Joint List MK Zoabi compared Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to the Holocaust. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Member of Knesset Haneen Zoabi (Joint Arab List), a frequent harsh critic of the Israeli government, compared Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to the Holocaust and refused to attend Israel’s upcoming national Holocaust memorial assembly.

Zoabi was invited to the annual ceremony, to take place on the Yad Mordechai kibbutz, along with a host of other public figures. Rejecting the invitation, the Arab lawmaker also wrote an angry letter stating why she would not be attending.

In her letter, Zoabi stated that the Israeli government, military, and other public figures are standing by idly as “Palestinians are executed without trial.” She went on to describe what she claimed is the connection between Nazi Germany and the ongoing oppression of the Palestinians.

“You cannot teach the lessons of the Holocaust when you do not see the shocking similarity between what is going on around us and what went on in Germany in the 1930s, and that is where the danger lies: Execution without trial, detention without trial, torture, gag orders, persecution of protesters and political activists,” she wrote. “You cannot teach the lessons of the Holocaust to increase motivation to defend yourself via humiliating and oppressing the other.”

The theme for this year’s Holocaust memorial ceremony is “Journey to the heart’s desire.” It will address how Jews dealt with the war and the subsequent journey to Israel. Among the main speakers will be Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Yesh Atid party leader MK Yair Lapid.