• The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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    2 days ago

    similar situation. jewish mother, raised without religion in a largely lutheran and jewish community. i remember in 2000 my kindergarten teacher (i was in 4th grade at the time) sitting me down to explain to me that israel was something called fascist, and that as a holocaust survivor, he could never tolerate fascism. he always wore long sleeves at school. it was then that i learned why. the nazis had tattooed a number on his forearm when he was 3.

    it is offensive to his memory that israel uses the kindest man i’ve ever known’s religious symbols to perpetuate the very worst thing that ever happened to him on others.

    • dethedrus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      A good chunk of my extended family on my mother’s side died in the holocaust. Her father fought in WWII and died due to complications from injuries. This is very personal to me.

      Israel using it as an excuse to BE the same as the bad guys… what the ever loving fuck is going on.

      Remember kids, it’s always been cool to ‘punch’ nazis. Whatever form that takes.

    • Baylahoo@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      Was Israel really showing signs of fascism so long ago that he recognized it enough to tell a student in 2000? It was definitely not on my radar until much later. That may say more about me though.

      • The Quuuuuill@slrpnk.net
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        1 day ago

        they have been problematic through their whole history, but in 2000 the un security council demanded israel withdraw troops from the west bank. this led to the resignation of the president and the election of moshe katsav, a crucial step in the leikud gaining the near full control they have maintained over the past 25 years, as this election would ultimately thwart a criminal investigation into benjamin netenyahu’s corruption.

        obviously i didn’t understand all of this at 8 years old (i guess i was in third grade) but this was highly divisive in my community, with many younger jews seeing this all as a good thing and Hezbollah as a looming ever present threat, and many older jews seeing reflections of the beer hall putsch, hitler’s show trial, and eventual political takeover of germany. it was hard for me to understand why everyone was both so scared all the time and how this generational divide had formed

        • Baylahoo@sh.itjust.works
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          1 day ago

          Thank you for your response. I feel like nothing like the current actions come out of nowhere at a scale like we are seeing. I need to do more research to understand how the American story books of “we gave some ancestral land to a bunch of horribly mistreated people” turned into something so similar but the other direction.