Israeli Arab's Auschwitz visit under attack from both sides

AN ARAB member of the Israeli parliament has been criticised by both Jews and Arabs for his decision to visit Auschwitz on the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp.

But Mohammed Barakeh, of the joint Arab-Jewish party Hadash, insists he will go ahead with the visit on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 27 January. It will make him the first member of the Arab minority ever to participate in an official delegation to Auschwitz.

He was invited by the speaker of the Knesset, Reuven Rivlin, a member of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, but Jewish hard-liners are furious that a virulent critic of Israeli policies will be part of the Israeli contingent.

Mr Barakeh's step is significant, as many in Israel's Arab minority are aggrieved their own national catastrophe – the expulsion of Palestinians during the 1948 war from which Israel emerged – is not recognised by Israeli Jews, in contrast to the Holocaust.

Many believe the Holocaust is used to justify oppressive Israeli actions towards the Palestinians. In the Arab world as a whole, Holocaust denial is widespread.

But in remarks to The Scotsman, Mr Barakeh outlined a different approach. He said: "As sons of the Palestinian people, we need to be sensitive to the disaster that happened to humanity and the Jewish people.

"How can we ask the Israelis to empathise with Palestinian suffering from the nakba (catastrophe) if we deny the suffering that befell the Jews," Mr Barakeh added, referring to the displacement of 700,000 Palestinians at Israel's creation in 1948. More