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Exploitation of the Nazi Holocaust in

Rev. Naim Ateek’s “A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation”

Rev. Naim Ateek, claims that his most recent book, “A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation,” is about the “struggle for justice and peace” between Israelis and Palestinians and that he merely seeks to “educate.” But his claim is called into serious question by his attitude towards Jews and Israelis. This is especially true of Rev. Ateek’s use of the Nazi Holocaust to cast Jews and Israelis in a stereotypically negative light.

Rev. Ateek first assumes an attitude of sympathy towards the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

• He refers to “virulent antisemitism” and “the genuine suffering of Jews during the Holocaust . . .” (p. 56)

But the sympathetic attitude almost immediately turns into an attitude of contempt and anger as Rev. Ateek accuses Jews of using the Holocaust as an excuse to persecute the Palestinians.

• He argues that their suffering during the Holocaust “has led many Israeli Jews to feel that their ‘special’ suffering gives them the ‘right’ to do as they choose.” (p. 56)

• His accusations continue and take on the classic Jewish Conspiracy motif: “By playing on feelings of guilt about the Holocaust, Zionists have been able to make this attitude dominant in public discourse.” (p. 56)

• Rev. Ateek then combines the theme of Jewish conspiracy to manipulate the world through feelings of guilt over the Holocaust, with false accusations of stealing land: “Under the guise of the injustice and suffering wrought upon the Jewish people, Israel confiscated Palestinian land while the world looked on, unwilling to act against a new injustice.” (p. 56)

Rev. Ateek attempts to draw a connection between the modern Palestinian suffering and Jewish suffering in the Holocaust.

• After speaking of Palestinian oppression, Rev. Ateek says of the Israelis that “They need to remember their own history when they were oppressed,” and he suggests that Israelis need to “Remember the suffering of the Holocaust.” (p. 169)

Rev. Ateek crosses the line of decency by making invidious comparisons between Israelis and Nazis in his book.

• Rev. Ateek refers to Israel’s former deputy public security minister , Gideon Ezra, who after months of watching scores of innocent Israelis get blown up by Palestinian suicide bombers made the extreme and outrageous suggestion that if physically harming the families of suicide bombers were proven to deter future bombers, then that would be a possible answer.

• However, he fails to add that the Israeli government never condoned or adopted this strategy, and that it was not endorsed by one other Israeli government official. Despite this tacit condemnation by Israel of Ezra’s proposal, Rev. Ateek attempts to imply that it is connected to official Israeli policy by professing shock that the Israeli government made no “protest or criticism” and then likens it to a tactic used by Nazis. (p. 121)

A threshold question is why Rev. Ateek chose to invoke the memory of the Holocaust when addressing modern issues of social justice relevant to the Arab/Israeli conflict?

• This approach raises very serious questions regarding Rev. Ateek’s motives.

• His attempt to suggest that as a result of the Holocaust, Israelis have now turned into oppressors who victimize the Palestinians just like the Nazis once victimized Jews, has no place in any civil discourse -- much less a Christian clergyman’s so-called attempt at “justice and peace.”

• “A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation”is clearly designed not to stimulate an informed, reasoned or problem solving discussion regarding the Arab/Israel conflict -- but rather to create hostility and inflame passions against one side -- the Jews.

Rev. Ateek crosses the line of decency by attempting

to use the Nazi Holocaust in the service of his anti-Israel agenda