Amongst academics at the Hebrew and Tel Aviv Universities, I found another version of denial, namely that Palestinians bore the blame for their own expulsion. Had they accepted the UN 1947 Partition Plan which divided Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, I was told, war and hence the Palestinian exodus would have been averted. Without doubt, however, the most effective type of Nakba denial has come through the special importance accorded to the Holocaust. This has become increasingly central in Western and especially American life, as evidenced by the myriad of US Holocaust memorials and museums. Last month, the French premier pledged to support the publication and circulation of a Holocaust textbook for all French schools and the creation of an institution devoted to Holocaust teaching.
Holocaust denial is a criminal offence in several European countries.
The campaign for Holocaust victim compensation and restitution constantly gains momentum. The point here is not to comment on this phenomenon in Western society, already cogently done by such writers as Peter Novick and Norman Finkelstone, but to show how effectively such considerations have drowned other claims. There is a dominant view that to compare Palestinian suffering with Jewish persecution is almost risible, for the Holocaust is regarded as unique. The needs of its victims override all others'. And yet, in the present situation, the time has passed for such psychological luxuries.