Last Thursday I joined the holocaust memorial in Haifa at ‘Yad Ezer l’Chaver’ a non-profit organization, that takes care of 100 needy, holocaust survivors.

This is the first time in my life that I participated in such a hurtful event with three other Palestinians from the capital of the West Bank, Ramallah.

We decided to go there and show our support to the holocaust survivors.

Our message was that without recognizing the suffering of the other person, others will not be able to recognize your suffering.

Obviously I am not comparing the two issues, but to show recognition of the suffering is very important.

There were approximately 200 people attending the ceremony. When the organizers of the event declared that there are Palestinians from the West Bank to support them, everyone was shocked. T

The 200 people began staring at us. I was honored to have the opportunity to take the microphone and to say some words to the audience.

I told them about my own aims and goals in participating in this event – on the other hand I told them that there are people around the world who probably deny the holocaust but the same people who are denying the holocaust could not deny your heroism.

I told them that you shouldn’t have to cry about what has happened to you because you are the heroes and the one that must cry is the international community who kept silent during this massacre against humanity.

I understand your anger and disputes with your government, for not doing enough to meet your needs and demands, but you must be proud with your government and state.

You must remember that your country is still feeding 1,800,000 Palestinians in the Gaza strip. The State of Israel is supplying food, medicines and fuel, while 22 Arab leaders who do nothing are standing on the rooves of their houses watching the Israeli trucks bring supplies to Gaza.

You are still feeding us the Palestinians and thanks to you, we are surviving.

For these reasons you should be proud for your government and your country.

You must look at yourself as state builders not as state destroyers like the Palestinians.

On the other hand, I told them something from the Koran that shocked most people there. In the Koran we have a sentence:

G-D says “we preferred the face of Israel than all other nations.”

If G-D sees you as the preferred nation, you must know how lucky you are.

I concluded with this statement and I saw tears in many peoples’ eyes.

People clapped, even though such an event it is not customary.

People came to me, hugged me and cried.

They said that the most emotional part of this ceremony was my words to them.

It was a very emotional day for me as well.

*The writer is a ​Palestinian ​human rights activist and a p​o​litical Analyst.

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