‘Stop now, today’: Son of Holocaust survivor demands end to ‘Gaza genocide’

As horrifying images of death and destruction in Gaza have flooded social media for over 10 months, many Jewish people across the world have risen up to disavow Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

For Mark Etkind, the son of a Holocaust survivor, Tel Aviv and its allies, particularly the US and the UK, are using what Jews went through during World War II to justify its actions in the Gaza Strip, so far killing over 40,000 Palestinians since 7 October.

Etkind was taking part in a pro-Palestinian rally in central London, held in the wake of a recent Israeli strike on a school in Gaza City where hundreds of Palestinians were taking refuge.

Over 100 people were killed in the early-morning attack.

According to Etkind, whose father survived the Lodz ghetto and multiple concentration camps, including Buchenwald, it was particularly outrageous that the Israeli government and its backers — Britain and the US — are using what millions of Jews went through in World War II “to somehow justify what Israel is presently doing in Gaza”.

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“In other words, they’re using genocide from the last century to justify genocide today. Now, it’s hard to think of anything that is more of an insult to the memory of the Holocaust than to justify more genocide on its basis,” he told Anadolu.

Criticising Western powers for ‘relentlessly’ arming and supporting Israel, while making empty calls for a ceasefire.

“If you want a crazy toddler to stop destroying things in your house, you don’t give them flamethrowers and machine guns,” he said.

“In fact, if you do that, you’re equally responsible for every death that is caused in Gaza and I’m afraid the British government and the American government are directly responsible for the deaths of maybe as many as 100,000 people in Gaza.”

The vast majority of Palestinians killed in Gaza have been women and children, while entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble under the Israeli bombardment following Resistance group Hamas’s cross-border attack that precipitated the current conflict.

Israel has also imposed strict curbs on humanitarian assistance entering and moving in the strip, causing acute shortages of food, water and medicine.

Normalising mass murder

According to Etkind, besides the danger that Palestinians in Gaza face every day under Israel’s attacks, the situation is also worrying for the rest of the world, as well.

“I’m really worried for humanity, because it is normalising mass murder in a way that I don’t think we’ve ever experienced in the whole civilisation,” he warned.

Asserting that more needs to be done to pressure politicians into action, he lamented that in the UK, “We just elected a government which quite unequivocally said they were going to continue supporting this”.

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“I think we should be very, very scared, not just for the people in Gaza, but for all of us, the fact that we are not doing more to stop this.”

Highlighting that people have the right to act if they are aware of genocide, Etkind suggested that every institution in the UK should be closed down “until the genocide stops”.

“This genocide has to stop now, today, and our politicians need to take action now, today,” he said.

‘Not in our name’

Also speaking to Anadolu, Jane, another protester, said the Gaza school attack that happened over the weekend was another addition to a long list of inexcusable events.

“It’s no different from what we’ve been seeing since 1948. It’s no different from what we’ve been seeing since 7 October, 8 October. It’s inhumane,” she asserted.

Stressing that countries need to make a stronger call to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, Jane said this would not be easy for some countries, which depend on their connections to Tel Aviv or supplying arms to Israel.

“Until those ties are severed, this will not happen. This is a necessity to sever these ties,” she added.

Monday, a university student also taking part in the demonstration, called the school strike “another instance of Israeli barbarity”.

It was a stark reminder that people in the UK need to do everything they can to stop arms sales and licenses to Israel, she said. “Because, all of these bombs that are being dropped, that are massacring babies, ripping their bodies up.”

“A lot of people like to claim that this genocide is happening in the name of Jewish safety. And I say, that’s not true,” she said, carrying a sign that said, “Not in our name.”

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.