From Empathy to Denial

The two Jewish authors, both working in Tel Aviv, have delivered a painstakingly researched and documented description of the Holocaust – Nazi Germany’s attempt from 1938–1945 to decimate the Jewish population all over Europe – as seen by the Arab world following the Israeli occupation of Palestine. This is the first truly comprehensive study of this painful topic. It is tragic a story for Arabs as well. As final victims of the Holocaust (and its industry), they continue to pay for German crimes, enduring Israeli occupation although the disaster took place in Europe and its perpetrators were Europeans. (Saudi King [Abd al-[Aziz had therefore proposed that the Jewish victims should be given “the choicest land and homes in Germany”, p. 36). Instead, Israel with its instrumentalisation of the Holocaust/Shoa (by its Arab victims properly called Nakbah/ Disaster) evolved “from victim to culprit” (p. 2). It occupied 78% of Palestinian land and displaced 650.000 Palestinians who now harbour a deep sense of undeserved national tragedy, evolving into a “love of hating” (p. 13, n. 37).