Israel’s deputy military chief has suggested in a Holocaust memorial speech that there were signs of Nazi-like behaviour in Israeli society, drawing condemnation from two cabinet ministers before he backtracked on the remarks.
Major-General Yair Golan’s speech, at a ceremony on Wednesday, would have touched a nerve at any time in a nation that vehemently rejects accusations by its fiercest critics that its treatment of Palestinians is comparable with the oppression long suffered by Jews.
But this year, emotions have been heightened and divisions deepened by a debate among Israelis over whether a soldier was justified in shooting and killing a Palestinian assailant who was wounded and lying on the ground, in an incident in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron in March.
Golan said at the gathering to honour the six million Jews killed by Nazi Germany that the annual remembrance day should also lead Israelis to deep soul-searching about “how we, here and now, treat the stranger”.
“If there’s something that frightens me about Holocaust remembrance it’s the recognition of the revolting processes that occurred in Europe in general, and particularly in Germany, back then – 70, 80 and 90 years ago – and finding signs of them here among us today in 2016,” he said.
Golan also made a clear reference to the Hebron shooting, over which the soldier involved is due to stand trial next week on manslaughter charges that carry a maximum 20-year prison term. He decried the “aberrant use of weapons” and said the military was committed to “investigate difficult issues impartially”.
Full story from AAP in The Australian