‘Liberate all ghettos’: Free Gaza, Palestine action in Warsaw
From Poland to Palestine: support for the Gaza Ghetto in the old Warsaw Ghetto …
From Polish Palestinian solidarity site Kampania-Palestyna:
Yesterday, Israeli and Polish activists met in the ruins of Warsaw’s old Jewish Ghetto.
The activists sprayed ‘Liberate All Ghettos’ in Hebrew, followed by ‘Free Gaza and Palestine’ in English on a wall of an original block in the ghetto. The block is across the street from the last fragment of the remaining perimeter wall of the Ghetto. They also hung Palestinian flags from the wall.
This was first time such an action took place in the ghetto.
Yonatan Shapira, former Israeli Air Force captain and now refusenik and BDS activist, said:
‘Most of my family came from Poland and many of my relatives were killed in the death camps during the Holocaust. When I walk in what was left from the Warsaw Ghetto I can’t stop thinking about the people of Gaza who are not only locked in an open air prison but are also being bombarded by fighter jets, attack helicopters and drones, flown by people whom I used to serve with before my refusal in 2003.
I am also thinking about the delegations of young Israelis that are coming to see the history of our people but also are subjected to militaristic and nationalistic brainwashing on a daily basis. Maybe if they see what we wrote here today they will remember that oppression is oppression, occupation is occupation, and crimes against humanity are crimes against humanity, whether they have been committed here in Warsaw or in Gaza’.
Read the rest at their site and check out more of the photos.
Respect for these decent people.
I feel the wind of a historic change blowing and the names of these people who stood and were counted shall be honoured.
I’m a Jewish feminist who is against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. However, I think that using part of the remains of the Warsaw ghetto for this type of political action is in extremely poor taste.
I trust the judgment of the people involved, and think it was entirely and especially appropriate. The parallels are in fact compelling.
Why do you think that it is in poor taste?
Hey Marion,
The siege on Gaza is in poor taste (to say the least). Live comparison of historic events with current ones is an eye-popping history lesson, we choose to repeatedly ignore because it’s “in poor taste”. Ask yourself which of your holy cows was slaughtered by this action and whether it was so holy in the first place.
By the way, I’m from a Jewish home, a feminist who is against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Does that make much of a difference to my argument?
“oppression is oppression, occupation is occupation, and crimes against humanity are crimes against humanity, whether they have been committed here in Warsaw or in Gaza”. This is some beautiful stuff. Thank you for sharing this historic event with us.