A Jerusalem Post editorial today called Nadia Matar of Women in Green an "anti-Semite," explaining that "only an anti-Semite would apply the archetype of genocide to its victims." The paper further termed "disgusting" her recent comparison of a contemporary letter by the Evacuation Administration to a 1942 letter to Berlin's Jews by the Judenrat. The editorial opined, "There is no escaping that [her] analogy paints our leaders as latter-day Nazis."
As noted here yesterday, Prime Minister Sharon himself made use of Holocaust imagery to describe the uprooting of Jews by the Israeli government. A Hebrew interview with Sharon conducted years ago shows that the man who is now planning to uproot thousands of Jews from their homes attributed similar pre-Holocaust motivations to Yitzchak Rabin for scheming to uproot those same people.
Sharon, then a Knesset Member opposing the Rabin government's policies, said at the time, "It must be understood that this government, and those who head it, have been stricken with madness and have lost all restraint... Though no current situation should ever be compared with the Holocaust, I would still like to mention that before the Holocaust, as well, the Jewish leadership said then: There is no alternative." The full Hebrew text of the article can be seen here.
In response to the Jerusalem Post editorial, Women in Green's other co-chairperson, Ruth Matar, wrote a Letter to the Editor, saying that the opinion piece was "extremely unfair" and emphasizing that her daughter-in-law had "never said anything remotely resembling that comparison." She reiterated Nadia's claim that Evacuation Administration head Yonatan Bassi's actions are worse than those of the Judenrat, as the latter was "forced to obey Germany orders," while Bassi made a "purely voluntary" decision to head the Evacuation Authority. "Your reading into her comments your deliberate distortions of her words is unpardonable," Ruth Matar wrote to the Post, "and reveals your blatant and continual prejudice against Women for Israel's Tomorrow (Women In Green). You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself!"
As noted here yesterday, Prime Minister Sharon himself made use of Holocaust imagery to describe the uprooting of Jews by the Israeli government. A Hebrew interview with Sharon conducted years ago shows that the man who is now planning to uproot thousands of Jews from their homes attributed similar pre-Holocaust motivations to Yitzchak Rabin for scheming to uproot those same people.
Sharon, then a Knesset Member opposing the Rabin government's policies, said at the time, "It must be understood that this government, and those who head it, have been stricken with madness and have lost all restraint... Though no current situation should ever be compared with the Holocaust, I would still like to mention that before the Holocaust, as well, the Jewish leadership said then: There is no alternative." The full Hebrew text of the article can be seen here.
In response to the Jerusalem Post editorial, Women in Green's other co-chairperson, Ruth Matar, wrote a Letter to the Editor, saying that the opinion piece was "extremely unfair" and emphasizing that her daughter-in-law had "never said anything remotely resembling that comparison." She reiterated Nadia's claim that Evacuation Administration head Yonatan Bassi's actions are worse than those of the Judenrat, as the latter was "forced to obey Germany orders," while Bassi made a "purely voluntary" decision to head the Evacuation Authority. "Your reading into her comments your deliberate distortions of her words is unpardonable," Ruth Matar wrote to the Post, "and reveals your blatant and continual prejudice against Women for Israel's Tomorrow (Women In Green). You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself!"