"Jewish UN Envoy Decries 'Nazi' Israeli Practices"

Stephanie Messana

I. Citation:
The Palestine Chronicle
“Jewish UN Envoy Decries ‘Nazi’ Israeli Practices”
April 8, 2008
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/news.php?id=5bc84c7bf8df99797f3c85559b1259ca&mode=details

II. Summary:
The article is about how according to a human rights investigator from the UN, the way that Israelis treat Palestinians is comparable to the way Nazis treated Jews during the Holocaust. The man who made this statement was Richard Falk, a Jewish-American teacher at Princeton University. He came out with his comparison in an essay called, “Slouching toward a Palestinian Holocaust.” Israel, furious because of Falk, is denying him a visa to get into Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. It’s not just Falk who believes that this comparison is valid. German Bishops who visited East Jerusalem had the same idea and even Israeli scholars as well.

III. Reactions:
- This article relates to the AP theme of impact of interaction among and within major societies. It relates to this theme because the article is about how the Israelis interact with the Palestinians in a bad way.
- The history of the issue goes all the way back to WWI when many different promises were made to Palestine regarding their land while Israel was expanding at the same time. I still don’t quite understand the issue even after seeking further information about it.
- The point of view of the article is most likely either an American or European journalist which would make them an outsider on the situation.
- The author’s point of view is not affecting the way the article is written because he or she is just stating the facts and is not addressing their personal opinion within the article.
- The point of view of a Palestinian who is under the harsh treatments of the Israelis is missing and would be helpful to better understand the issue because they are experiencing it first hand and would know more about it.
- I found this article to be interesting. I am not quite sure what exactly is going on between Israel and Palestine to cause a rift of “holocaust-proportions,” however I got the gist of it. As I was reading the article, I was not too fazed by the idea of something almost as terrible as the Holocaust going on in Israel and Palestine until people from Israel made the connection as well. I thought it was strange, though, that Israeli scholars made the same comparison as Falk did and Falk was denied access into the country, while it says nothing about the Israelis being persecuted for saying the same thing.