The "Naqba" Was no Holocaust - Far From It.
The "Naqba" Was no Holocaust - Far From It.

An event planned for September 7th in Jerusalem has caused an uproar among pro-Israel organizations for its underhanded goals: It continues the mendacious trend of delegitimizing the State of Israel and its founding by furthering the myth of the ‘Nakba’ and minimalizes the tragedy and horrors of the Holocaust by seeking to equate the ‘Nakba’ myth with the Holocaust.

The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute has announced an evening program to mark the publication of their book “The Holocaust and the Nakba – Memory, National Identity and Jewish-Arab Partnership”, which ““invites the readers to think of ways to remember and discuss the Holocaust and the Nakba together, and investigate the possibility of such combined thought – not because the events are identical or even similar, but because they are both traumatic and identity-constructing. The Nakba and the Holocaust both molded the two peoples’ destinies and identities, albeit in totally different ways.”

According to many Palestinian groups the term ‘Al-Nakba’ (“Catastrophe” in Arabic) was invented after 1948 and refers to the War of Independence in 1948 where the small State of Israel emerged victorious after being attacked by the surrounding Arab countries.

However, past studies and research have shown that the term ‘Al-Nakba’ was not a product of the events of 1948. The first recorded use of the word came about in 1938 and was coined by a premier “historian of the Palestinian People” George Antonius. According to his book The Arab Awakening, written in 1938, before Israel was even founded, the term ‘Al-Nakba’ refers to the events of 1920 when Arabs living in Palestine were cut off from their Syrian counterparts and rioted in response to their identifying with the Syrian nationality.

In an attempt to put a stop to the event and publication of the book, several prominent pro-Israel organizations have started public campaigns and have tried to reach out to the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.

In response to the announcement of the forthcoming program at the Institute, Im Tirtzu sent an urgent letter to Prof. Gabriel Motzkin, the Institute’s director, demanding cancellation of this event.

“We view with total shock and great concern  the unimaginable comparison between the Holocaust of European Jewry, where millions of Jews were gassed, burned and buried alive –and the defeat (termed in Arabic Al-Nakba) of Israel’s enemies in the War of Independence. We consider such a comparison to be an affront to the survivors of the Holocaust in Israel and abroad, an insult to intelligence and a disgrace to human morality. The defeat of the Arabs in The War of Independence was the outcome of a war launched by the Arab armies in an expression of their refusal to recognize the right of the Jewish People to their Homeland, whereas the Holocaust stemmed from abject hatred to Jews and a systematic mass-murder of Former NIF staffers such as a past NIF president, Prof. Naomi Chazan, serve in high positions in the Van Leer Institute's Jerusalem offices.
millions of innocents. We do, therefore, demand the immediate cancellation of the evening dedicated to the launching of a book making this shocking and unconscionable comparison”.

The Institute counts among its main supporters the New Israel Fund (NIF), an American 501(c)(3) that currently is funded primarily by foreign governments with the goal of delegitimizing Israel. The NIF furthers its agenda by sponsoring left-wing anti-Israel organizations that malign Israel internally and externally. A few of the most harmful beneficiaries of the NIF’s funds are notoriously anti-Israel organizations like B’Tselem, Adalah and Breaking the Silence collectively receiving between 2010-2013 more than $2million USD from the NIF.

Following the 2012 and 2014 wars in Gaza both B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence (and Adalah) authored biased one-sided harmful and later proven false reports accusing the IDF of war crimes and stating that the IDF indiscriminately fired upon civilians during the war, thereby causing much harm to Israel and to the IDF.

The connection of the NIF and The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute goes further than just funds. Former NIF staffers such as a past NIF president, Prof. Naomi Chazan, serve in high positions in the Van Leer Institute's Jerusalem offices. NIF has also been associated in past events with the event's main sponsor, The Heinrich Böll Stiftung Foundation, which receives grants from various left-leaning groups and from the German Government.

Other sources of funding of The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute include The EU, The Ford Foundation and the UJA Federation of New York. It is unclear if these organizations or the German Government know to what use their funds are used for and if they support and agree with the event (which is an affront and insult to Holocaust survivors and Israeli citizens alike). Efforts to reach relevant officials at these organizations have not met with success.

The institute can be written to at this address.