Today, 27 January 2025, marks the eightieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army. This date was later declared International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The world looks on, remembers vaguely what our history teacher told us or didn’t tell us about this horror. We thank God this was not our place in history. History hasn’t called upon our generation to place our lives on the line. We haven’t had to take a stand against a state killing machine that rounded up communities, told them to pack their travel suitcases to start a new life in a new location. Horror beyond belief to the modern liberal European.
On this day the news from Gaza is equally horrific. Hamas launched a raid into Israel on 7 October 2023. They killed 1200 Israelis and took 251 hostages. The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) appears to have been caught totally off guard. The frontline border appears to have been guarded by soldiers who turn out to be no more than teenage children. The response of the IDF to the Hamas attack has left 46,000 people killed, mostly Palestinian civilians, and has left a trail of devastation that defies belief in the Western world. The Palestinian casualty rate is a matter of dispute. Hamas runs the health services in Gaza, such as they are. Israel disputes and doubts anything Hamas says.
Trump and Netanyahu’s policies undermine justice and perpetuate historical injustices
President Trump, the well-known deal maker, has proposed on Saturday, 25 January 2025, that large numbers of Palestinian people should leave Gaza in order to ‘just clean out’ the whole strip. This has rightly infuriated the Palestinians. If they leave, they know and we know, they will never return. Their children will be condemned to a life in a refugee camp in Egypt or Jordan. A future of wasted talent, economic inactivity and stunted potential. This is not a good look for the USA or Israel. Radical action is needed and needed quickly.
Israel has to reign in the illegal activities of its right-wing settlers who force Palestinians to leave their land. The USA has to cease supplying the IDF with weapons, sanction illegal activity by settlers and renew its efforts to bring about a two-State solution. Israel must allow the international media access to all parts of Gaza and the West Bank. There must be no areas off limits to journalists and news crews. We must shine the light of the modern media on to all parts of Gaza and the West Bank.
It’s not right to ignore the Palestinians
The task ahead is both politically and economically huge. On this eightieth anniversary of Europe’s shame that is the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we cannot turn our backs on what has happened in Gaza. We cannot ignore the plight of the Palestinians, no matter what we think of their political leaders. We cannot continue to support an Israeli regime that bans journalists, forces civilians from their homes, bombs schools and hospitals and blockades vital Humanitarian aid at its borders.
On this day of Remembrance, I’m finding it hard to distinguish the actions of the IDF to that of other extremists who we have been trying to come to terms with for eighty years.
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