NYT, Nov. 28, 2020
Israel’s Pick to Head Holocaust Memorial Stirs International Uproar
By Isabel Kershner
JERUSALEM — For years, his name was synonymous with intolerance and
right-wing extremism.
So when Israel’s conservative-led government nominated Effie Eitam to be
chairman of Yad Vashem, the country’s official Holocaust memorial and
one its most hallowed institutions, it prompted an uproar.
Mr. Eitam, a 68-year-old retired brigadier general and former minister,
has spent the last decade in the private sector. But his provocative
statements from the early 2000s advocating the mass expulsion of
Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and barring Israel’s Arab
citizens from politics linger on the public record.
The appointment could have “devastating consequences,” said Israel
Bartal, a professor of modern Jewish history at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, who said he would be forced to cut all contacts with Yad
Vashem’s research institute after years of cooperation. “An institute
headed by a person with such extreme opinions and controversial human
values will never be taken seriously within the global academic
community,” Mr. Bartal said.
Holocaust survivors, Jewish organizations and an international array of
historians have denounced the appointing of such a contentious figure to
head Yad Vashem. They say that in addition to recognizing the Nazi
genocide of six million Jews as a unique event, the institution is also
responsible for upholding universal moral values and educating people
about anti-Semitism and racism.
“This is more than a colossal mistake — it’s a tragedy,” said Deborah E.
Lipstadt, a professor of modern Jewish history and Holocaust studies at
Emory University in Atlanta who has written several books on the
subject. “Appointing Eitam to this position would be a blot on Yad
Vashem’s reputation and Yad Vashem’s record.”
Mr. Eitam and Yad Vashem declined to comment on the appointment.
But Mr. Eitam’s defenders say he is the victim of a kneejerk left-wing
campaign purely because he is right-wing and religious. They view him as
a war hero and an experienced manager who could steer Yad Vashem out of
a severe financial crisis that has been compounded by government budget
cuts and a drop-off in donations because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The upshot is that Yad Vashem, an almost sacred institution that world
leaders are expected to visit while in Jerusalem, has gotten caught up
in the political and culture wars of a polarized country where the
dominant right-wing battles the liberal left and is increasingly at odds
with the more liberal streams among world Jewry.
Worse, experts say, it comes at a time when anti-Semitism is resurgent
and far-right forces in other parts of the world are promoting Holocaust
denial.
“You don’t play politics with the Shoah, and this is playing politics
with the Shoah,” Professor Lipstadt said, using the Hebrew term for the
Holocaust.
She is one of 750 historians, Jewish studies experts and cultural
figures who signed a petition protesting the appointment, which was
submitted to Yad Vashem’s board of trustees and Israel’s Parliament this
month.
Zeev Elkin, the minister with responsibility for Yad Vashem from Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party, chose Mr. Eitam
with Mr. Netanyahu’s full support.
Still, government approval may not be imminent. Because of coalition
infighting, all senior appointments are frozen, and Benny Gantz, who
leads the centrist Blue and White party in Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition, is
likely to block Mr. Eitam’s advancement by denying him a majority if it
comes to a cabinet vote.
But Mr. Elkin and Mr. Netanyahu insist that he is still their sole
candidate.
Mr. Eitam, a resident of a settlement in the Israeli-annexed Golan
Heights, grew up as a secular Jew and became observant after the 1973
Middle East war.
He was decorated for his role in one of the war’s most desperate battles
and later took part in a raid to free mainly Israeli hostages in
Entebbe, Uganda. Mr. Netanyahu’s older brother, Yonatan, a legendary
figure in Israel, was killed while leading the raid.
But Mr. Eitam once compared Israel’s Arab citizens to a cancer and a
“ticking bomb” and said Israel would ultimately have to expel most
Palestinians from the West Bank.
During the first Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s, when he was a
brigade commander, some of his soldiers were prosecuted for beating a
Palestinian man to death. The soldiers said they had beat him on the
commander’s orders.
Ultimately, Mr. Eitam received a severe reprimand, and his promotion to
the rank of brigadier general was long stalled. Yet his military career
spanned nearly three decades.
Mr. Elkin, the minister responsible for Yad Vashem, denounced what he
called an “ugly” and “hypocritical” campaign spearheaded by political
forces who never objected to appointments from the left wing of the
political spectrum.
“True, he made a few unsuccessful remarks,” Mr. Elkin said of Mr. Eitam
in a telephone interview, “but that was 15 or 20 years ago.” Mr. Elkin
also said that some of those statements had been taken out of context.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group.
View/Reply Online (#3997): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/3997
Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/78579489/21656
-=-=-
POSTING RULES & NOTES
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
-=-=-
Group Owner: [email protected]
Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy
[[email protected]]
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
