Israeli-Gaza conflict: Holocaust survivors accuse Israel of ‘genocide’

The Independent 

More than 300 Holocaust survivors and their descendants have condemned what they described as Israel’s 'genocide of Palestinian people' in an advert in the New York Times 

In an open letter released by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and published as an advert in The New York Times, the group calls for a full economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel over its “wholesale effort to destroy Gaza”.

Dozens of Holocaust survivors, together with hundreds of descendants of Holocaust survivors and victims, have accused Israel of “genocide” for the deaths of more than 2,000 Palestinians in Gaza since the conflict erupted in July. 

“Genocide begins with the silence of the world,” the statement reads, “We must raise our collective voices and use our collective power to bring about an end to all forms of racism, including the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people.”

The statement also condemns the United States for its financial and diplomatic support of Israel.

The signatories express alarm at “the extreme, racist dehumanization of Palestinians in Israeli society, which has reached a fever pitch.”

This condemnation was designed as a response to a widely-published advertisement from Nobel prize-winning author Elie Wiesel that condemned Hamas for its “use of children as human shields”.

The statement reads: “We are disgusted and outraged by Elie Wiesel’s abuse of our history […] to justify the unjustifiable.”

Of the 327 signatories, 40 survived the Holocaust and the other 287 are descendants of Holocaust survivors or victims. 

Recent today reports refer to the destruction of an high rise office building in the southern town of Rafah, and the bombing of an apartment building in Gaza City amid attempts from the Egyptian government to establish a durable ceasefire.

More than 2,100 Palestinians, including 500 children have been killed in the conflict, according to Palestinian health officials and UN figures. Israel has lost 64 soldiers and four civilians.