The Berkeley Beacon

Issue date: 10/22/09 Section: Opinion

Five thousand miles away, there lies a conflict that runs deeper than rockets and air strikes. Accusations continue to fly from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the United Nation's recent publishing of the Goldstone Report raises questions about the accountability and tactics of both sides during the most recent war in Gaza.

But unbeknownst to many, in early September, the United Nations dropped plans to teach Gazan students about the Holocaust.

The decision came after Palestinians protested the U.N.'s plans to introduce the Holocaust into its curriculum in U.N. schools.

Students at Emerson are probably fairly divided on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On the issue of Holocaust education, however, we should all agree, regardless of which side you take. Any human rights advocate should oppose the U.N.'s exclusion of the Holocaust from their curriculum, regardless of the school's location in the world.

Glossing over one of the most horrific crimes against humanity in history is simply unacceptable.

Some of us are aspiring journalists,
others will write and film documentaries and some will write textbooks. No matter what our educational and vocational
endeavors may be, it is our responsibility to uphold the integrity of history-to apply it and learn from it.

Students around the world should be taught about the Holocaust, especially in an area of the world as fragile as the Middle East.
"Some in Hamas accused the U.N. [Relief and Works Agency] of trying to generate sympathy for Israel and conspiring against Palestinians," reporter Karin Laub explained in a Sept. 8 Associated Press report. "Jewish activists demanded to know why the subject of the genocide wasn't part of the human rights syllabus in the first place."

According to Laub, the U.N. agency runs 221 out of more than 600 schools in Gaza. U.N. officials, she wrote, denied removing the Holocaust from the syllabus because of protests and public pressure from the Palestinians.

But evidence points to the contrary: According to JTA.org, a Jewish and Israeli news site, Hamas religious leader Younis al-Astal wrote in an open letter to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency that teaching Palestinian children about the Holocaust is a "war crime."

Al-Astal said in the letter that the Holocaust was "a lie invented by the Zionists," and Hamas would refuse to allow Palestinian children to learn about it.
Calling human rights education a war crime should make anyone's head spin.

Education is the key to breaking down the gates of ignorance. If we are taught to see different global perspectives, it is easier to tolerate and accept others.

Once we tolerate and accept, we become better at building a dialogue and working
toward peaceful relations.

A primary objective of our Emerson education is to be engaged in multiple perspectives so we can become aware and responsible citizens. The capacity to see different points of view is the direct result of our learning and upbringing.
Hamas is limiting the scope of tolerance in Gaza.

As we have learned in history class from the Nazis and others, intolerance has dangerous and sometimes widely lethal effects. We have to continue educating ourselves. Education feeds an open mind.
The spread of inaccuracies has the potential to perpetuate intolerance
in the Middle East.

Misconceptions will only leave you seeing through a veil of ignorance.

Brandon Fox is a sophomore print and multimedia journalism major and a contributor to The Beacon. Fox is a Fellow for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools