Ali Abunimah in Electronic Intifada, riffing on Avraham Burg and Abba Eban's description of '67 borders as "Auschwitz borders."
the constant references to
the Holocaust reminded me of Eban's powerful analogy. I confess,
however, that it evoked the walls, watchtowers and barbed wire caging
1.5 million Palestinians into the Gaza Strip. Let me be clear: these
"Auschwitz borders" do not literally enclose a Nazi-style death camp
and Israelis are not Nazis.
Rather, these borders mark the beginning of a zone where the human
beings inside have been completely dehumanized, where they can be
starved and killed with impunity and even a sense of righteous
justification, and most "decent" people outside who have the power to
act choose instead to do nothing if they are not condoning Israel's
actions as "self-defense" by a people still haunted by Holocaust fears.
Last January, Karen Koenig AbuZayd, head of the UN agency for Palestine
refugees, UNRWA, wrote, "Gaza is on the threshold of becoming the first
territory to be intentionally reduced to a state of abject destitution,
with the knowledge, acquiescence and — some would say — encouragement
of the international community."
the Holocaust reminded me of Eban's powerful analogy. I confess,
however, that it evoked the walls, watchtowers and barbed wire caging
1.5 million Palestinians into the Gaza Strip. Let me be clear: these
"Auschwitz borders" do not literally enclose a Nazi-style death camp
and Israelis are not Nazis.
Rather, these borders mark the beginning of a zone where the human
beings inside have been completely dehumanized, where they can be
starved and killed with impunity and even a sense of righteous
justification, and most "decent" people outside who have the power to
act choose instead to do nothing if they are not condoning Israel's
actions as "self-defense" by a people still haunted by Holocaust fears.
Last January, Karen Koenig AbuZayd, head of the UN agency for Palestine
refugees, UNRWA, wrote, "Gaza is on the threshold of becoming the first
territory to be intentionally reduced to a state of abject destitution,
with the knowledge, acquiescence and — some would say — encouragement
of the international community."
