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Europe Wants to Commemorate the Holocaust, But Perpetuates Gross Crimes Against the State of Israel
A monument to the Jewish victims of the 1941 Jedwabne pogrom in Poland after it was vandalized with swastikas by Neo-Nazis in 2011. The graffiti on the left reads “I am not sorry for Jedwabne,” while the right it reads “They were highly flammable.”
Photo: Reuters/Marcin Onufryjuk.
On July 10, 2025, participants in the annual commemoration of the Jedwabne massacre encountered something disturbing: seven newly installed stone plaques just outside the memorial.
Placed by far-right Polish nationalists, the texts denied Polish responsibility for the 1941 massacre and blamed it entirely on German occupiers. One read, “The crime was committed by a German pacification unit.” Another revived antisemitic tropes, suggesting Jews had “betrayed” Poland.
This act of historical sabotage preceded the ceremony. What followed was direct provocation: Grzegorz Braun, a far-right MP and MEP, arrived with supporters, blocked vehicles — including that of Poland’s Chief Rabbi — and harassed those in attendance. That same morning, Braun went on national radio to declare that Auschwitz’s gas chambers were fake, and to affirm the medieval blood libel as historical fact.
The backlash was swift. Polish prosecutors opened a criminal case. Yad Vashem called it a “dangerous distortion,” the Auschwitz Museum condemned it as a “conscious lie,” and Polish leaders across parties voiced outrage. So did EU figures, condemning Braun’s denialism and hate speech.
And yet here the standard shifts. Holocaust distortion, when it appears in classic denialist form, as with Braun, is rightly met with condemnation. But when the distortion wears new clothes, particularly in the context of Israel, it often passes unchallenged.
Within EU institutions, certain publicly-funded NGOs and elected officials promote the claim that Israel is committing genocide or even a new Holocaust against Palestinians. These statements are rarely contested. Organizations such as Al-Haq and others have received EU or member-state funding while using Holocaust-associated language to frame current conflicts. Groups like Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, though not funded by the EU, have contributed to the normalization of such terminology in European discourse.
This, too, is Holocaust distortion. To equate Israeli policy, however contested, with the industrial extermination of European Jewry is to trivialize the Holocaust. It dilutes historical specificity. Worse, it often turns victims into perpetrators in public imagination.
Irish MEP Clare Daly called EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “Frau Genocide” — a sarcastic use of the German honorific “Frau” (“Mrs.”), meant to accuse her of enabling what Daly described as Israel’s genocide in Gaza. She also accused von der Leyen of supporting Israel’s “brutal apartheid regime.”
Former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described Israel’s war in Gaza as “the largest operation of ethnic cleansing since the end of World War II.”
MEP Mick Wallace has repeatedly called Israel an apartheid state committing genocide.
These are not fringe voices. They sit in the European Parliament — or, in Borrell’s case, held the Union’s highest diplomatic office. Yet unlike Braun, they face no condemnation. Their statements remain in the official record and circulate .
Why this inconsistency? Why is Holocaust inversion condemned in Poland but tolerated — and sometimes even amplified — in Brussels?
Many such claims originate in NGO reports, some backed by EU funding. These groups frequently label Israel a “colonial,” “apartheid,” or “genocidal” state, often without legal or historical precision. Some circulate Holocaust analogies or imagery. Yet few EU leaders speak out when these narratives echo antisemitic motifs or weaponize Shoah memory.
Take the apartheid claim. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch assert that Israel enforces apartheid “from the river to the sea.” But Arab citizens of Israel vote, hold office, serve on the Supreme Court, and enjoy equal legal rights. Or consider the genocide charge. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese accused Israel of “one of the cruelest genocides of our time.” Some EU parliamentarians echoed her words. There is no evidence of a systematic plan to exterminate a people. Using “genocide” in this context is not forensic, it is rhetorical violence.
The most grotesque accusation is that Israel behaves like the Nazis. Across Europe, protesters chant that Israel is a “Nazi state.” Signs compare the Star of David to the swastika. Some NGO (including some that receive support from EU member states), refer to Gaza as a “ghetto” or liken it to a “camp.” These comparisons are not analysis, they are rhetorical shock tactics that erode historical understanding and hollow out Holocaust memory.
At Jedwabne, the newly placed plaques implied that Jews had brought violence upon themselves by siding with the Soviets. Today, that logic returns in inverse form: the descendants of those burned in barns are cast as the new perpetrators of genocide. What once accused Jews of being complicit in their own destruction now accuses them of repeating it. This is not remembrance. It is reversal.
The same Europe that prosecutes Holocaust denial and funds Shoah education stays silent when antisemitic analogies are repurposed against Jews today. That silence is not neutrality — it is complicity.
Jedwabne survivor Rivka Fogel described the hours before the fire: “They made us stand in the square, with brooms in our hands, in the heat. We swept dust that did not move. We knew what was coming. Then they took the children.”
These words were not written to flatter history. They were written to warn us. And now we are warned again.
Historical truth is indivisible. The standards we use to guard Holocaust memory must apply equally whether the distortion and trivialization comes from the far right or from those cloaking modern antisemitism in humanitarian language. You cannot mourn Jedwabne while tolerating new blood libels in Brussels or Geneva.
There is a difference between legitimate criticism of Israeli policy and the weaponization of Jewish history to delegitimize Jewish sovereignty. Terms like “genocide,” “apartheid,” and “Nazi state” have become political weapons, not analytical tools. And weapons cause harm — not just to Israel, but to truth itself.
As the Yizkor Book wrote: “There was no one left to say Kaddish. So we wrote their names. This book is their prayer.”
That prayer is now ours. To speak their names. To guard the truth. To call out distortion, not only when it comes from deniers, but also when it comes masked as justice.
Amanda Kluveld is a Holocaust historian and associate professor of history at Maastricht University.
The post Europe Wants to Commemorate the Holocaust, But Perpetuates Gross Crimes Against the State of Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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US House Members Ask Marco Rubio to Bar Turkey From Rejoining F-35 Program
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, April 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Nathan Howard
A bipartisan coalition of more than 40 US lawmakers is pressing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to prevent Turkey from rejoining the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, citing ongoing national security concerns and violations of US law.
Members of Congress on Thursday warned that lifting existing sanctions or readmitting Turkey to the US F-35 fifth-generation fighter program would “jeopardize the integrity of F-35 systems” and risk exposing sensitive US military technology to Russia. The letter pointed to Ankara’s 2017 purchase of the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system, despite repeated US warnings, as the central reason Turkey was expelled from the multibillion-dollar fighter jet program in 2019.
“The S-400 poses a direct threat to US aircraft, including the F-16 and F-35,” the lawmakers wrote. “If operated alongside these platforms, it risks exposing sensitive military technology to Russian intelligence.”
The group of signatories, spanning both parties, stressed that Turkey still possesses the Russian weapons systems and has shown “no willingness to comply with US law.” They urged Rubio and the Trump administration to uphold the Countering American Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) and maintain Ankara’s exclusion from the F-35 program until the S-400s are fully removed.
The letter comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed during a NATO summit in June that Ankara and Washington have begun discussing Turkey’s readmission into the program.
Lawmakers argued that reversing course now would undermine both US credibility and allied confidence in American defense commitments. They also warned it could disrupt development of the next-generation fighter jet announced by the administration earlier this year.
“This is not a partisan issue,” the letter emphasized. “We must continue to hold allies and adversaries alike accountable when their actions threaten US interests.”
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US Lawmakers Urge Treasury to Investigate Whether Irish Bill Targeting Israel Violates Anti-Boycott Law
A pro-Hamas demonstration in Ireland led by nationalist party Sinn Fein. Photo: Reuters/Clodagh Kilcoyne
A group of US lawmakers is calling on the Treasury Department to investigate and potentially penalize Ireland over proposed legislation targeting Israeli goods, warning that the move could trigger sanctions under longstanding US anti-boycott laws.
In a letter sent on Thursday to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, 16 Republican members of Congress expressed “serious concerns” about Ireland’s recent legislative push to ban trade with territories under Israeli administration, including the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
The letter, spearheaded by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), called for the US to “send a clear signal” that any attempts to economically isolate Israel will “carry consequences.”
The Irish measure, introduced by Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Simon Harris, seeks to prohibit the import of goods and services originating from what the legislation refers to as “occupied Palestinian territories,” including Israeli communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Supporters say the bill aligns with international law and human rights principles, while opponents, including the signatories of the letter, characterize it as a direct extension of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel as a step toward the destruction of the world’s lone Jewish state.
Some US lawmakers have also described the Irish bill as an example of “antisemitic hate” that could risk hurting relations between Dublin and Washington.
“Such policies not only promote economic discrimination but also create legal uncertainty for US companies operating in Ireland,” the lawmakers wrote in this week’s letter, urging Bessent to determine whether Ireland’s actions qualify as participation in an “unsanctioned international boycott” under Section 999 of the Internal Revenue Code, also known as the Ribicoff Amendment.
Under that statute, the Treasury Department is required to maintain a list of countries that pressure companies to comply with international boycotts not sanctioned by the US. Inclusion on the list carries tax-reporting burdens and possible penalties for American firms and individuals doing business in those nations.
“If the criteria are met, Ireland should be added to the boycott list,” the letter said, arguing that such a step would help protect US companies from legal exposure and reaffirm American opposition to economic efforts aimed at isolating Israel.
Legal experts have argued that if the Irish bill becomes law, it could chase American capital out of the country while also hurting companies that do business with Ireland. Under US law, it is illegal for American companies to participate in boycotts of Israel backed by foreign governments. Several US states have also gone beyond federal restrictions to pass separate measures that bar companies from receiving state contracts if they boycott Israel.
Ireland has been one of the fiercest critics of Israel on the international stage since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza, leading the Jewish state to shutter its embassy in Dublin.
Last year, Ireland officially recognized a Palestinian state, a decision that Israel described as a “reward for terrorism.”
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US Families File Lawsuit Accusing UNRWA of Supporting Hamas, Hezbollah
A truck, marked with United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) logo, crosses into Egypt from Gaza, at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Rafah, Egypt, Nov. 27, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
American families of victims of Hamas and Hezbollah attacks have filed a lawsuit against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, accusing the organization of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing material support to the Islamist terror groups behind the deadly assaults.
Last week, more than 200 families filed a lawsuit in a Washington, DC district court accusing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) of violating US antiterrorism laws by providing funding and support to Hamas and Hezbollah, both designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
The lawsuit alleges that UNRWA employs staff with direct ties to the Iran-backed terror group, including individuals allegedly involved in carrying out attacks against the Jewish state.
However, UNRWA has firmly denied the allegations, labeling them as “baseless” and condemning the lawsuit as “meritless, absurd, dangerous, and morally reprehensible.”
According to the organization, the lawsuit is part of a wider campaign of “misinformation and lawfare” targeting its work in the Gaza Strip, where it says Palestinians are enduring “mass, deliberate and forced starvation.”
The UN agency reports that more than 150,000 donors across the United States have supported its programs providing food, medical aid, education, and trauma assistance in the war-torn enclave amid the ongoing conflict.
In a press release, UNRWA USA affirmed that it will continue its humanitarian efforts despite facing legal challenges aimed at undermining its work.
“Starvation does not pause for politics. Neither will we,” the statement read.
Last year, Israeli security documents revealed that of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees in Gaza, 440 were actively involved in Hamas’s military operations, with 2,000 registered as Hamas operatives.
According to these documents, at least nine UNRWA employees took part directly in the terror group’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
Israeli officials also uncovered a large Hamas data center beneath UNRWA headquarters, with cables running through the facility above, and found that Hamas also stored weapons in other UNRWA sites.
The UN agency has also aligned with Hamas in efforts against the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an Israeli and US-backed program that delivers aid directly to Palestinians, blocking Hamas from diverting supplies for terror activities and selling them at inflated prices.
These Israeli intelligence documents also revealed that a senior Hamas leader, killed in an Israeli strike in September 2024, had served as the head of the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon, where Lebanon is based,
UNRWA’s education programs have been found by IMPACT-se, an international organization that monitors global education, to contribute to the radicalization of younger generations of Palestinians.