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Last update - 10:59 23/04/2009
Yad Vashem fires employee who compared Holocaust to Nakba
By Yoav Stern
Tags: holocaust, yad vashem 

Yad Vashem has fired an instructor who compared the trauma of Jewish Holocaust survivors with the trauma experienced by the Palestinian people in Israel's War of Independence.

Itamar Shapira, 29, of Jerusalem, was fired before Passover from his job as a docent at the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, after a teacher with a group of yeshiva students from Efrat made a complaint. Shapira had worked at Yad Vashem for three and a half years.

This is the first time that Yad Vashem has fired a guide over political differences, an institution official said Wednesday.
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Shapira confirmed, in a telephone conversation with Haaretz, that he had spoken to visitors about the 1948 massacre at Deir Yassin.

He said he did so because the ruins of the Arab village, today a part of Jerusalem's Givat Shaul neighborhood, can be seen as one leaves Yad Vashem.

"Yad Vashem talks about the Holocaust survivors' arrival in Israel and about creating a refuge here for the world's Jews. I said there were people who lived on this land and mentioned that there are other traumas that provide other nations with motivation," Shapira said.

"The Holocaust moved us to establish a Jewish state and the Palestinian nation's trauma is moving it to seek self-determination, identity, land and dignity, just as Zionism sought these things," he said.

A Yad Vashem official said the institution objects to any political use of the Holocaust, especially by a docent working for it.

The institution's position is that the Holocaust cannot be compared to any other event and that every visitor can draw his own political conclusions.

Yad Vashem spokeswoman Iris Rosenberg said that after holding a hearing for Shapira, at which he refused to accept his superiors' instructions and change his teaching methods, it was decided to terminate his job as a guide in the institute's school for Holocaust studies.

"Yad Vashem would have acted unprofessionally had Itamar Shapira continued his educational work for the institute," Rosenberg said.

Yad Vashem employs workers and volunteers from the entire political and social spectrum, who know how to separate their personal position from their work, she said.

Shapira said Yad Vashem chooses to examine only some of the events that took place in the War of Indpendence. "It is being hypocritical. I only tried to expose the visitors to the facts, not to political conclusions. If Yad Vashem chooses to ignore the facts, for example the massacre at Dir Yassin, or the Nakba ["The Catastrophe," the Palestinians' term for what happened to them after 1948], it means that it's afraid of something and that its historic approach is flawed," Shapira said.

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      1.   amazing 06:11  |  Mark 23/04/09
      2.   Israeli`s and Jews worldwide need to examine this issue in depth 06:34  |  Joe 23/04/09
      3.   Kudos to YV; Mark #1: teachers get fired for preaching politics 07:09  |  Robert 23/04/09
      4.   Know What I Would Do With This Idea? 07:19  |  Yosemite 23/04/09
      5.   Ignorant employee.. 07:20  |  Michael Dar 23/04/09
      6.   One More Thing! 07:23  |  Yosemite 23/04/09
      7.   Deir Yassin Arabs Admitted It Was A Lie 07:27  |  Yishai Kohen 23/04/09
      8.   Politicizing the Holacaust 08:20  |  Mickle 23/04/09
      9.   BBC`s Deir Yassin report 08:46  |  ron 23/04/09
      10.   Deir Yassin 08:48  |  Abbas 23/04/09
      11.   Thank You Mr. Shapira 09:00  |  Joel 23/04/09
      12.   Good Man Itamar Shapira 09:01  |  Billy Goat 23/04/09
      13.   Yad Vashem silencing any opposition, did they Call Rivlin 09:21  |  Kris Lazar 23/04/09
      14.   mark, history extends far beyond 1948 09:26  |  tzvi 23/04/09
      15.   Sir (10) this massacre to which extend ever was well planned 10:25  |  Jew- and Bookburner 23/04/09
      16.   Central Park Zoo docent was fired for bashing then-President Bush 10:28  |  Robert 23/04/09
      17.   ignorance is bliss from someone who wasnt born in 1948 10:38  |  v hardman 23/04/09
      18.   Anywhere else you`d agree the employee was wrong 10:43  |  x-ray 23/04/09
      19.   Thank you Itamar 11:12  |  Joe 23/04/09
      20.   Good move on the part of Yad Vashem!!! 11:22  |  Jehudah Ben-Israel 23/04/09
      21.   Not amazing at all 11:25  |  Harold 23/04/09
      22.   Hypocrites 11:35  |  Bandar Michaels 23/04/09
      23.   yad vashem fires employee 12:03  |  sam 23/04/09
      24.   It`s Yad Vashem`s fault,they haven`t fired Prof. Bauer 12:16  |  Absolute Sweden 23/04/09
      25.   Then they should try to stop other equations as well 12:20  |  fritz t. 23/04/09
      26.   Not straightforward at all 12:47  |  Onewhoknows 23/04/09
      27.   Vad ya Shem 12:56  |  Uetliberg 23/04/09
      28.   Did I hear that right? 13:04  |  Murray 23/04/09
      29.   Salute to Itamar Shapira 13:04  |  Majid 23/04/09
      30.   Nakba deniers 13:07  |  Matty Groves 23/04/09
      31.   YV is a Museum of Hypocricy, not Holocaust 13:14  |  Tim 23/04/09
      32.   IS THAT SO? 13:30  |  indrajaya 23/04/09
      33.   Yad Vashem is about the one terrible event, isn`t that enough? 14:01  |  Tom Lobo Meyer 23/04/09
      34.   Mistatement in headline 14:04  |  Mark Lincoln 23/04/09
      35.   fired for comparing one massacre to another? 14:32  |  Samuel 23/04/09
      36.   Itamar Shapira and Yad vashem 14:44  |  Mark 23/04/09
      37.   #29 Matty Groves and other half brains Jew haters. Yad Ve Shem 14:59  |  Israeli Observer 23/04/09
      38.   Responsibility of the Victims - To Build Respectability 15:05  |  No To Demagogues 23/04/09
      39.   #2 Matty Gorves, You are deliberately lying.. 15:09  |  Israeli observer 23/04/09
      40.   #29 matty reinvents history again and again 15:25  |  v hardman 23/04/09
      41.   #32 mark stumbles on the usual quandary and writes the usual tra 15:28  |  vhardman 23/04/09
      42.   Revise your history #5 15:38  |  Sam Soul 23/04/09
      43.   Kids educated by Yuli Tamir 15:42  |  17 23/04/09
      44.   Deir yassin 16:03  |  MK 23/04/09
      45.   V Hardman 16:07  |  Matty Groves 23/04/09
      46.   To vhardman 16:22  |  Sam Soul 23/04/09
      47.   Why can`t the Palestinian people 16:40  |  Chris Linthwaite 23/04/09
      48.   MK: I feel sorry 4 ur ignorance, not a surprise from an American! 16:49  |  Pluto 23/04/09
      49.   sucron 16:51  |  abu yusef 23/04/09
      50.   Call it the Shoah. That`s Jewish. Holocaust includes Gentiles. 16:54  |  Lou Medel 23/04/09
      51.   Politicing the Shoa 16:56  |  Haim 23/04/09
      52.   to Joe #2 - no, not really...... 17:05  |  Adam 23/04/09
      53.   to Mark # 1 17:12  |  Peter 23/04/09
      54.   tzvi 14 17:13  |  potobac 23/04/09
      55.   Linthwaite: Why? Because they are engaged 17:24  |  Adam 23/04/09
      56.   Definition of holocaust= destruction by fire 17:39  |  Arnold 23/04/09
      57.   potobac - in the year 70....... 18:40  |  Adam 23/04/09
      58.   Shapira Did Not Politicize Anything 18:47  |  Binyamin 23/04/09
      59.   The holocaust is constantly used for political purposes. 19:49  |  American in NY 23/04/09
      60.   all respect to shapira and shame on Yad Vashem 20:11  |  kat 23/04/09
      61.   Binyamin 20:15  |  judith 23/04/09
      62.   Israel is using the Shoa too all the time when she need... 20:35  |  ana 23/04/09
      63.   No Such Thing as Palestinians 20:47  |  Zappa Toes 23/04/09
      64.   Thank you, yad vashem., in the name of the survivors. 21:31  |  Mendle Shapira 23/04/09
      65.   How dare you make that comparison! 21:33  |  yeiel 23/04/09
      66.   To Judith #61: Dealing with the Holocaust 22:00  |  Binyamin 23/04/09
      67.   Binyamin 22:36  |  judith 23/04/09
      68.   Yad Veh Shem fires employee.... 01:33  |  Israeli in Canada 24/04/09
      69.   To American in NY (# 59). What about the "occupation" excuse? 01:42  |  flyingdoc57 24/04/09
      70.   victims 02:25  |  john 24/04/09
      71.   GOOD. This is the commemoration of the Holocaust, not Arab propag 02:25  |  Jae 24/04/09
      72.   Albert Einstein on Deir Yassin Fascist attack 02:29  |  David 24/04/09
      73.   #65 yeiel comparison 02:34  |  john 24/04/09
      74.   How Come No Arabs Thanked Me? 02:49  |  Yosemite 24/04/09
      75.   Come work for us 03:41  |  Al Jazeera 24/04/09
      76.   Come work for us 03:41  |  Al Jazeera 24/04/09
      77.   Come work for us 03:41  |  Al Jazeera 24/04/09
      78.   Yes, he deserved to be fired. 04:35  |  Jasper 24/04/09
      79.   flying doc, are you dumb? 04:55  |  Justin Thurst 24/04/09
      80.   Yishai Kohen: Der Yassin was not a lie. 20:15  |  AT 24/04/09
      81.   ron: someone`s making stuff up. 20:25  |  AT 24/04/09
      82.   Holocaust 20:37  |  Athiest 24/04/09
      83.   firing not poliltical, sharipa ignorant of history 20:47  |  david meir-levi 24/04/09
      84.   yad vashem 00:08  |  Victor Barca 25/04/09
      85.   NAQBA The Arab choice to kill all the Jews instead of peacefull 05:35  |  PETER SM 26/04/09
      86.   No politics at Yad Vashem? 05:51  |  Jewboy 26/04/09
      87.   Yad Vashem Fires Employee 07:38  |  Margy Pezdirtz 26/04/09
      88.   NAQBA the Arab rejection of peace in favor of genocide 20:51  |  PETER SM 26/04/09
      89.   To David Meir-Levi 03:28  |  Justin Thurst 27/04/09
      90.   "BIG LIES" from David Meir-Levi 03:40  |  Justin Thurst 27/04/09
      91.   The naqba came as a result of the Arabs 19:25  |  Abdul Aziz Higazi 29/04/09
      92.   Amazing Arrogance 21:30  |  Rick 29/04/09
      93.   itamar shapira 22:26  |  mark goldberg 29/04/09
      94.   Genocide in Australia 14:32  |  Hypocrite from Melbo 30/04/09
      95.   #80 The Truth is what I say and that`s that end of discussion 14:59  |  Fake Fakestinian 30/04/09
      96.   Yad Vashem 15:04  |  Urs 30/04/09
      97.   What sort of Truth Crushes the Freedom to Seek the truth? 17:45  |  Michael Santomauro 30/04/09
      98.   Dier Yassin is a red herring - 4,000 Jews died during that siege 08:00  |  Scitt 02/05/09
      99.   Arab Naqba is Jewish prevention of yet another holocaust 00:54  |  David Negev 23/05/09
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