Daniel Blatman
Prof. Blatman is a Holocaust researcher and head of the Institute for Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Opinion Polish Honor and Israeli Hypocrisy
Israelis are demanding that Poland acknowledge that the Polish nation colluded with the Nazis in the murder of the Jews. This will never happen because it simply isn’t true
Opinion Warsaw Ghetto Museum Historian: A Tale of History, Force and Narrow Horizons
Is it really such a great sin to take a more inclusive approach to studying the history of Nazi-occupied Poland?
Opinion Yad Vashem Teaches the Holocaust Like Totalitarian Countries Teach History
Yad Vashem is now paying the price of the many years in which it nurtured a one-dimensional, simplistic message that there’s only one way to explain the Holocaust
Opinion Only a Conditional Boycott of Israel Will Lead to Change
You want a sporting event or rock concert in Jerusalem? Reserve tickets for residents of East Jerusalem and the territories. That’s just one possibility
Opinion From Jesse Owens to Lionel Messi
Sports stars who are admired by millions can influence and shock public opinion far more effectively than politicians, academics and intellectuals
Opinion My Fiery Protest Is Simply the Cry of My Very Soul
Just like Emile Zola, people of conscience are protesting against the leaders who have sent Israel’s politics and culture down to levels worthy of a fascist beer hall
Opinion The Israeli Army Committed at Least 4 War Crimes in Recent Weeks. But Who Cares?
The real problem isn't the fact that the army evades dealing with crimes against the Palestinians, but rather that such acts have become the norm
Opinion International Holocaust Remembrance Day: An Israeli Hypocrisy
If a racism survey were held in Western countries like the one on anti-Semitism, Israel would be near the top of the list
Opinion The Legacy of Ethnic Cleansing
The expulsion of Africans is part of a racist and violent Israeli worldview regarding anyone who is not part of the ‘Jewish Volk’
Opinion From Pre-state Israel to Myanmar: What Ethnic Cleansing?
Israel denies the tragedy in Myanmar because it is incapable of acknowledging ethnic cleansing that recalls its own actions from 1948
Opinion Israel's Labor Leader Is the True Face of the Right
The moment Avi Gabbay declared that his party will effectively boycott 20 percent of Israeli's citizens, he lost the legitimacy to present himself as the Labor Party's leader
Opinion The New National Zionism
Israeli Justice Minister Shaked’s worldview recalls the racist xenophobia of the southern U.S. states during the 1930s and onward
For the Nakba, There's No Need of an 'Expulsion Policy'
In contrast to what Benny Morris claimed, Adel Manna's 'Nakba and Survival' is an inspiring book, noteworthy for its methodical approach in presenting a credible, multifaceted history of the Palestinian tragedy of 1948
Opinion The Israeli Lawmaker Heralding Genocide Against Palestinians
Deputy Speaker Bezalel Smotrich's admiration for the biblical genocidaire Joshua bin Nun leads him to adopt values that resemble those of the German SS
Opinion Needed in Israel: An Arab-Jewish Front to Combat Annexation
Without cooperation between Meretz, a virtually all-Jewish party, and Joint List, which is virtually all Arab, a solution to end the occupation and block annexation will be impossible to promote effectively
Opinion Yes, Benny Morris, Israel Did Perpetrate Ethnic Cleansing in 1948
The Israeli historian is right about one thing: The understandings that the Arabs should be expelled in 1948 were not carried out in full.
Opinion Netanyahu, This Is What Ethnic Cleansing Really Looks Like
Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that the removal of settlers from the West Bank would be ‘ethnic cleansing’ is utter nonsense. If he wants to know what ethnic cleansing, he has to revisit 1948, not 2005.
What Poland's New Holocaust Bill Gets Right - and What It Gets Very Wrong
The bill, which prohibits speaking of Nazi death camps in Poland as 'Polish,' isn't Holocaust denial, but it is marking Poland as a country denying its past. With that, it joins a shameful club of nations, of which Israel is no stranger.
The Banality of Evil Revisited: To Each Society Its Own Evils
In contrast to what Eva Illouz argues, the banality of evil theory does not excuse criminals from taking responsibility for their acts. In the Israeli case, there's no need to seek a 'family resemblance' to other dark regimes; rather, what's required is to confront our specific past.
A Story of a Bicycle, the Israeli Army and the Wehrmacht
Fortunately in Israel there is no legitimacy for unbridled violence against those who have lost their status as human beings. But this could change.
The Rights and Wrongs of Comparing Israel to Nazi Germany
Can my colleague Gadi Taub state with certainty that Israel doesn’t provide the conditions that could lead to an attempt at ethnic cleansing?
Yad Vashem Is Derelict in Its Duty to Free the Shoah From Its Jewish Ghetto
The Holocaust is a large component of Jewish Israelis’ national identity. It serves the right’s proto-fascist, racist, victim-centered discourse, meant to whitewash the ongoing crime against the Palestinians and to put the Christian world in a position of eternal apology.
The Holocaust: It Wasn't Just About Jews
The tragedy of the millions of non-Jewish victims of the Nazis deserves to be remembered and recognized, as the authors of a new book point out. Yet while their initiative is praiseworthy, it falls short of the mark.
A Colonialist Project of Dispossession in the Occupied Territories
Israelis’ hardened hearts don’t let them understand that Palestinians are responding to the despair and purposelessness that characterizes their lives.
Hitler Sought to Annihilate Jews to Prevent Ecological Disaster, Book Contends
Timothy Snyder describes Hitler as a leader who wanted to foment an ecological revolution in a global landscape with no place in it for the Jews.
Refugee Crisis Shows Israel Is a Fitting Ally for Hungary and Slovakia
Netanyahu and Haaretz’s Benny Ziffer would have felt right at home at the 1938 Evian Conference, an exercise in extraordinary cynicism toward European Jewish refugees.
The 'Nation-state' Bill: Jews Should Know Exactly Where It Leads
One need not be a historian to see the resemblance between the controversial bill and nationality laws of in 1930s Europe.
If I Were an American Jew, I’d Worry About Israel’s Racist Cancer
Amid the awareness that Israel is sliding toward an apartheid regime, the silence of Jews worldwide is deafening.
Heading Toward an Israeli Apartheid State
Israeli racism, whose natural 'hothouse' is the colonialist project in the territories, has long since spilled over into Israeli society and has been legitimized in the series of laws recently passed in the Knesset.