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WARNING : This site is not for you if you cannot see the otherness of other and sufferings of both sides of the party in the conflict. Security for Israel and Justice for the Palestinians are interdependent, one will not happen without the other. My view focuses on building cohesive societies where no one has to live in apprehension or fear of the other. I hope and pray a sense of justice to prevail. Amen. Website www.IsraelPalestineDialogue.com | Also Check Israel Palestine Confederation a pragmatic solution
Showing posts with label Holocaust. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holocaust. Show all posts

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Holocaust and Genocides 2020

15th Annual Holocaust and Genocides

PRESS RELEASE

Dr. Mike Ghouse
Center for Pluralism
email: MikeGhouse@gmail.com 
Office: (202) 290-3560
Cell: (214) 325-1916


15th Annual Reflections on the Holocaust and Genocides  

The purpose of this event is education, information, and activism. We hope to learn and acknowledge our failings and make a personal commitment to our share of saying, "Never Again."

15th Annual Reflections on Holocaust and Genocides
5:30 PM - 8:30 PM Sunday, January 26, 2020
Arlington Central Library, 1015 N. Quincy Street
Arlington, VA 22201

Tickets are complimentary, but donations are accepted 




We hope you will walk out of the event with a genuine feeling of being a contributor towards building a cohesive world where no human has to live in apprehension or fear of the other. 

The Jewish community has been commemorating the Holocaust event since 1953, known as Yom HaShoah in Synagogues around the world. The general public learns it by visiting the Holocaust Museums and educational institutions.


At the Center for Pluralism, we are committed to spreading knowledge of the Holocaust and Genocide through interfaith and public events, including the Annual reflections. 



Speakers: 


Robert F. Teitel - Holocaust Story

Dr. Gregory Stanton - Signs of Genocides

Rushan Abbas & Omer Kanat - Uyghur Updates

Dr. Wakar Uddin - Rohingya Update

Muneer Baig - Kashmir Update

Dr. TO Shanavas - India Update

Dr. Rani Khan - Peace Pledge

Dr. Mike Ghouse - Genesis of this event

Rabia Baig - Mistress of Ceremony


Volunteers:


Nausheen Baig

Rabbi Alana Suskin

Jafer Imam

Dr. Zafar Iqbal

Charles Stevenson


Sponsors:


Would you like to be a sponsor?

Our budget is $2000, full or any part 


Co-Chairs:


Dr. Rani Khan

Dr. Mike Ghouse


Organized by:


Center for Pluralism


Our format consists of four parts; Interfaith prayers, Holocaust, Genocides, Massacred and the Pledge of Peace. Silently, we will acknowledge all suffering, but physically we are limited to a few Genocides each year. 


 This year, a Holocaust survivor will share his story, followed by updated Uyghur, Rohingya, and the signs of making of Genocide in India. I urge everyone to watch the Schindler's list and Civil War movies to grasp the signs.


I believe, when we acknowledge each other's grief and participate in each other's commemoration, we connect with the humanness within ourselves and seed the relationship of understanding and caring for each other. 


There is a shameless cruelty in us, either we shy away or refuse to acknowledge the sufferings of others, worrying that it will devalue our own, or amounts to infidelity to our pain, and every community and nation has suffered through this. To all those who have endured the Holocaust, Genocides, Massacres, Ethnic Cleansing, Land Mines, Hunger, Rape, Torture, Occupation, Expulsion, and inhuman brutality, we must say, you are not alone. The least we can do in the process of healing is to acknowledge every one's pain in one voice. 

 

I cannot be safe if the people around me are not, and I will not have peace if people around me don't. It is in my interest to seek a peaceful world for one and all.


This is a Muslim initiative to assure fellow humans who have endured the Holocaust, Genocide, ethnic cleansing, massacres, rapes, injustice and other atrocities that we are all in this together to create a better world. Tikkun Olam is our sacred duty. 

 


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List of Supporting Organizations (links embedded)

Published at 148 News Outlets
A few are listed below 

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Monday, June 4, 2018

A perpetual holocaust in Gaza

Most Americans do not see another point of view; this site hopes to provide different points of view that make sense. My passion is to open people’s hearts and minds towards fellow beings.

 The op-ed by Tariq AlMaeena reflects what most people around see, a good piece indeed. 

 Thanks to the American and British Jews, who have always stood up for social Justice and living in harmony with others. However, the pied pipers have misled Jews in Israel to have them focus on their security needs over the sense of righteousness while the Palestinian leadership has done the same. A few American Jews don’t see and don’t want to believe what is going on in Israel; they don’t see the ethnic cleansing and atrocities against Palestinian children and women, and inhumane treatment of fellow beings. What kind of humans would the Israelis and Palestinians be?

 If the younger generation wakes up from the ill-will and hatred, they will ask the creeps and blame the leadership of both nations, if they wanted to pass their problem to the next generation? The future Israelis may ask Netanyahu if he was doing to Palestinians what was done to them?

Please note, I am not an expert on Holocaust, but have organized 13 Annual events on Holocaust and Genocides, perhaps the only non-Jewish person to have done that. I must add that the word Holocaust is specifically used to refer to the Jewish Holocaust during World War II, all other are classified as Genocides. 

Mike Ghouse
www.IsraelPalestineDialogue.com 

Courtesy - Gulf News

A perpetual holocaust in Gaza

American democracy is turning a blind eye to Israeli apartheid of Palestine
Gulf News
A holocaust is defined as a systematic and mass slaughter of a people, generally based on their ethnicity. And that is precisely what is being rained on the people of Gaza. They have been systematically slaughtered in cold blood in carefully administered increments by the mightily armed Israeli Forces. The killing of Palestinian civilians goes on every day but in numbers not to draw excessive attention or international condemnation. It is a holocaust nevertheless as it singles out a people based on their ethnicity and targets them for destruction.
It is unfortunate that the United States, a country that proudly promotes its democratic principles has made every excuse to shield the Israeli killing machine on the world stage by continuously shifting the blame on the Palestinians. They are blamed for resisting violence against them, against bullets bringing down their families by the numbers, by evictions and watching their homes bulldozed and by imprisonment of their women and children. This also includes mass bombings on civilian targets by the Israeli air force against a defenceless people.

It’s not very difficult to understand US support as most media in that country is historically tolerant, sympathetic and encouraging of all Israeli actions against what are the legal occupants of the land. American democracy is turning a blind eye to Israeli apartheid of Palestine.
Many US politicians owe their seats to massive underhanded donations and support by American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) whose mission statement is to help and facilitate only Israeli-sympathetic politicians in key areas. There have been recorded instances in the past when a brave American politician went against this stranglehold, only to find himself or herself quickly booted out of office by intensified and coordinated lobbying against him.
The mainstream media by and large provides a completely one-sided bias against Palestinians, and if I were a resident of Gaza, I should not expect God-fearing Americans to rise up and notice the ongoing holocaust in the 21st century and come to my rescue. The majority of Americans cannot be blamed as they are prudently kept ignorant of the real realities on the ground in the Middle East and who the real bad guys are.
Even Hollywood gives Israel the assistance it needs to carry out their vicious plans as Arabs are generally portrayed as being either evil or terrorists out to destroy the western world. For an American whose knowledge of the outside world is limited to a two-minute clip on TV that shows Palestinians in bad light or Hollywood with its own flair, there lies no hope for democratic justice from the Americans.
US government figures proudly and publicly embrace values dictated by AIPAC or Israel, publicly touting their support and administration for Israel. Even in the UN where one would expect some semblance of fairness, such values have vanished. Recently when the Security Council was holding an emergency meeting to discuss the violence in Gaza. Israeli forces killed at least 103 Palestinians protesting along the border fence, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza. That number included several children, one of whom was just 8 months old. More than 3,100 others were wounded. The US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley walked out of the meeting when the Palestinian envoy began to speak, just hours after she praised Israel for acting with “restraint” in handling the protests in Gaza.
More recently she said that the United States will “unquestionably veto” a UN draft resolution calling for the protection of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, on the eve of a Security Council vote on Friday. Haley described the proposition put forward by Kuwait on behalf of Arab countries as a “grossly one-sided approach that is morally bankrupt and would only serve to undermine ongoing efforts toward peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.” What seems to be morally bankrupt and obvious in this case is Nikki Haley’s conscience and the poor image of American democracy that she projects.
So is there any hope for the Palestinians from this ongoing holocaust by an intervention of American politicians? Very recently, 76 brave members of the US Congress sent a letter to the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu urging his government to abandon plans to demolish the Palestinian village of Susya in South Hebron. This demolition was to further expand illegal Israeli colonies in the area.
The letter added that “The forcible eviction of Palestinian communities and the expansion of colonies in areas of the West Bank which would become part of a future Palestinian state, abandon our two countries’ shared values of justice and respect for human rights. These actions unilaterally change facts on the ground and jeopardise the prospects for a two-state solution.” What was refreshing was that a number of Jewish lawmakers with conscience signed the letter, making it “the most significant criticism of settlement expansion ever by Congress”.
Perhaps this is just a start, albeit a small one. For the despairing Palestinians, this may just buy them some hope to hang on to.
Tariq A. Al Maeena is a Saudi socio-political commentator. He lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. You can follow him on Twitter: @talmaeena
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Monday, January 26, 2015

On the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

Nakba is mentioned in this article, and it is being debated among Jewish circles. The real issue is if we are willing to discuss it or is there are fear the discussion leads to acknowledgment?

There is a shameless cruelty in us, either we shy away or refuse to acknowledge the sufferings of others, worrying that it will devalue our own or somehow it amounts to infidelity to our own suffering, and every community and nation has suffered through this.

As Muslim we commemorated Holocaust for the 8th year now,  perhaps the only Muslims in the world.  The purpose of this event was education; we hope to learn and acknowledge our failings and make a personal commitment to do our individual share of saying “Never Again”.

Mike Ghouse
www.HolocaustandGenocides.com 



Birkenau, the iconic main building, photo by Scott Roth

Mike Ghouse

 This week marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Most likely it is the last time that many survivors of Auschwitz will be alive to mourn the dead they left behind. Coming as it does within the context of the recent massacre in France, world leaders are also attending in large numbers. Including among these leaders are the president of France and the prime minister of Germany.

 Yesterday’s New York Times features an article on this commemoration and the changes that Auschwitz is undergoing as the surviving generation comes to an end.  The change is momentous as described by Andrze Kacorzyk, deputy director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum:

 We find this to be a moment of passage. A passing of the baton. It is younger generations publicly accepting the responsibility that they are ready to carry this history on behalf of the survivors, and to secure the physical survival of the place where they suffered.

 In practical terms, Auschwitz is to be transformed from a memorial site to an educational museum. The next generation will know no survivors and will be unable to hear from them personally. They will have to be educated in the Holocaust in a different way to become the new torch bearers of the lessons of the Holocaust.

 Ronald Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, is featured throughout theTimes article on the importance of educating the young about the Holocaust:

 It is very hard to pass the baton to a new generation, people who are living in different circumstances in a new century. Your parents may want to pass the torch to you, but it is hard to take up the cause of their life. And in many cases now, we are talking about the grandchildren of survivors.
Auschwitz is important because it was ground zero of what the Nazis did. And it is important because anti-Semitism is like a virus. You think it goes away but then it’s coming back. Right now, it is coming back very strongly.
Lauder here is referring to the “outbreaks of anti-Semitism across Europe” which he believes will help galvanize future generations on the lessons of the Holocaust.

 Perhaps it will, but the question unasked by Lauder, the Auschwitz museum officials and the Times is in what direction future generation, Jewish and otherwise, will be galvanized.

 The Times may have already raised this question in their recent book review of Anita Shapira’s biography of David Ben-Gurion.  Reviewing the biography, Ilene Prusher has this to say about Shapira’s handling of Ben-Gurion’s role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948:

 Some readers may find it hard, as I did, to read Shapira’s brief treatment of the moment in 1948 when the commanders Yigal Allon and Yitzhak Rabin came to Ben-Gurion asking whether to carry out “a large-scale population evacuation.” Rabin reported that Ben-Gurion responded with a wave of the hand, saying “Expel them.” Shapira explains here that while he forbade the evacuation of some areas, like Nazareth, “like most of his ministers, he saw the Arabs’ exodus as a great miracle, one of the most important in that year of miracles, since the presence of a hostile population constituting some 40 percent of the new state’s total populace did not augur well for the future.”

 Shapira doesn’t subject this incident to any ethical scrutiny or judgment, reporting it almost matter-of-factly. She does, however, note that given the history of the time — which included moving enormous masses of people across Europe and carrying out huge population transfers as part of the partition that divided Pakistan from India — Ben-Gurion’s decision wasn’t beyond the norm. “The decision not to allow the return of the Arab refugees was accepted as self-evident, and gained broad public support.”

 I doubt there will be any reference to Ben Gurion’s decision or Rabin’s participation in the Nakba at the Auschwitz commemoration. I doubt, too, that the momentous change ahead in the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum will deal with the Nakba or Jewish culpability in this ongoing event.

 The lessons of Auschwitz have gone unheeded. Most would agree. But the issue remains: What are the lessons of Auschwitz for future generations?

 Thinking of the Nazis and Ben-Gurion, of the Holocaust and the Nakba, for Jews at least, the primary unlearned lesson is that Jews now live after what happened to Jews in the Holocaust.  Jews also live with the reality of an ongoing Nakba perpetrated by Jewish Israelis with the support of many Jews around the world.

 The Holocaust is decisive for Jewish identity.  The Nakba is too.

 Can this Holocaust/Nakba lesson be incorporated into the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum without minimizing the Holocaust?  Or does the continuing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians simply raise the stakes of Auschwitz, demand a renewed encounter with the suffering caused by unjust power in anyone’s hands, including Jews?

 Holocaust and the Nakba.  Holocaust and Israel.  On the 70th anniversary of Auschwitz, the lessons remain.

 http://mondoweiss.net/2015/01/anniversary-liberation-auschwitz?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_content=dBjuiI&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook#!dBjuiI

  This is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.


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