Should I Also Compare The Kidnapped Teens To Hitler?

By MK Hanin Zoabi

I know I’ve done part of my job by denying that the kidnappers of the three missing Israeli boys should be called terrorists. The question is whether that goes far enough: should I only make excuses for the kidnappers, or should I actually demonize the victims by calling them a bunch of little Hitlers?

The question is one of balance. My tendency has been to advocate for my Palestinian brethren in the most provocative way possible from within the walls of Israel’s parliament as an elected representative, using my position, arrived at through democratic processes, to undermine the very country whose democratic rights I enjoy. Calling these boys Hitler would certainly be in keeping with my past remarks, but it could backfire: it might contribute to a continued focus on them as victims when my aim should be to highlight the misery of my brethren under occupation whose life expectancy, overall health, per capita income, freedom of expression, education, and access to quality medical care became better than anywhere else in the Arab world since shortly after that occupation began.

Make no mistake – calling them Hitlers would in no way imply an endorsement of the historicity of the Holocaust on my part. It would be merely a rhetorical flourish calculated to portray a nineteen-year-old and two sixteen-year-olds as genocidal ideologues bent on the extermination of an entire people based on their race. Nothing more.

But such a remark might be seen as derivative. Back in 2001 Ward Churchill, a Colorado academic, called the people killed in the 9/11 World Trade Center attack “Little Eichmanns.” Granted, he was talking about thousands of full-grown adults trying to earn a living, and I’m talking about a bunch of teenagers trying to get home, but it still seems to lack originality, so the shock value might be diminished. What’s more, if I don’t say it, someone else in the Arab world will, and I’ll end up squandering an opportunity to attract more media attention. I live for media attention.

If they were soldiers, the analogy would be facile, almost automatic. Everyone can see how resistance to an organized military by what the Western media loves to call “militants” is by definition a recurrence of patriotic movements fighting the occupying Nazis. But these Israeli teens haven’t served in the army yet, so it’s tougher to see the direct connection.

Got it! I’ll compromise and call them Hitler Youth.