IT IS HAPPENING AGAIN ON YOUR WATCH

You swore Never Again – but it is happening on your watch!

By Rolene Marks

Dear world leaders, “social justice” warriors, humanitarian organisations and non-governmental organisations, look at them. Say their names. Eli, Ohad and Or. Say their names.  Look them in the eye and explain why you failed them.

Over the past weekend, three hostages who had been held in Hamas captivity for 491 days since 7 October were released. At the first site of the emaciated men, and after gasping in shock, my immediate thought that they looked like Holocaust survivors. I try stay away from Holocaust comparisons but this could not be avoided. The testimony that Or, Ohad and Eli have shared about the cruelty they suffered at the hands of Hamas is more than the soul can bear and like so many, I feel anger and sorrow.

At the end of January, world leaders gathered at the United Nations, Auschwitz or at respective memorials around the world, dressed suitably in funereal black with mournful expressions on their faces. Some even lit candles! It was a study in performative grief – but oh, the photo opportunities!!!  The reality is that many world leaders have been silent or have done nothing as antisemitism spikes at astronomical levels and many Jews question if they still have a future in  the countries they live in and contribute to. If you are Australian Prime Minister, Anthony “Tennis Albo” Albanese, you play tennis while a synagogue with worshippers inside burns – but make sure you get de rigueur photo op by visiting a Holocaust centre while your Israel-hating policies ignore the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Albanese sent his Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, to participate in the commemoration ceremony marking 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, despite a petition from the Jewish community asking for her not to be the representative on this most solemn day. Wong, who has taken a decidedly hostile posture towards Israel, insulted many in Israel and Australia when she refused to visit the decimated kibbutzim when she visited Israel shortly after 7 October.

If you are soon to be former Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, you make insipid statements while Montreal erupts with riots. Antisemitism has exploded across Canada as well, where synagogues have been attacked, Jewish schools have been shot at and Jews have been threatened, intimidated, had businesses vandalized and more. Trudeau was the only G7 leader not to visit Israel in the wake of the atrocities of 7 October. The message was received loud and clear by both the Jewish community – and the Pro-Hamas camp.

If you are British Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, you pose for a picture with former hostage, Emily Damari’s mother – then betray all the families by voting for a sham UN resolution that does not link the immediate and unconditional release of the hostages to a ceasefire. Despite overwhelming evidence that proves UNRWA (United Nations Relief Works Agency) involvement in the 7 October atrocities – you shore them up with support by allocating even MORE money to their coffers. If these attitudes could be turned into a fragrance, it would be eau de hypocrisy!!

These same leaders have been the ones withholding licenses for weapons that Israel needs to defend itself from multiple genocidal terror organisations. While magnanimously bestowing upon us their sanction of our right to defend ourselves, they have lectured Israel about our response to Hamas and made humanitarian aid to Gazans their priority. They have said the bare minimum about the horrific condition of our hostages – or their testimonies.

All these great western bastions of human rights have fallen silent. They barely acknowledge the appalling treatment of our hostages – or ignore the horrific attacks on Jews in their respective countries.

On January 27, in front of the ghosts of Auschwitz, they solemnly swore NEVER AGAIN. They are failing to make good of that vow.

January 27^th is International Holocaust Memorial Day, designated by the United Nations to remember and memorialize all those murdered in the Holocaust and in particular, six million Jews. While many others were murdered by the Nazis because they were LGBTQ, Roma or Sinti or political dissidents, Jews were specifically marked for extermination, without exception.

The Holocaust did not start with gas chambers. The Holocaust started with words – and the steady erosion of Jews from society, including from the arts, literature, sports and other professions. In 2024, there was a significant resurgence in this horrific trend following the atrocities of 7 October 2023.

International Holocaust Memorial Day should serve as a stark reminder to the world what happens when Jew hatred goes unchecked. It would appear not all world leader respects this. Michael Higgins, President of Ireland, who already has a record of appalling hostility to Israel, used the solemnity of a Holocaust memorial ceremony to castigate the State of Israel. Several members of the Jewish community stood up and turned their backs on him in silent protest. Security officials physically removed them, including a pregnant Israeli woman – a descendant from Holocaust survivors. The optics were appalling. If the representative of the highest office in the country abuses his platform, what message does this send to fellow citizens?

Contrast Higgins with King Charles who made history as the first British Monarch to visit Auschwitz and met with survivors and members of the Krakow Jewish community. The late Queen Elizabeth II visited the Nazi concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen where she paid a moving tribute to Anne Frank.

In the last nearly sixteen months, Jews in the literary world have been excluded from panels, put on lists to alert possible readers that the author may be “Zionist” and have been refused participation on panels. What is next? Burning books by Jewish writers?

“It was just the prelude… Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people too.” Prophetic words, penned by German Jewish Writer Heinrich Heine in 1821. During the dark years of the  Nazi regime between 1933-1945, Heine’s words became a devastating reality as the seminal works of some of the greatest Jewish writers were burned. We know what followed.

It is not just writers who are steadily being excluded. This has filtered into the world of sports, arts and culture, business, medicine and wherever there is a Jewish presence. The horrific sense of déjà vu that we are experiencing cannot be understated, except that it is 2025 and not 1933. It does feel like we have entered some kind of horrible time warp and are experiencing that which we vowed Never Again.

Antisemitism manifests itself in many evil ways. It manifests in every iteration from the exclusion and threats to Jews in society, to the brutal massacres and kidnapping of Israelis citizens – and the silence or inaction of those in power.

This brings me back to the scenes on Saturday. Hamas have never hidden their cruelty. On the contrary, they have happily boasted about it knowing that they have accurately judged the reaction of the world.

On January 27, world leaders stood for photo opportunities – a public display of performative grief. They said the “right” things about fighting antisemitism, remembrance and education. They said “Never Again” and they failed. Again. 

So where are they, as Jews are being targeted, erased from public spaces, beaten and harassed?

Where are their voices demanding the immediate release of the hostages or an end to the silence about the mass rape of victims on 7 October?

Where are they when our hostages, emaciated and terrified are released from captivity while others languish in the terror dungeons?

Antisemitism is not a Jewish issue – it is a societal problem. It is happening on their watch. We are terrified where this will end.

While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).