There has been no shortage of creative protest actions opposing Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza that critics of the war say constitutes genocide and ethnic cleansing—in which the Biden administration that supports Israel—is complicit. The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 23,000, about a third of them children.
On Jan. 3, Nonviolence International organized a group of Jews, Palestinians and their supporters who projected words and photos describing the carnage in Gaza on the walls of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The activists, many who are supporters of the Holocaust Museum, called on the museum’s administrators to speak out against these atrocities.
Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Michael Beer, director of Nonviolence International, himself a descendent of Holocaust victims. The group was founded by a Palestinian Mubarak Awad, who was a key organizer in the first Intifada, in which Palestinians employed nonviolent direct-action tactics to resist Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Nonviolence International promotes the use of nonviolent resistance around the world, most recently in Palestine, Sudan and Ukraine. Here Beer talks about the Jan. 3 action, which is part of an ongoing campaign to pressure the Holocaust Museum to respond to the situation in Gaza.
MICHAEL BEER: Activists from a number of groups, including Nonviolence International and Jewish Voice for Peace Metro DC, and FOSNA, Friends of Sabeel North America, went to the Holocaust Museum in D.C. at 8 p.m. and set up a projector and projected slides and photographs onto the side exterior walls of the Holocaust Museum with words that said, “Never Again for Anyone,” “Never Again Now,” “Never Again Anywhere,” “Stop the Genocide in Gaza” and “Silence Equals Death.”
We did this for about a half an hour; we had a number of speakers as we showed these various slides and photographs. We were all there to help the museum meet its stated mission, which is to stop genocide any time, anywhere and they have not been living up to their mission. They have issued pro-Israel statements, but have not spoken out against the ethnic cleansing and apparent genocide by Israel in Gaza.
And we had speakers there, including a Holocaust survivor—Marianne Ehrlich Ross—who spoke about the trauma that it caused to her family and she doesn’t want any Palestinian or any other family to suffer what she suffered. I spoke, as director of Nonviolence International. I, myself, had a great-grandfather who died in a Nazi camp and I also have been strongly committed to prevent genocide and ethnic cleansings and atrocities around the world. And we had a speaker, Jonathan Kuttab, who is director of Friends of Sabeel North America, who is also an international human rights lawyer, who spoke about the importance of international law and upholding it equally for everybody, including the Genocide Convention to which the U.S. and Israel are parties.
So we had speakers speaking to why it was so important for the museum to speak up about genocide, and why this museum, which was started by the U.S. Congress, why it’s important particularly for the U.S. Holocaust Museum to speak up, in all cases of genocide, and especially in this one because U.S. weapons, U.S. money, U.S. political support, U.S. military and intelligence support are all being used to support Israel in its ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza.
MELINDA TUHUS: So, this was 8 p.m. on an evening. Did you get any response from people who run the Holocaust Museum?
MICHAEL BEER: One of the security guards didn’t like what we were doing and stood in front of our projector. But the other security guard said, “Hey, it says, ‘Never again’ up there! These people are not putting anything that’s objectionable on the museum walls. Let them do it! And we were then able to continue to do our slide projection and photo projection on the museum.”
MELINDA TUHUS: Has there been any official response from the people who run the museum?
MICHAEL BEER: The museum has not responded to this latest effort of ours to help the museum speak out in an appropriate way about what’s going on. This is a continuation of silence that’s gone on since I and Starhawk, a well-known feminist nonviolent organizer, sent to the museum asking them to speak out on ethnic cleansing and genocide for the Gaza situation and they did not respond to our open letter, and they have not to date responded to our slides and photos on the museum wall.
MELINDA TUHUS: From what I read, is it true that you and Starhawk contacted the museum when it opened and asked them to add something that wasn’t included when the museum opened? Is that true? Can you tell that story?
MICHAEL BEER: I can. The Holocaust Museum opened in 1993 and they had a big opening ceremony that excluded any representation or mention of homosexual and bisexual men who were persecuted and imprisoned and exterminated by the Nazis in Germany. We were very upset about this and Starhawk and I organized an alternative opening ceremony in support of the museum to include the pink triangle and the experience of the homosexual and bisexual men who suffered and perished.
We had a glorious turnout of 500 people. And the museum staff were great. They responded very quickly to include the pink triangle and the experience of homosexual and bisexual men.
And Starhawk and I, 30 years later, said, “You were responsive 30 years ago to inclusivity. We’re asking you to be inclusive now and to include the experience of the Palestinians. This U.S. Holocaust Museum has an extra responsibility to speak out on genocides and ethnic cleansing to which the U.S. government is complicit. And the U.S. government is complicit in the genocide in Gaza.”
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