California Arabic Newspaper Says Israel Abuses Memory of Holocaust

The April 27 issue of Watan, an Anaheim, California-based Arabic-language newspaper, featured an article accusing Israel of intentionally using the memory and history of the Holocaust to mask Israeli crimes committed against the Palestinian people.

The article, “The ‘Holocaust’ Industry,” asks, “How could crimes against a group become a justification for that same group to commit crimes against another group?” Similarly, the article accuses “the Zionist entity” of committing the heinous crimes against the Palestinians all “in the shadows of celebrating the memory of the Holocaust through the last century.”

The Watan article also promotes the conspiratorial view that Israel’s purpose in preserving the memory of the Holocaust is to be able to use it as a tool “against politicians, intellectuals and others who dare to whisper opposition to Israeli policies,” a charge that has frequently been used by anti-Israel scholars, activists and organizations to stave off accusations of anti-Semitism.

Watan, which claims to have a circulation in California of 30,000, consistently prints anti-Semitic editorials and cartoons. The cartoons, originally published in the Arab press, have been internationally syndicated.

Another California-based community newspaper, Al Akhbar, published an article in March featuring anti-Semitic narratives and comparisons of Israeli policies to Nazi ideology.