Anti-Zionist Jewish group says Israel 'perpetrating a holocaust' in Gaza
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a leading anti-Zionist Jewish group in the US, released a statement on Thursday saying that Israel's actions in Gaza amount to "perpetrating a holocaust".
"Many of us have parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who survived or perished in Nazi death marches and we have all grown up in the shadow of the Nazi holocaust," JVP said in a statement.
"The state of Israel is currently perpetrating a holocaust, the deliberate mass slaughter of Palestinian people, with weapons provided by the United States," the group wrote while juxtaposing images of the Holocaust with photos of present-day Gaza on social media.
Some Palestinians have also referred to the Israeli military actions in Gaza as a "holocaust". However, this appears to be the first statement from a Jewish group to call Israel's war in Gaza a holocaust.
Between 1940 and 1945, around 1.1 million people (of whom around 1 million were Jews) were killed by Nazi Germany in the Auschwitz extermination camp. Around six million Jews were killed in total during the Holocaust.
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Since Israel launched its war on Gaza last October, Israeli forces have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, half of whom were women and children, and destroyed schools, mosques, hospitals, and UN shelters.
Many of us have parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who survived or perished in Nazi death marches and we have all grown up in the shadow of the Nazi holocaust.
— Jewish Voice for Peace (@jvplive) October 24, 2024
The state of Israel is currently perpetrating a holocaust, the deliberate mass slaughter of Palestinian… pic.twitter.com/SYgFD33jnk
In addition to targeting civilian structures, Israeli forces have targeted journalists, medical workers, and UN and international aid workers.
While the official death toll from the health ministry is just over 43,000 Palestinians, some estimates have placed the death toll at more than 186,000 Palestinians.
The JVP statement comes as Israeli forces have launched a weekslong siege on parts of northern Gaza. Palestinian journalists say Israeli forces have ethnically cleansed half of the Jabalia neighbourhood in Gaza City.
Eyewitnesses have told Middle East Eye that Israeli troops are going from school to school in Jabalia and nearby areas to forcibly remove unarmed, starved and besieged Palestinian civilians from their homes.
The buildings, including UN schools and houses, are subsequently either razed or burned by Israeli soldiers to prevent people from returning.
"The photos and videos coming out of North Gaza are a terrifying echo of all-too-familiar images of European ghettos and Nazi concentration camps in the 2nd World War," JVP said in its statement.
"Today we stand with our ancestors at our backs, in solidarity with our Palestinian siblings, demanding an immediate weapons embargo and an end to genocide - we will not act with indifference toward Palestinian suffering."
JVP called on survivors of the Holocaust and their descendants to sign its statement, "to stand up and stop genocide".
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