Sue Fea, Queenstown Mirror

SURVIVOR SPEAKS ABOUT HOLOCAUST

BY SUE FEA

QUEENSTOWN MIRROR, AUGUST 6, 2014

As a Jewish child he survived the Holocaust and now Lithuanian born Daniel Gold carries a tale of terror around the world, teaching the younger generation about the devastating consequences of racism.

Mr Gold in his late 70s will speak at a public meeting at St Margaret’s Presbyterian Church in Frankton tomorrow night at 7.30pm for a gold coin donation. He’ll also speak to students at Wakatipu High School on Friday.

Queenstown “Friends of Israel” coordinator Conny Vangronsvelt said, Mr Gold was hidden by his parents in 1943 during World War II when “actions” were carried out in the ghettos around Lithuania.

“All the old and weak people and children, were rounded up and sent to their deaths,” she said. “Parents tired to hide their children, but only a few remained undetected. Daniel and a few of his cousins were among them.”

She said the present unrest in Europe and on the Gaza Strip shows that the world has not learned the lesson about ethnic intolerance yet.

“Anti-Semitism is on the rise – it’s not extinct,” Mrs Vangronsvelt, a non-Jewish German who has lived in Israel said.

“There are daily demonstrations going on in Germany carrying terrible slogans like, “Hitler didn’t finish the job.””

“We have Israeli and Jewish friends who own shops in Israel, and whenever there’s a demonstration the police tell them to cover their windows,” she said.

Mr Gold’s tour, which takes in schools and universities in Auckland, Wellington Christchurch and Queenstown, is being organised by the Zionist Federation of New Zealand and New Zealand Friends of Israel. It’s his first visit to New Zealand and if time allows he may also speak at Cromwell College, Mrs Vangronsvelt said.

A professor of medical microbiology, Mr Gold who lives in Israel, retired eight years ago, but continues to teach medical students voluntarily.

One of the few remaining survivors of the Holocaust, Mrs Vangronsvelt said his mission was to teach history students and young people around the world about the Holocaust, bringing history books alive with his powerful firsthand account.

“He’s very passionate about communicating to the next generation about racism and prejudice.”

While in the Wakatipu he will officially open the travelling “Shadows of Shoah” Holocaust exhibition at Lakes District Museum on August 8.

• Anyone interested in attending the invitation only opening should contact the museum on 442 1824.

Sammy Eppel, activist and director of The Commission for Human Rights at B’nai B’rith Venezuela, said on Monday that anti-Semitism in Latin America has significantly increased in recent years.

“The problem is that there is big damage that has been done in the last 12, 10  years,” he said. “I was born in Venezuela and I lived there all my life and I never felt anti-Semitism from anybody… we were never discriminated and all of a sudden in 2004, it explodes.”

Eppel made his comments as a panelist at a special conference held at the United Nations in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In 2006, he said, the Venezuelan Jewish community had to open an office and hire five professionals to monitor anti-Semitism in government and government-sponsored media.

In April 2011, while former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was in Cuba undergoing treatment for various health problems, a correspondent for Venezuela’s national radio, Radio Nacional de Venezuela, did a series of programs promoting the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The book, which is the second most printed publication in the Arab world after the Koran, describes a popular anti-Semitic notion that the Jewish people are planning global domination. The book is also available at book fairs in Venezuela promoted by the government, Eppel added.

“I’d never heard of the Protocols before 15 years ago. You couldn’t find it in Latin America before. Now, you see it all over the place,” he said. “It’s official literature for [Arab] schools, for their people…When they come to Latin America, they bring it with them.”

Eppel explained that while Venezuelan President Maduro, elected in 2013, pledged that he will not allow anti-Semitic behavior in his country, the damage has already been done in many areas. Hatred toward Jews has even seeped into Venezuela’s government.

“Why would a politician be demonized or be deemed not fit for public office for the fact of being Jewish? That’s anti-Semitism. That’s discrimination,” said Eppel, who is also a political analyst and journalist. “In Venezuela it happened that a Catholic, a practicing Catholic, he happened to have two Jewish grandparents, and because of that he was disqualified. I mean that’s very nasty stuff.”

The discrimination is prevalent across Latin America. Eppel pointed out that less than a month ago, on Good Friday, Madrid’s ABC ran an op-ed claiming that during Holy Week, Jews would kill Christian children, and extract their blood to make matzahs for Passover. Eppel expressed frustration over the limited response it received.

“You would think that the entire country of Spain would’ve risen to condemn this. Nobody did,” he said.

Eppel also stressed that “one of the big disturbances” in Latin America is Iran’s activism in the region as it works to spread its radical and anti-Semitic ideology.

The Islamic Republic operates a television station in Spanish that “spews venom” about Jews, according to Eppel. They are also taking over Arab and Christian institutions in Latin America and converting them into anti-Semitic establishments, he said.

“There seems to be a marriage between the extreme right, represented  by the Iranians and their Fascist type… of government, and the extreme left,” he said about Iran’s relations in Latin America. “They got together and said ‘well, the only thing that we all agree is that we have to bash Israel, we have to bash Zionism and we have to bash the Jews.’ ”

In Latin America, many terrorist groups are seen as ‘resistance movements’ and their members are identified as ‘freedom fighters,’ and are therefore recipients of aid.

The Latin American Parliament has adopted a comprehensive declaration against anti-Semitism, and Eppel hopes it becomes law one day. He called for government action in the form of legislation, to ensure that discrimination against Jews does not continue to expand in the region.

“I believe that the only answer to this situation is education and legislation,” he said. “After you enact the legislation, you have to train the police, you have to train the district attorneys, the judges to actually recognize that crime and how to prosecute it and how to go about it. That’s why legislation is important.”

“If we don’t have those two things – education and legislation – we are not going to succeed, at least in Latin America.”

Source:  Algemeiner:  May 1, 2014

CROWLEY: Joining me now is Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr. Prime Minister, as always, we thank you for being here.

I want to start with the fact that Israel is involved in its annual commemoration this day of the Holocaust. And in advance of that, Palestinian President Abbas issued a statement calling the Holocaust — and I quote here — “the most heinous crime in the modern era.” He expressed sympathies for the victims of the Holocaust.

What do you make of that?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Well, I try to reconcile that with the fact that he embraced just a few days ago the Hamas terrorist organization that denies the Holocaust and openly calls for a new extermination of the six million Jews in Israel.

So, President Abbas can’t have it both ways. He can’t say the Holocaust was terrible, but at the same time embrace those who deny the Holocaust and seek to perpetrate another destruction of the Jewish people.

I think probably what he’s trying to do is damage control. I think what President Abbas is trying to do is to placate Western public opinion that understands that he delivered a terrible blow to the peace process by embracing these Hamas terrorists. And I think he’s trying to wiggle his way out of it.

CROWLEY: He is also quoted in today’s “Jerusalem Post” as talking about this new unity government with Hamas, and saying: “The government reports to me and follows my policies. I recognize Israeli, and so will the government. I renounce violence and terrorism, and I recognize international legitimacy, and so will the government.”

So, essentially, he’s saying: This is still going to be my government. It still is going to follow what I have observed and what I have said.

What do you make of that, and do you believe him? And, if you do, is it enough to bring you back to the table?

NETANYAHU: Look, I will not, as the prime minister of Israel, negotiate with a government that is backed by the Hamas terror organization committed to our destruction.

Neither would you. You designate Hamas, the U.S., as a terrorist organization. It sends thousands of rockets into Israel. It sends scores of suicide bombers. It praised the murder of a father of five the other week on the way to a Passover dinner, praised it. They praised bin Laden when he was alive as a holy warrior and condemned the United States when you killed bin Laden.

This is one of the most preeminent terrorist organizations of our time. And, obviously, the U.S. abhors it, as we do. And nobody expects us to negotiate with a government that is backed by it.

Now, the statement that, well, I will put forward, even though I’m — I’m in national unity with Hamas, I’m putting forward in the front office more respectable people, we know that gambit. It’s the back office/front office gambit. In the back office, the mafia sits. In the front office, you have respectable lawyers.

We’re not going to buy that trick. We will not negotiate with a government backed by Hamas, unless Hamas had changed its position or unless Hamas said, oh, I’m willing to recognize Israel.

But Hamas, including after this pact with Abbas, is saying the very opposite. It’s saying, Israel is going to be destroyed; we will continue the terror campaign against Israel.

This is the partner that President Abbas has now joined. And I call on President Abbas, tear up your pact with Hamas. Recognize the Jewish state. Come back to a real peace process.

CROWLEY: One of the criticisms, Mr. Prime Minister, has been that, prior to this, when you were dealing with Abbas, you had said, look, I don’t know who I’m supposed to negotiate with. There’s Hamas and then there’s Abbas and Fatah.

So, now there’s a unity government, and you still don’t want to talk to them. So, there’s criticism here that this was an excuse for you to walk away.

NETANYAHU: Sorry, Candy. Whoa.

CROWLEY: Go ahead.

NETANYAHU: No, Candy. No, no. I’m sorry.

I heard that. I hear people write that up, but, in fact, it’s the very opposite. I said right from the start, I said, look, I could wait until President Abbas recognizes — represents the entire Palestinian people. But, in this case, we will wait until eternity, and we won’t have peace.

So, I chose deliberately, openly, specifically, and explicitly to negotiate with that part of the Palestinian people that said it was willing to make peace with Israel. I said, we’re not going to try to include the other part that seeks our extermination. And that’s what I did.

I have been very consistent on this. Now that he’s joined them, I say this. Look, unity for peace is good. Unity with Hamas that seeks to exterminate Israel, the opposite of peace, is bad. I have always been consistent on this.

I negotiate with those who are willing to make peace with my country. I will not negotiate with those who seek to exterminate peace with my country, whether they sit in the front office or the back office. That’s not where I’m going to go. CROWLEY: So, as I understand you, what you’re saying is: First, for me to come back to the table in any way, shape or form, Hamas or a representative — a top representative of Hamas would have to renounce violence and recognize Israel, or Abbas will have to not have a unity government.

Is that how I read you?

NETANYAHU: I think that’s a fair — that’s a fair summation.

Either Hamas disavows the destruction of Israel and embraces peace and denounces terror, or President Abbas renounces Hamas. If one of those things happens, then we can get back to the peace negotiations. I hope that he renounces Hamas. I hope that he gets back to the peace table, as I have just said.

CROWLEY: Do you need the United States…

NETANYAHU: The ball is in his court. It’s his decision.

CROWLEY: Do you need the United States to broker an ultimate deal?

NETANYAHU: I think the United States has been indispensable in all the peace negotiations that we have had up to now.

It doesn’t obviate the need for genuine, direct contact between the parties, but it can help a lot and I appreciate Secretary Kerry’s unbelievable efforts. They don’t always succeed. And, unfortunately, President Abbas made sure of that by embracing Hamas.

But I have to credit John Kerry for his efforts. I still hope that we will find a way to peace. You know, if we can’t get it through a negotiated agreement because of the composition of the Palestinian government, then we will seek other ways.

I’m not going to — I’m not going to accept a stalemate. I won’t accept a Palestinian state that is another Iranian offshoot of Iran firing missiles into our cities. This is what has happened with Hamas and Gaza. But I do seek a two-state-for-two-peoples solution. If I can’t have it right away with a Palestinian — this Palestinian government, then we will seek other ways.

I’m — I called on my cabinet ministers today, and I said, we’re going to take time out now for reassessment and try and figure out alternative paths to peace. But the simplest way to get back to the peace process is have President Abbas renounce the pact with Hamas and come back to negotiations.

CROWLEY: Mr. Prime Minister, finally, in September of 2012, you told me that you thought Iran was probably six to nine months away from being able to have full nuclear weapon capability. Where is it now?

NETANYAHU: I didn’t say weapon capability. I said nuclear- enriched material. CROWLEY: Nuclear-enriched, yes, sir.

NETANYAHU: That is fissile material for a bomb.

They’re about two months away. And they’d like — they’d like to be — to stay two months away. They have been under terrific sanctions pressure. There was an interim deal. Now they’re seeking a deal that would keep them more or less where they are. In other words, they will be a few months away — or they might be set back a few months from producing enough nuclear material for a bomb.

And, in exchange, they will have all the sanctions removed. That’s a terrible deal. It would keep Iran as a threshold nation that is capable of crossing the nuclear threshold at the time of their choosing within weeks or months. That would endanger the entire world. It would endanger you.

They’re developing intercontinental ballistic missiles to put nuclear bombs on those missiles for you. Don’t let it happen.

CROWLEY: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, thank you for your time this morning.

Source: CNN