In Washington State, Holocaust Education Will Now Include the ‘Palestinian Holocaust’

Given that a fifth of Americans aged 18 to 29 do not believe that the Holocaust ever occurred, it’s a good thing to make its study, as a world historical event, part of the required high school curriculum. But pro-Palestinian and antisemitic activists in Washington State have now been able to add an amendment to that state’s Holocaust Education Bill, the so-called “Hamas Amendment,” that requires it to include the study of what the Palestinians have supposedly suffered as victims of their own Holocaust, carried out by the “genocidal” Israelis. More on this moral and historical error can be found here: “Washington Democrats slap surprise ‘Hamas amendment’ on Holocaust education bill,” by Ari Hoffman, Post Millennial, February 13, 2024:

A bipartisan bill on Holocaust and genocide education in Washington state has had a “Hamas amendment” slapped on it by State House Democrats that would guarantee that antisemitic and pro-Hamas talking points are taught to public school children.

House Bill 2037 mandates that public schools teach the Holocaust and other genocides and augment current material on the Holocaust with a curriculum augmented by the Holocaust Center for Humanity and other agencies. Additionally, in April, International Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month, Washington public schools must also promote age-appropriate educational activities regarding the Holocaust and other genocides.

The bill was a companion to a Senate bill, introduced by Republican State Senator John Braun, following the Hamas massacre of Oct 7, to address GOP concerns that one in five Americans aged 18 to 29 don’t think the Holocaust occurred.

So far, so good. But that was not the end of the matter.

However, once the bills were introduced, local antisemites and Hamas supporters spammed legislators demanding that the Holocaust education be watered down and focus more on other genocides.

Yes, how terrible it is of those pushy Jews to think that their so-called Holocaust has some kind of special significance, as if it were any different from dozens or even hundreds of such instances. It’s particularly outrageous to have a “Holocaust Education” bill that fails to teach about the worst Holocaust in modern times — the one that the Jews themselves, whom you would think would know better, are carrying out against the innocent and helpless Palestinians.

Some of the far-left educators also wanted children to be taught the false narrative that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Jewish state’s ongoing war against Hamas terrorists.

Genocide against Palestinians in Gaza? Then why, when Israel possessed Gaza from 1967 to 2005, did the Arab population in the Strip go from 400,000 to 1.3 million, a more than threefold increase? And if in the Gaza War today Israel is committing genocide, why is it that the IDF makes enormous efforts, through messaging, leafletting, telephoning, and use of the “knock-on-the-roof” technique, to warn people in Gaza to leave areas, or buildings, about to be targeted?

Would the IDF have dropped 14 million leaflets, made two million recorded phone calls, and 72,000 live calls, to warn civilians about possible harm, if it is hellbent on genocide? And do the figures on civilian-to-combatant ratios suggest genocidal intent? Hamas claims, as of mid-February, that 28,000 Gazans have been killed. The terror group gives a single figure; it does not break it down between civilians and combatants. But let’s accept the Hamas figure. The IDF has said it believes that, as of mid-February, it has killed 12,000 Hamas operatives. That would mean that 16,000 civilians have been killed in Gaza. The civilian-to-combatant ratio in this war, then, is 16:12, or 4:3. That is an astoundingly low figure. The UN has said that in all the wars fought since World War II, the civilian-to-combatant ration averaged 9:1, that is, nine civilians killed for one combatant.

The American army has recently done much better. In Afghanistan it achieved a ratio of 4:1 and In Iraq, 3:1. But no army in the world has gotten that ratio down to the level that the IDF has attained. This is not what a country bent on “genocide” would do. There has been “genocide” in the current war alright, but Israel has not been responsible. It is, rather, Hamas, that carried out a small-scale “genocide” of Israeli men, women, children, and babies, on October 7, and thereby prompted the war.