomach three times, before he moved on. We couldn't believe our eyes... But the next day we went on patrol with that guy and the soldiers started to imitate him..."

"When the medic arrived the boys were bleeding all over, their clothes were soaked with blood, and they were shivering from fear. They were made to kneel like dogs and were afraid to move."

Hearing this made me sick. Isn't it time we opened a dialogue about this instead of quietly sitting on our hands? I am sick and tired of being called Anti-Semitic every time I bring this up. Please forgive me for saying something so awfully politically incorrect...but the Holocaust-card is in no way justification for this. What happened in Germany was despicable. But so is this. Just because your ancestors had to deal with tremendous brutality does not mean that you can go and be equally brutal to someone else. A human rights violation against a Palestinian is as denouncable as a human rights violation against an Israeli, or a Brit, or an American. It's time we acted like it.