Former White House aide Sarah Hurwitz, who served as a senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama, warned this week that Holocaust education was “confusing” young people into sympathizing with “weak, skinny Palestinians” instead of “powerful Israelis.”

She continued:

“You have TikTok just smashing our young people’s brains all day long with video of carnage in Gaza, and this is why so many of us can’t have a sane conversation with younger Jews, because anything that we try to say to them, they’re hearing it through this wall of carnage. So I want to give data and information and facts and arguments, and they’re just seeing in their minds carnage, and I sound obscene.”

And you know, I think, unfortunately, the very smart bet that we made on Holocaust education to serve as anti-Semitism education, in this new media environment, I think that is beginning to break down a little bit because, you know, Holocaust education is absolutely essential, but I think it may be confusing some of our young people about anti-Semitism, because they learn about big, strong Nazis hurting weak, emaciated Jews and then they think, “Oh, anti-Semitism is like anti-black racism, right? Powerful white people against powerless black people.” So, when on TikTok all day long they see powerful Israelis hurting weak, skinny Palestinians, it’s not surprising that they think, “Oh I know, the lesson of the Holocaust is you fight Israel. You fight the big powerful people hurting the weak people.”

  • falseWhite@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    sympathizing with “weak, skinny Palestinians” instead of “powerful Israelis.”

    I.e. sympathising with victims instead of fascists? Hell yeah.

    You fight the big powerful people hurting the weak people.

    Uhm… yeah?!

    • wheezy@lemmy.ml
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      20 hours ago

      Like, this is fundamentally the basic plot of one most famous and watched movies of all time.

      Star Wars: weak impoverished kid has his family slaughtered by the unstoppable Empire. Finds power in his faith and a “terrorist” resistance group to overcome their impossible power.

      And yes. I know star wars was written as the Rebels representing the VeitCong. Almost like imperialism and genocide are on the wrong side of history.