By Qamar Bashir
The Holocaust remains one of history’s darkest chapters — a crime against humanity that rightly haunts the conscience of the world. Denying or minimizing it is itself a crime in many countries, because it represented the systematic attempt to wipe out an entire people. Every year in France, I attended commemorations at the Grand Mosque of Paris where stories were told of the mosque’s imam and caretaker risking their lives to hide Jewish families from Nazi persecution. These events reminded us that, at their best, Muslims welcomed Jews with open hearts, offering them land, orchards, homes, and safety when they had none.
It is against this moral backdrop that we must examine Israel’s current actions in Gaza and the West Bank. Just as the Holocaust was condemned as barbaric and inhuman, the wholesale destruction of Palestinian life and society today demands the same universal condemnation. To call one crime against humanity intolerable while excusing another is hypocrisy that cannot stand.
Since its inception, Israel has rarely known peace with its neighbors. Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Sudan, and now Qatar — the list of countries drawn into conflict with Israel is long. Even nations without direct borders with Israel have found themselves entangled in disputes. Israel insists that it is the “chosen people” reclaiming land promised by God. Yet, year after year, as its military might grows with U.S. backing, Israel expands its borders, seizes more Palestinian land, and drives more families into exile.
What was once a narrow strip of conflict has become a permanent state of war. The world is witnessing the steady annihilation of Gaza and the West Bank. Entire neighborhoods are being reduced to rubble, hospitals flattened, churches and schools destroyed, and journalists deliberately targeted. Two U.S. senators recently returned from Gaza and the West Bank and confirmed what Palestinians have long said: this is not simply a war on Hamas. This is a war on an entire people — on civilians, children, women, the elderly, and all who remain in their ancestral homeland.
Gaza City, Khan Younis, Rafah, Jenin, Nablus — these names once stood for vibrant communities. Now, they are synonymous with devastation. Satellite images reveal entire blocks leveled. The death toll has climbed into the tens of thousands, with thousands of children among the victims. Malnutrition and disease spread through overcrowded shelters where water is scarce and medicine nonexistent.
Israel claims it is fighting terrorism, but its bombs fall on bakeries, schools, mosques, and even Christian churches. If Hamas were the sole target, why are children starving? Why are doctors performing surgeries without anesthesia? Why are journalists wearing press vests still being killed? These are not accidents; they are the deliberate use of overwhelming force to erase a population and make life unlivable for those who survive.
The recent Israeli strike in Doha, Qatar, marks another dangerous escalation. Qatar hosts one of the largest U.S. military bases in the region, yet even that did not shield it from Israeli aggression. By striking Doha, Israel not only violated Qatari sovereignty but also humiliated its American ally, whose intelligence and military coordination made the attack possible. The strike killed civilians of multiple nationalities and sent a chilling message: no country is beyond Israel’s reach.
European leaders, including the President of the European Commission, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Prime Minister of Spain, have condemned this blatant violation of sovereignty. Yet condemnation alone carries no consequence. As long as the United States shields Israel diplomatically and financially, sanctions, embargoes, and accountability measures remain empty threats.
Israel’s obsession with Iran further exposes its expansionist ambitions. Netanyahu and his allies have spent years warning of an Iranian nuclear bomb, yet no credible evidence has ever proven Iran was building one. Even if it had, many nations possess nuclear weapons without being attacked. Iran, unlike others, has never committed acts of terrorism on American soil. Its people have suffered sanctions, isolation, and threats because Israel insists on framing it as an existential menace.
When Israeli and American defense officials congratulated each other after striking Iran’s facilities, they did so without proof, without justification, and without remorse. Once again, the goal was not security but dominance — to weaken a regional rival and preserve Israel’s military superiority at any cost.
The pattern is clear. Israel wages war after war, reduces entire cities to rubble, kills civilians by the tens of thousands, and yet faces no real consequences. The United States, its closest ally, provides diplomatic cover at the United Nations, blocks accountability at the International Criminal Court, and funds its military with billions annually. Israel acts with impunity because it believes itself untouchable — a nation beyond the law.
But history teaches us that crimes against humanity cannot be excused by claims of divine promise or national security. The Holocaust was condemned as barbaric because it sought to erase a people. Today, the world watches as Palestinians face the same erasure, and silence is complicity.
To compare Israel’s current actions with the Holocaust is not to diminish the suffering of Jews in Europe. On the contrary, it is to insist on moral consistency. If we rightly condemn the Nazis for slaughtering millions, then we must also condemn the slaughter of Palestinians. Crimes against humanity are crimes, no matter the perpetrator, no matter the victim.
Israel’s leaders claim divine right to occupy and expand. But religion cannot excuse barbarism. Military might cannot justify the starvation of children. Political alliances cannot erase the moral stain of mass displacement. If the Holocaust was humanity’s warning that “never again” should such atrocities occur, then Gaza and the West Bank are humanity’s test — a test we are failing.
The Holocaust remains an undeniable crime, a stain on history. But today, Israel’s destruction of Gaza and the West Bank echoes that same barbarity. To call one wrong while excusing the other is hypocrisy that corrodes the very idea of human rights. Whether the victims are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, or any other faith, their humanity is equal. Their suffering is equal. Their right to live free from annihilation is equal.
Israel must be held accountable for its actions, just as the Nazis were. International law, global conscience, and simple human decency demand it. If we fail to condemn Israel’s crimes with the same force as we condemn the Holocaust, then “never again” becomes meaningless words. The world owes Palestinians — and itself — better.
By Qamar Bashir
Press Secretary to the President (Rtd)
Former Press Minister, Embassy of Pakistan to France
Former Press Attache to Malaysia
Former MD, SRBC | Macomb, Michigan, USA
