A nation of willing executioners?

BACK in September 2006, in my column in the New Straits Times, I wrote on the book Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen.

It was a disturbing read. His contention was that those responsible for the extermination of Jews were not just Nazi party members or SS men but “ordinary Germans of all walks of life, men (and women) who brutalised and murdered Jews both willingly and zealously”.

Blaming the entire German populace as complicit to one of the worst atrocities ever inflicted upon any particular race is, to say the least, shocking.

Goldhagen’s book fuelled a massive debate both in Germany and the United States. Historians were divided. Some hailed it as a monumental work, others lambasted it as nothing more than an attention grabber. One prominent Holocaust scholar found the contention “totally wrong”.

If Goldhagen’s argument is accepted, the entire Japanese race was complicit in Japan’s wicked foray into World War II.

In this vein, all Serbian people are accountable for atrocities during the Balkan civil wars. And the list goes on from South Africa, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Rwanda, you name it.

Can Goldhagen’s premise be applied to what is happening in Palestine now?

For the last 73 years since the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, the people of Palestine have suffered immensely. The narrative is all too clear for the world to see.

The rights of the Palestinian people have been trampled upon mercilessly over the last seven decades.

It is perhaps a reasonable question to ask: what is the difference between the Jews in Nazi Germany and the Palestinians in the occupied lands today?

The Jews suffered during Hitler’s Nazi Germany where misguided and convoluted nationalism engulfed the nation. If they care to learn about their own history they should understand how, for thousand of years, they were in the wilderness seeking the Promised Land.

But since 1948 the trials and tribulations of the Israelis have largely been forgotten. They have committed the same crimes committed by others on to them.

They should have seen the parallel in how they were treated in Nazi Germany and how they are treating the Palestinians today.

Hitler had his nefarious plan to wipe out the Jews through his Final Solution. Looking at the atrocities inflicted upon the Palestinians, one can’t help but wonder what the Zionist state has in mind.

It makes good copy to argue about Israel’s right to survive and to defend itself. The argument is sold to the US in particular, but in the United Nations with much trepidation.

From that perspective, the Palestinians are to be blamed. The truth is, they did not take away Jewish lands, but they are harassed and humiliated and deprived of their right even to pray peacefully.

Like a scene from the worst Hollywood movie, they are portrayed as the troublesome ones, potentially dangerous and ever-ready to cause mayhem to the people of Israel.

In the West, especially the US, the sufferings of Palestinians are largely ignored. The US has been championing human rights as if it’s their moral compass in policing the world.

But every American president, Democrat or Republican, have one thing in common: No one ever stood up against Tel Aviv. The Jewish lobby is simply too powerful.

The US has been the sole voice in the United Nations vetoing or blocking any resolution to condemn Israeli’s inhuman treatments towards the Palestinians.

The world is changing. The US policy on Israel demands a paradigm shift. Zionism is like apartheid, even with the mightiest of might, it can’t stand the trials of time. Israel can’t be a pariah state like what South Africa was before.

The Israeli army’s atrocities were once seen on the news with delayed timings. Not anymore. People are watching killings and destruction of infrastructure thanks to social media and 24-hour reporting.

They are watching humanity under siege. It is about a powerful army attacking the defenceless. The powerless and helpless are being massacred real time.

When nine senior members of Malaysia’s media fraternity came out with a statement recently, they urged their Israeli counterparts to act as the conscience of the nation.

They condemned the attacks on offices of media organisations in Gaza. It is unthinkable that in this era, an army could target offices of media practitioners.

Goldhagen was arguing about shifting the entire burden of guilt of Nazi Germany to the entire German people. Come to think, I wonder if the same applies to what is happening in Gaza now.

Johan Jaaffar is a journalist and for some years chairman of a media company, and is passionate about all things literature and the arts. And a diehard rugby fan. The views expressed here are entirely his own.