Subscribe to Print Edition | Sun., July 06, 2008 Tamuz 3, 5768 | | Israel Time: 01:16 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
  Back to Homepage
Rosner's Domain
Diplomacy
Defense Jewish World Opinion National
Print Edition
Car Rental
Books Peres Conference Business Real Estate Easy Start Travel Week's End Anglo File
Yad Vashem Council Chairman Yosef Lapid. (Alberto Denkberg)
Last update - 19:53 21/01/2007
Yad Vashem Council Chair slams settlers for abusing Palestinians
By Reuters and Haaretz Service

The head of the council of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial on Saturday assailed Jewish settlers who harass Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron, saying the abuse recalled the anti-Semitism of pre-World War Two Europe.

A Yad Vashem spokeswoman told Haaretz that Yad Vashem Council Chairman Yosef (Tommy) Lapid's comments do not reflect the memorial center's position.

Lapid's unusually fierce and public attack was prompted by television footage showing a Hebron settler woman hissing "whore" at her Palestinian neighbor and settler children lobbing rocks at Arab homes.
Advertisement
Lapid, a Holocaust survivor who lost his father to the Nazi genocide, said in a weekly commentary on Israel Radio that the acts of some Hebron settlers reminded him of persecution endured by Jews in his native Yugoslavia on the eve of World War Two.

"It was not crematoria or pogroms that made our life in the diaspora bitter before they began to kill us, but persecution, harassment, stone-throwing, damage to livelihood, intimidation, spitting and scorn," Lapid said.

"I was afraid to go to school, because of the little anti-Semites who used to lay in ambush on the way and beat us up. How is that different from a Palestinian child in Hebron?"

Hebron has been a frequent flashpoint of more than six years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Some 400 settlers live there, under heavy military guard, among 150,000 Palestinians.

Hebron settlers were not immediately available to respond to Lapid's criticism, but Israel Radio broadcast earlier comments by the community's spokesman, Noam Arnon, in which he played down the televised harassments as "fringe incidents."

"In six years, 37 Jews have been murdered in Hebron, and now they're preoccupied with curses?" Arnon said.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered a cabinet-level probe last week into Palestinian allegations that abuse by Hebron settlers is commonplace and routinely ignored by Israel.

Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh said he hoped for a military crackdown against the settler "provocateurs", but Palestinian officials called for comprehensive action.

"If they are serious about coexistence, the Israelis must take practical steps on the hundreds of daily violations against Palestinians in the old city," Hebron Governor Arif Jabari said.

Jabari's apparent pessimism was shared by Lapid, a former justice minister.

"We Jewish citizens of Israel wave a reprimanding finger at most," he said. "Worse still, I tolerated this silently as justice minister too."

Lapid said while there was no comparing the Holocaust with Palestinian suffering from Israel's policies, this did not mean Israelis could not be culpable.

"It is inconceivable for the memory of Auschwitz to warrant ignoring the fact that there are Jews among us who behave today towards Palestinians just like German, Hungarian, Polish and other anti-Semites behaved towards Jews," he said.
Bookmark to del.icio.us  
 
Video attack
West Bank settlers tie Palestinian man to phone pole and beat him.
A static future
Iran's nuclear program remains unchanged despite economic incentives.
  1.   Thank you Mr. Lapid 19:00  |  sh 20/01/07
  2.   37 Jews murdered by their neighbors 19:04  |  Pinchas 20/01/07
  3.   Yad Vashem Chairman 19:09  |  David 20/01/07
  4.   Settlers abusing Palestinians 19:12  |  k.herzallah 20/01/07
  5.   Clear moral leadership 19:16  |  Nathaniel 20/01/07
  6.   Forget the legality or illegality 19:18  |  Yonatan 20/01/07
  7.   Lapid should slam the Arabs who murder Hebron Jews 19:25  |  Dani 20/01/07
  8.   Him again,with a pal hag "reminding him of his grandmother" 19:26  |  Absolute Sweden 20/01/07
  9.   Lapid 19:33  |  BB 20/01/07
  10.   Tommy Lapid 19:59  |  Yoav 20/01/07
  11.   Is Lapid Going To Slam The 3Would-Be Murderer Arabs Caught Today? 20:05  |  Yishai Kohen 20/01/07
  12.   #1 Abs. Sw., you have lost your humanity 20:10  |  Yonatan 20/01/07
  13.   Isolating the racists 20:13  |  Brian 20/01/07
  14.   To Absolute Sweden 20:28  |  David James Vickery 20/01/07
  15.   Mr. Lapid and his RIGHT to speak out 20:33  |  Siem 20/01/07
  16.   Serious Accusations, Short On Perspective 20:33  |  Peter 20/01/07
  17.   Adding to my first post 20:33  |  Marlene 20/01/07
  18.   Mr Lapid`s remarks. 20:35  |  David Nigel Braham 20/01/07
  19.   Three cheers for Tommy 20:36  |  David James Vickery 20/01/07
  20.   This hurts... 20:45  |  Deena 20/01/07
  21.   Galut Jew 20:49  |  David 20/01/07
  22.   One difference between Lapid in Yugoslavia and Arabs in Hevron 20:51  |  moshe 20/01/07
  23.   European racist mentality 20:52  |  Dennis Gordon 20/01/07
  24.   Almost all conscientious Israelis are comparing the 20:58  |  American Diplomat 20/01/07
  25.   are they jewish? 21:10  |  michael 20/01/07
  26.   Thank you Lapid 21:12  |  Bandar Michaels 20/01/07
  27.   Lapid right on focus 21:15  |  Esther 20/01/07
  28.   Slight difference: Jews were loyal citizens 21:17  |  Nili 20/01/07
  29.   The VIDEO is ANTI-SEMITIC PROPAGANDA against Jews 21:28  |  amir 20/01/07
  30.   Hebron 21:39  |  C McCoy 20/01/07
  31.   To # 5 - No peace with ocupation! 21:43  |  Jews for peace 20/01/07
  32.   Jews Are People Too 21:46  |  Brian Freund 20/01/07
  33.   #29 - You are the BIGOT 21:47  |  Boyd 20/01/07
  34.   We voted for Shinui in those times but... 21:48  |  krystal 20/01/07
  35.   "Good Jew" sh,# 1,aren`t you a Jesuit? 21:54  |  Absolute Sweden 20/01/07
  36.   yad vashem chairman slams settlers for abusing palestinians 22:05  |  ghazi essawi 20/01/07
  37.   May the settlers increase , multiply and succeed 22:10  |  Joseph E . 20/01/07
  38.   Well said, mr Lapid 22:12  |  JJ 20/01/07
  39.   Arabs burn down a Shul on Thursday 22:14  |  Danny 20/01/07
  40.   Lapid 22:16  |  d 20/01/07
  41.   Lapid, Yad Vashem and Carter 22:21  |  Jel 20/01/07
  42.   The hypocrite Lapid 22:24  |  David 20/01/07
  43.   Nothing New 22:29  |  Don 20/01/07
  44.   while the police protects the 400, they are brave... 22:41  |  a jew 20/01/07
  45.   The Silence of Yosef Lapid 22:44  |  VICTIMSofARABTERROR 20/01/07
  46.   Vickery #19 22:45  |  George Kaplan 20/01/07
  47.   A magnet of hatred 22:47  |  Erik 20/01/07
  48.   Memory is conveniently short 22:47  |  * BEN JABO 20/01/07
  49.   Yad Vashem Council Chair slams settlers for abusing Palestinians 22:54  |  Anshel 20/01/07
  50.   check the facts! 23:06  |  ahmed 20/01/07
  51.   once more about exile, bigotry and history of the planet 23:09  |  a jew anti-zealot 20/01/07
  52.   Lapid 23:19  |  Dov 20/01/07
  53.   Response to Pinchas #2 23:21  |  Harry D 20/01/07
  54.   MR LAPID MUST RESIGN 23:23  |  zaq 20/01/07
  55.   Response to David #3 23:31  |  Harry D 20/01/07
  56.   If it hurts No. 20 23:41  |  Marlene 20/01/07
  57.   DISGUST 23:46  |  ulf 20/01/07
  58.   Deny, deny, deny Amir No. 29 23:48  |  Marlene 20/01/07
  59.   #40 Jel 23:49  |  claude 20/01/07
  60.   Response to Nili 23:52  |  Harry D 20/01/07
  61.   If anything, Israelis should not be shocked - 42 23:55  |  Marlene 20/01/07
  62.   #23, European racist mentality 23:58  |  Interested bystander 20/01/07
  63.   To Danny-Dimona-#38 23:59  |  Harry D 20/01/07
  64.   Using the Holocaust for political ends No. 48 00:04  |  Marlene 21/01/07
  65.   Response to Jel #40 00:06  |  Harry D 21/01/07
  66.   Regarding European racism No. 23 00:11  |  Marlene 21/01/07
  67.   To David #41 00:11  |  Harry D 21/01/07
  68.   Don No.42 - 00:17  |  d 21/01/07
  69.   Lapid 00:23  |  d 21/01/07
  70.   Lapid a "usefull fool" 00:28  |  L. Gomberoff 21/01/07
  71.   Response to #42 00:45  |  Pinchas 21/01/07
  72.&nbs