Online Journal
Front Page 
 
 Donate
 
 Submissions
 
 Announcements
 
 NewsLinks
 
 Special Reports
 
 News Media
 
 Elections & Voting
 
 Health
 
 Religion
 
 Social Security
 
 Analysis
 
 Commentary
 
 Editors' Blog
 
 Reclaiming America
 
 The Splendid Failure of Occupation
 
 The Lighter Side
 
 Reviews
 
 The Mailbag
 
 Online Journal Stores
 Official Merchandise
 Amazon.com
 
 Links
 
 Join Mailing List
Search

Commentary Last Updated: Feb 29th, 2008 - 00:50:31


Send them to Gaza: Gimmicks and education
By Gilad Atzmon
Online Journal Guest Writer


Feb 29, 2008, 00:48

Email this article
 Printer friendly page

The Tory leader David Cameron seems to be struggling these days. After calling government funding for school visits to the former Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz a 'gimmick,� he�s facing demands for an apology.

In a speech on Friday, Cameron accused Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government of being "obsessed with short-term gimmicks," including a recommendation for schools to make "trips to Poland."

The British government announced this month it would give 4.65 million pounds to the Holocaust Educational Trust set up in 1988 to educate young people about the Holocaust. It wouldn't take a genius to guess that the Jewish political institutions in Britain were very quick to tear Cameron apart for his comment.

Henry Grunwald, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said, "The Board of Deputies does not get involved in party politics, but we are surprised and disappointed that David Cameron should in any way have used the word 'gimmick� in connection with visits to Auschwitz."

Karen Pollock, the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said, "We do not want to be involved in party politics. But you should not use visits to Auschwitz to score political points."

Seemingly, both Pollock and Grunwald do not like to get involved in 'party politics'. For that purpose they have some very dedicated agents such as Lord Levy, David Abrahams, the Tory Friends of Israel and the Labour Friends of Israel.

The Conservative Party was very quick to understand the message. It immediately surrendered to the 'non-political' pressure. Within hours, the Tory spokesman said: "School trips to Auschwitz are a brilliant idea."

Trying to quell the storm, the Conservative spokesman said, "Cameron was not criticising the visits, but rather the fact that the government funding did not cover their entire cost."

Very much like Grunwald and Pollock, I would refrain from interfering with British politics, yet I may suggest that Cameron was absolutely correct. The trips to Auschwitz are indeed a gimmick. As far as I can see, the educational value of these trips is counter-effective.

Unlike Karen Pollock from the Holocaust Educational Trust, who said, "Students use their experience to raise awareness of the lessons of the Holocaust in their schools and local communities, challenging prejudice and racism today," I am convinced that trips to Auschwitz are there to divert the attention from crimes that are committed on a daily basis in front of our eyes and in our names. The trips to Auschwitz are there to silence ethical awareness. They are there to shutter the possibility of self-reflection.

It is indeed rather easy for the British government to spend some money trying to teach young students how bad the Nazis were 63 years ago. Yet, it is far more challenging for the British government and British educational institutes to confront British wrongdoing in the past and in the present.

Instead of sending British youngsters to Auschwitz, I would suggest spending governmental funds on student trips to Gaza concentration camp. This would have a far greater educational value in so as far as challenging 'racism and prejudice.' Clearly it is in Gaza where millions of Palestinians are starved by the Jewish state while the West keeps silent.

Britain bears some direct responsibility for the Palestinian tragedy. Firstly, the Palestinian disaster was set by the British Empire. It may have started with the Balfour Declaration, but it matured into devastating ethnic cleansing in 1948, three years after the liberation of Auschwitz. Secondly, whichever way we decide to look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Palestinians are the last victims of Hitler and the genocide in Gaza is a Shoah in the making.

If Karen Pollock is truly concerned with 'racism and prejudice,' Gaza is the place to send the British kids to, so they can come home and ask their grandparents, 'Grandpa, what did you do when it all happened 60 years ago?' We have to send our kids to Gaza so they can come home and ask their parents, 'Mum, what can we do to help the Palestinians?'

If Karen Pollock still wants to increase our kids' ethical awareness, yet she might not be convinced that Gaza is the place to do so, she may also want to consider sending our youth to Basra or Baghdad. At the end of the day, the genocide of the Iraqi people, in which one and a half million Iraqis have died so far, is a war crime committed also by the current British Government.

But on second thought, there is no point in sending young British students to Baghdad; they can go there as soon they finish school. They can then participate and contribute to this very contemporary Holocaust that is being committed by Britain and America in the name of democracy and neoconservative ideology, all they have to do is just join the British armed forces.

Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli jazz musician, author and political activist.

Copyright © 1998-2007 Online Journal
Email Online Journal Editor

Top of Page

Commentary
Latest Headlines
Send them to Gaza: Gimmicks and education
Hezbollah and the �unknown knowns�
Keeping the memories of Jewish suffering alive
You load $168 billion, whadaya get?
How swing state Ohio got nuked
See no evil
You think you are free?
Who will end the American Empire and its neocon crazies before they end the world?
Cuba�s curmudgeon, Castro
Has Bush been blackmailing congressional Democrats?
Bush�s dirty secret: Bribing Iraq insurgents not to fight
How sick of it are you?
Bernanke's State of the Economy speech: "You are all dead ducks"
Middle East splits between pragmatists and idealists
Bush�s safari to find friendly faces
�You can never be too radical": Rethinking rebellion as March 19 nears
Failed fascist states
What do we stand for?
Neither the best, nor the brightest
Business spies for FBI eyes