A top German cleric criticized German bishops for comparing Palestinians to Jewish victims of the Nazis. It was inappropriate to “connect contemporary problems or situations of injustice in any way with the National Socialists’ genocide of the Jews,” Cardinal Karl Lehmann wrote in a letter to Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev. The cardinal was referring to a group of German bishops who visited Israel, the West Bank and Gaza this week. After visiting Yad Vashem, German Bishop Gregor Maria Franz Hanke said, “This morning we saw pictures of the Warsaw ghetto at Yad Vashem, and this evening we are going to the Ramallah ghetto.” That remark and similar ones from the group sparked strong censure from the Holocaust museum, German Jewish groups and international Jewish groups. The Bishops Conference has not apologized.
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