Swedish city cancels Holocaust event

A northern Swedish city has decided to cancel a planned Holocaust Memorial Day torchlight procession due to the recent IDF offensive in Gaza, it was reported Tuesday.

The official reason given for the decision, made by the municipal board and local church in Lulea, was safety concerns, but Bo Nordin, a clergyman and spokesman for the church, cited the war in Gaza. "It feels uneasy to have a torchlight procession to remember the victims of the Holocaust at this time," Nordin told Swedish National Radio. "We have been preoccupied and grief-stricken by the war in Gaza and it would feel just feel odd with a large ceremony about the Holocaust."

www.jpost.com...

"We have been preoccupied and grief-stricken by the war in Gaza and it would feel just feel odd with a large ceremony about the Holocaust."

That odd feeling would be hypocrisy. I mean, why would you memorialise the horrors of the past when the descendants of the victims are conducting the same up on another people?

I know it is hard to understand the weight of this duality if you haven't been brought up in Lutheran or Islamic traditions. While many intellectually recognise the nature of hypocrisy, a truly righteous individual would find it a spiritually sapping feeling.

It is a shame Israel has soiled Judaism and the memory of the Holocaust.

[edit on 073131p://am3155 by masonwatcher]

I am pleased to hear this and can understand exactly how they feel. I hope more people around the world wake up to what the zionists are all about. It makes me angry that They have recieved all this sympathy over the holocaust whilst all the time "taking" the lives of people themselves.The zionists have infiltrated the highest positions all over the world quietly and now they think they are untouchable.

I think these proactive stances against Israel are a good sign on a world scale. Israel need to realize that they are not beyond reproach and that the people of the world are indeed likening their treatment of Palestinians to that of the holocaust.

Playing the old anti-semite card appears to have warn thin and about time!

IRM

reply to post by sueloujo


I woke up to what the Zionists are all about around 30 minutes ago.

"The commanders and soldiers that were sent on the task in Gaza should know that they are safe from any tribunal and that the State of Israel will assist them in this issue and protect them... "

That was the only thing I have seen that made me outright furious on this site. Maybe I'm just grumpy when I'm woken up suddenly...

Good on them for cancelling this event. They seem to be playing the "holocaust card" to gain sympathy in order to get away with their war crimes.

People should focus on the present and not be blinded by the past.


[edit on 30/1/09 by NuclearPaul]

The Israeli government will just keep spreading their propaganda until all this Gaza stuff goes away and everybody hates the palestinians again. They will spread rumors of new attacks etc. I think yesterday in Davos was a prime example of "we are the victims" mentality. They are too arrogant to realize that now they have alienated the most liberal arab state, Turkey.

Turkey isn't some rogue State with very little military power. BAD move Israel!

[edit on 30-1-2009 by Mynaeris]

reply to post by Mynaeris


Turkey is a Muslim country but not Arab. Further more, Turkey is a Nato state and a close US ally. They achieved honours from the Korean War for ferocity and bravery to the extent that the US and allies offered it full membership to Nato. The only infantry assaults the Chinese and Koreans retreated were from the Turks.

Turkey is a large country with a huge military equipped to Nato standards. If it is formally acknowledged that Israel tried to overthrow the Turkish government, this would be an effective declaration of war. Israel would last about 5 minutes and its nuclear weapons would be neutralised on their launchers.

Israel would be confronted by a trained and modern army, not civilians and third world conscripts. Israel can't even handle Hisbulah militia, so what hope would it have with trained soldiers?



[edit on 093131p://am3125 by masonwatcher]

reply to post by masonwatcher


good on them
would be an insult to the Jews, Gypsies and others that were murderd by the Nazis to hold something like this while Israel slaughters palestinians and destroys their lives.

very good decision

and Sweden has some hot ladies so it's all good

I've got mixed feelings about this. In my mind, Israel should not have exclusive rights to 'holocaust sympathy'. There are many jews (and their descendants) who suffered/died in the holocaust who did not go to Israel, and who may very well be against what Israel did. Heck, in fact, there are many non-jews (and their descendants) who suffered/died in the holocaust.

To stop a holocaust event and (unofficially) give reasons pointing to Israel's actions in Gaza is to provide an implicit connection between Judaism and Israel and the Holocaust, where I believe there shouldn't be one.

Originally posted by masonwatcher
It is a shame Israel has soiled Judaism and the memory of the Holocaust.

This I definitely agree with.

[edit on 30-1-2009 by babloyi]

reply to post by babloyi


The problem is that the Israeli state has taken ownership of the Holocaust together with the several billions of compensation from Germany and the return of art works and various kinds of assets for which there are no survivors. Of those that are survivors in Israel, they complain very bitterly that these moneys are withheld and only small amounts distributed by the state. There are accusations that most of this wealth is being embezzled by administrators and officials.

reply to post by neformore

People didn't agree with the war in Iraq where US, British and other countries troops fought - does that mean that rememberance day shouldn't happen?

Sweden was not involved in World War 1 and 2, it was neutral. Same thing for the Vietnam War and the Korean, therefore, it does not recognise Remembrance Day.

During the Holocaust in the 1940s Sweden was not involved nor were Jewish Swedes and was neutral yet it memorialises this tragedy.

Sweden memorialises the Holocaust because of its humane principles in the same way it recognises the suffering of the Palestinian people who are being subjected to horrors right now by people who closely associate themselves to the Holocaust. So its decision is entirely reasonable and your analogy wrong.

Political silliness.

The OFFICIAL reason given was for safety and yet one clergyman gives his spin. I see.

All of this emotional despair and concern in one Swedish city with 45,000 people. Right.

The above poster was correct, this smacks more of publicity seeking 'feel goodness' than anything else. I doubt many in that small city really are that concerned one way or the other.

reply to post by neformore


And just when I thought there was no hope left. Thank you. You said exactly what I was thinking. The six million people killed don't have anything to do with Gaza. How people fail to see past that is pathetic.

I am starting to ask myself this question: Is it a about the "Palestinian" struggle or the Israeli invasion.

Times are a changing, that's for sure.

This current wave of anti-Israel sentiment that seems to be sweeping around the world is fascinating indeed.

Looks like it is time for us to finally accept we are all one and the same and equally 'chosen' by god.

I think humanity wishes to move on. Too much energy has been stuck in the memory of the holocaust for long enough.

I doubt Israel will be able to ride the wave for much longer, if at all. Even the US media in the form of 60 minutes is turning against them.

Is this by design of TPTB or some greater force? I can't wait to see how it all unfolds.

Exciting stuff

So first the argument was "Stop using the Holocaust to excuse the conduct in Gaza"...

Now it has evolved into "Because of what's going on in Gaza we will no longer have memorials for those who were murdered in the Holocaust."

I don't know which is funnier... those who are buying into the logic that the people who were brutally killed in WW2 had anything to do with what's going on in Gaza now or the "members" here who have used this entire past week to criticize anything even slightly Jewish and then whine about other people "playing the old anti-semite card."

Oooh look at me... I can search "jew" on google and sort through my choice of weird customs they may have (right myna??) or I can search "holocaust" on google and sort through my choice of things to insult. Or better, just google "jew" and sort through all the sites saying jews are taking over the world.

We've had two Jews control on the money in the past few days, neither of which offered much other than opinion, yet both have been rather heavily starred and flagged as if someone put some effort into it.

And people will star and flag away. S & F for you!

Stop blaming the entire Jewish people for the actions in Gaza. You people all ignore Darfur and Sri Lanka... that's interesting isn't it? But with Israel, not only is it not enough to blame Israel, but you gotta blame every single person who has ever been born Jewish. Unreal.

reply to post by neformore

I see. So its willing to kiss off the deaths of up to 6 million people in a totally unrelated event to the Holocaust in WW2 because the current Israeli administration acts like a bunch of violent thugs?

Like I said previously, Sweden was not involved in WW2 nor with the Holocaust, so your hyper-sensitivity to this historical events is different to the principled concerns of Swedes. They are far more concerned about people who are in the process of being made dead than the dead of half a century ago.

This does not necessarily mean that the Swedish disregard the Holocaust, since it is a lesson for all of us, but there are more important issues at hand.

If there had really been a genuine effort to manifest the Holocaust motto, 'never again' there would have not been a Cambodian Year Zero, a Rwandan Genocide, Palestinian ethnic cleansing and any other number of genocides in the past 60 years.

Unfortunately, the lessons of the Holocaust has not been learnt by the people most affected by it and has instead evolved into a propaganda tool specifically and exclusively for Israel when in fact it should be man kinds heritage and warning.

[edit on 023131p://pm3138 by masonwatcher]

reply to post by masonwatcher


So now the victims of the Holocaust have become the first time travellers into the future, somehow responsible for what the Israeli government is doing now?




People seem to have binary brains, it is either 0 or 1. You can be a Jew and not want to live in Israel. You can be an Israeli who is against the war in Gaza. And so on and on.

reply to post by QueenofWeird


Why don't read you what I said unless there is a reading comprehension problem? The victims of the Holocaust has nothing to do with time travel. It the abuse of the memorial by Israel that is the problem.

If the memory of the Holocaust is a discourse for all then the crimes against the Palestinians would not be happening and the last people perpetrating it would be the Israelis.

Of course you can argue that the Palestinians are none persons and have less rights than a memory and Israel can do what ever it wants. Just don't expect the rest of us to jump on your bandwagon.