Jewish leaders in Germany were enraged by German Catholic bishops comparing conditions of Palestinians to those of Jews under the Nazis. The Catholic leaders made the statements after visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. The remarks were “appalling and completely unacceptable,” said Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, in a statement Tuesday.
“If Bishop Gregor Hanke compares – and thus equates – the Warsaw Ghetto and the fate of the Jews interned there during the Holocaust with the situation of the Palestinians in Ramallah, then this
reveals either alarming deficits in his knowledge of history, or he is trying to turn the Jewish victims of the Holocaust and their children today into perpetrators, and to play the role of therapist himself,” Knobloch said.
“Not only does it misrepresent the facts of the conflict in the Middle East and Israel’s security situation to impute racist motives
a la Nazi Germany to the State of Israel and its government, but it also promotes cliches that are borderline anti-Semitic.”
According to the German Press Agency, the Bishops Conference has rejected the criticism.
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