Dissident Veteran For Peace

Last week, members of the German Roman Catholic Bishops Conference had the audacity to speak truthfully and forthrightly (momentarily, at least) about what they saw on their recent tour of Palestine. Here's an excerpt from a report by Tim Butcher in the Telegraph (UK):

Several of the bishops were upset by the Jerusalem Wall, the 30-ft high concrete barrier illegally built by Israel to separate Palestinian suburbs from the rest of the city."

While crossing one of the checkpoints into East Jerusalem, Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne, said he had been particularly incensed.

"This is something that is done to animals, not people," he said referring to the wall and heavily fortified checkpoints where Palestinians are subjected to intrusive questioning and demands for Israel-approved documentation.

The Archbishop was brought up in Communist-controlled East Germany.

"For me it is a nightmare. I didn't think I would see such a wall again in my life," he said.

"Just like they brought the Berlin Wall down, so too will this wall come down. It will not endure."

The bishops visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, before heading to Ramallah, the de facto capital of the occupied West Bank.

"This morning we saw pictures of the Warsaw ghetto at Yad Vashem and this evening we are going to the Ramallah ghetto," Bishop Gregor Maria Franz Hanke said.

Of course, despite the fact that more than one survivor of the Nazi holocaust (see also below) has pointed out the similarities between Nazi and Zionist behavior and despite the fact that Israeli army officers studied German tactics against the Jewish denizens of the Warsaw Ghetto from the perspective of the Nazis in preparation for military operations against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, leaders of the Holocaust Industry were livid that the bishops would dare to make such a comparison. For instance, Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham H. Foxman bleated: "... any comparison between the Holocaust and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is inappropriate and a breach of church teachings[!]." Thanks Father Abe for lecturing us on church teachings.

Unfortunately, the Zionist thought police seem to have achieved their desired effect with at least some of the bishops lacking the courage of their convictions. Deutsche Welle quotes the head of the international department of the German Bishops Conference as saying "it is, of course, impermissible to make any connection between Nazi policies directed at Jews and the current Israeli policy towards the Palestinians." Of course. This is Orwellian "thoughtcrime" stuff, folks.


"The [Washington] Post's April 10 front-page account and photos of the devastation in Jenin, West Bank, remind me of my childhood years in the Warsaw Ghetto. There, too, innocent civilians were shot on sight, houses were blown up indiscriminately, and humanitarian aid was blocked. At the end of that horrendous Holocaust, we said, 'Never again.' But now, it is we who are doing it again. For shame!"

Source: Alex Hershaft, Bethesda, MD. The Washington Post. Apr. 16, 2002. p. A18.

See also:

• The ADL Spying Case Is Over, But The Struggle Continues
• The Changing Role of B'nai B'rith's Anti-Defamation League
• Quotable: "... inflicting Nuremberg crimes on the Palestinians"

Labels: Abraham Foxman, Christianity, Israel, Palestine, thoughtcrime, Zionism