イスラエル／パレスチナ和平

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/297501.html

Jews and Arabs visit Auschwitz together

By Yair Sheleg, Haaretz Correspondent



A group of 300 Israeli Arabs and Jews toured the historic Jewish district of the southern Polish city of Krakow on Monday, opening an unprecedented visit intended to help Arabs understand the Jewish suffering in the Holocaust.

The trip will culminate Wednesday, when the group will tour and learn about the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp.

Some 150 Israeli Arab intellectuals, athletes and businessmen and as many Jews from Israel are taking part in the trip. They are joined by some 200 Jewish and Arab public figures and youth from France. This is the largest group of Arabs ever to visit the camp, Auschwitz Museum spokesman Jaroslaw Mensfelt said.

"We are here to be with the Jewish people, in all its history and all its suffering," said Father Emil Shofani, of Nazareth, who initiated the pilgrimage, at the ceremony marking the trip's opening at the Krakow Temple. "From the suffering of our people today, we unite with your suffering," he said.

Shofani's initiative to study the Holocaust followed the October 2000 events, when 13 Arab demonstrators were killed by Israeli police. The Arab participants have so far held study meetings in Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and in the Ghetto Fighters' Museum in the north as well as two weekends of lectures and talks with their Jewish colleagues.

For many Jews, the trip is important because it demonstrates a willingness on the part of the Arabs to recognize what European Jews had to endure in World War II.

The initiative has raised a controversy among Israel's Arabs. Many say it could be interpreted as an apologetic move that could weaken the Arab and Palestinian struggle.



○300人のアラブ系イスラエル人とユダヤ人のグループが歴史的なユダヤ地区である南ポーランドのクラカウを訪れた。アラブ人にユダヤのホロコースト受難を理解してもらうためのかつて前例のない最初の訪問となった。

○フランスのアラブ人も合流したというあたりに「意外」すぎる驚きも感じさせられた。あの国の反ユダヤ思想で「完全武装」しているものとばかり思っていたが…。正義面を装ったシラクら主流派の二枚舌も〝少数民族〟からはとっくに見抜かれているということかもしれない。

○Beit Hanounでの600人規模の反ハマスを訴えたデモ、イスラエルによるパレスチナ国家建設を正式に認めた形となったロードマップの受諾に次いで、見過ごされがちとはいえ上記もまた最近みられる「初モノ」「エポックメイキング」な動きのひとつだ。

○超覇権国、極右政権、過半数によるテロ組織支持、という三つ巴が、いわば持ち前の「実行力」で新機軸を拓きつつある中で、「左」からは「事実認識」への取り組みが見られるという理解をしておきたい。