I have not said that what is happening to the Palestinians is like the holocaust. But it is causing suffering in individuals that is as great as the suffering in individuals who experienced the holocaust.

-CarolC, 09 Mar 04 - 02:46 AM

what the Israeli soldiers and settlers are doing to innocent Palestinians must be described as GENOCIDE.

-CarolC, 23 Jul 03 - 11:17 AM, in this thread.

Clearly, CarolC has, indeed, equated the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza to the Holocaust.

My dictionary defines "genocide" as: The systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political, or ethnic group.

In 1939, there were 15 million Jews in the entire world. In 1945, that number had been reduced to 9 million. Most of the Jews of Europe had been systematically exterminated.

In 1967, at the beginning of the occupation, there were slightly less than 1 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. Today, there are almost 3.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza.

Clearly, any reference to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as "genocide" is a lie. A population suffering from genocide does not triple.

I agree that the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is oppressive to the Palestinians and long for a peaceful conclusion to it. However, to equate life anywhere in the West Bank and Gaza with the death and slavery of Aushwitz, or Treblinka, or Dachau or any other Nazi extermination or slave labor camp, is a despicable lie.