Accusation: Israel is pursuing a policy of genocide towards the Palestinians

As the Durban II conference approaches, more and more accusations are being thrown into Israel's face. Let's look at yet another to read the reality and the facts.

Accusation: Israel is pursuing a policy of genocide towards the Palestinians that is comparable to the Nazi's treatment of the Jews

The Reality:

The Nazi Holocaust perpetrated against more than 6 million Jews in an effort to exterminate that ethno-religious group from the face of the earth is one of the most horrendous acts of evil ever committed by man. A people who has been the victim of the worse atrocities imaginable to man, cannot bear to see human suffering comparable to it, much less commit those acts on its own. To compare Israel's defensive actions to genocide and the Holocaust is not only a form New Antisemitism devised in order to delegitimize Israel but also a propagandistic strategy used by its enemies to paint its actions in the worse light possible.

The Facts:

The Nazi Holocaust perpetrated against more than 6 million Jews in an effort to exterminate that ethno-religious group from the face of the earth is one of the most horrendous acts of evil ever committed by man. National socialist Germany followed a doctrine of racial superiority which not only placed Jews at the very bottom of the classification of the races but also claimed that Jews had been the reason for Germany's defeat in Word War I, having become a parasite feeding of the "fatherland" in order to fulfill their aim of world domination. For these reasons, Jews had to be exterminated.

The world eventually saw this doctrine materialize in the most effective and industrialized systems for human extermination ever devised. Labor camps ensured that the individual lost all physical and personal traits that identified him/her as person. Their belongings confiscated and recycled for other uses. Their bank accounts used as a war chest and some of their bodies used for human medical experimentation. These people who had been made to become numbers were eventually lead into industrialized death camps in which they were gassed and incinerated in order to eliminate all evidence of this preposterous crime.

When what remained of the Jewish people were eventually freed by the allies, they sought to return to the land of their forefathers so that they could protect themselves and not have to rely on anyone else's "charity" in order to preserve their cultural and physical integrity. Yet, the Holocaust is commemorated as a national day of remembrance in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world. This serves as a yearly reminder of that sad chapter of human history so that future generations will remember what men were capable off once and avoid it at all cost.

Regrettably, this goal hasn't been achieved and even in the XXI Century the world still witnesses catastrophes such as the Genocide in Darfur. In this sense, Israel has provided sanctuary to all those who have requested it in light of massacres not unlike the one suffered by the Jewish people. As such, a people who has been the victim of the worse atrocities imaginable to man, cannot bear to see human suffering comparable to it, much less commit those acts on its own.

Israel aims to always be at peace with its neighbors and with all of the peoples of the world; however political and territorial issues have impeded this objective from becoming a reality. Since its founding Israel has been constantly threatened by outside powers and terrorist organizations -such as Hamas and Hezbollah- who have gone as far as stating that their goal is to wipe Israel of the map.

In recent years these organizations have constantly threatened the lives of Israeli civilians by randomly shooting rockets from both Gaza and South Lebanon into Israeli residential and civilian centers. The situation in both cases became unbearable for Israel's population. Hundreds of dead and wounded, children suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder playing in rocket proof playgrounds and millions in material losses. Israel was forced to defend itself and act in the manner that has already been described with regards to civilians trapped in the middle of the conflict.

To compare Israel's defensive actions to genocide and the Holocaust is not only a form New Antisemitism devised in order to delegitimize Israel but also a propagandistic strategy used by its enemies to paint its actions in the worse light possible. As far as numbers go, if Israel was attempting to exterminate or even expel Palestinians, as it's been claimed, their numbers would not have grown as they have under Israeli control. To the contrary, under Israeli control, Palestinians have enjoyed rights unparalleled in any Islamic country in the Middle East, as has been already explained.