OPINION:
Following the creation of Israel, its citizens, traumatized by the Holocaust, which had taken the lives of some 6 million Jews, established a memorial to those victims. Yad Vashem was constructed on the hills of Jerusalem as a monument to the victims of the Holocaust.
But the memorial was not just a memorial to the victims. A section of Yad Vashem is devoted to honoring the “Righteous Among the Nations;” the individuals who, during World War II and at tremendous personal risk, sought to save Jews from destruction. This aspect of Yad Vashem constitutes a profoundly moving and inspiring tribute to brave and noble individuals.
Sadly, the number of individuals so recognized is very modest. Of the hundreds of millions of people living in Europe under German control during World War II, fewer than 30,000 have been identified as worthy of being considered Righteous Among the Nations.
When it comes to persecuting Jews, many are willing to participate, and only a few are willing to try to prevent it.
It would have been comforting to think that persecution of Jews was a thing of the past, but recent events starkly remind us that anti-Jewish acts are a matter of current concern. The horrific massacre perpetrated in southern Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7 and its aftermath stand as reminders of this reality.
Gaza, which has been free of any Israeli occupation and has been governed by its residents for nearly two decades, has been a hotbed of hatred for Israel and its Jewish population. Instead of focusing on the welfare of their fellow citizens, those governing Gaza have focused their energy on attempts to destroy their neighbors and have been teaching their young to do the same.
It would be somewhat comforting to think that, as the mainstream media often portrays, the people of Gaza are prisoners of Hamas and that the acts perpetrated against Israel and its citizens are aberrational — the crimes of a few terrorists. Recent events, serving as echoes of history, inform us of the opposite.
Reports regarding the comportment of Gaza residents, often suppressed by our mainstream media, strongly suggest tacit if not express complicity by many and perhaps by the preponderance of the Palestinians there with the vicious actions and intentions of the Hamas terrorists.
There is evidence that when, on Oct. 7, the attackers entered the villages in southern Israel, many had hand-drawn maps prepared by Palestinians who had been working for Jewish residents. These people had been invited into the homes of Israelis to work at jobs paying salaries that permitted them to live far better than the average Palestinian in Gaza. But sheer hatred made them the instruments of the destruction of the very people who had welcomed them.
Apparently, other “innocent” Palestinians saw fit to seize the moment on Oct. 7. When they ascertained that Hamas terrorists had broken into Israel, they chose to join the effort and to help themselves to whatever they could find in the villages that had been attacked. These criminals of opportunity literally walked over the bodies of mutilated and murdered Jews to help themselves to whatever they could find.
Yet other Palestinians joined the fray to seize hostages or to help the terrorists as they grabbed Israelis and forcibly brought them back into Gaza. Many who did not actively follow the terrorists into Israel to join in the acts of terror and thievery cheered those who had done so.
The chilling testimony of freed hostages provides further evidence of the complicity of large swaths of Gaza’s population in the barbaric comportment of the Hamas terrorists.
Most recently, a young French Israeli woman has told the world that she was held in Gaza, not by Hamas terrorists, but by a Palestinian family. The family included a wife and children, who seemed untroubled by the presence of an Israeli woman being mistreated as a hostage in their midst. As Mia Schem, the young hostage stated after her liberation about the people in Gaza, “everyone there were terrorists. … Entire families are in the service of Hamas.”
This was an echo of the statements made previously by a young Russian Israeli hostage, Roni Kriboy, who managed to escape his Hamas captors, only to be recaptured by local residents. Instead of assisting Mr. Kriboy, the good people of Gaza saw fit to lend a helping hand to the terrorists.
Today, we are incessantly told that the war being waged in Gaza is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza. Even the Israeli government feels compelled to articulate this point of view in a vain attempt to mitigate the hatred spreading throughout the world as Israel seeks to prevent a recurrence of the massacre of Oct. 7.
Unfortunately, the distinction appears questionable. There is an urgent need, not for the sake of Israelis, but for the sake of the people of Gaza, for righteous Palestinians there to act against the Hamas terrorists and help bring the hatred that prevails in Gaza to an end.
When the fighting is over and Hamas has been destroyed, righteous Gaza residents who opposed Hamas’ barbarism may be identified and honored. We can hope that there will be many, but it is likely that they will be few in number. In the meantime, many in Gaza will suffer because so few have been willing to act righteously and oppose the Hamas terrorists.
• Gerard Leval is a partner in the Washington office of a national law firm. He is the author of “Lobbying for Equality: Jacques Godard and the Struggle for Jewish Civil Rights During the French Revolution,” published by HUC Press.
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