In a previous article, I pointed out how authoritarian regimes and their organic intellectuals based their antisemitism on the rejection of Jewish culture, considering it a bearer of democracy and the emancipation of the oppressed. Not a few readers have wondered how, within a democratic culture, the emergence of the policies of the Netanyahu government in Gaza and the West Bank can be explained.
In 2026, Israeli society has an unfavorable view of the government of more than 60%, while support for it is below 40%[1].What explains this not-insignificant support for the government among Israeli society? The main explanation is the justification of the war against Gaza based on a biased interpretation of the Holocaust, or Shoah.
The Shoah resulted in the loss of 36% of the world’s Jewish population, 63% of Europe’s Jewish population, and between 85% and 90% in some Eastern European countries, including Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Poland [2]. When the Jewish prisoners of Buchenwald were liberated, they proclaimed a phrase that expressed a commitment to humanitarian values: Never Again. Political Judaism has developed two typical interpretations of Never Again. The first understands Never Again to mean that humanity must never again experience a similar situation. The second means: Never again a new massacre of the Jewish people!
The first interpretation has led Jewish intellectuals such as Adorno, Bauman, Levinas, Marcuse, among many others, to renew philosophy and the social sciences in order to contribute to peaceful coexistence worldwide. The second has been distorted to legitimize policies of repression and violence by the Israeli government.
Given that 60% of Israel’s Jewish population experienced the Holocaust, either directly or through family members, without any state or institution attempting to prevent it, it is not surprising that part of the population supports the use of military force against an adversary that generates fear or panic. What the Netanyahu government does is to draw on this fear to pursue actions that are not defensive but rather retaliatory, while limiting freedoms in Israel. The Nazi violence generated during the Holocaust continues to generate violence.
The Jewish and Palestinian peoples have historically been deprived of their legitimate rights in a common land and have been subjected to great violence in recent history: the Jewish people throughout their history in the Middle East and Europe, and the Palestinian people under the British and Ottoman Empires, as well as in relation to Libya and Jordan. A solution to the conflict will never be found by seeking the prevalence of one set of rights over another and disregarding those of the other, but rather by creating the conditions for dialogue so that both sides recognize the rights of the other without renouncing their own.
A solution will only move forward by making visible the legitimate interests of both sides, supporting the collaborations that already exist between Israelis and Palestinians in Israel-Palestine and abroad, and expanding them to towns and cities.
Marginalizing intellectuals, artists, or civil society organizations from Israel or Palestine in international gatherings means confusing a vengeful government or a terrorist organization with the people as a whole, thereby reinforcing the domestic legitimacy of those who use violence.
[1] Israel Democracy Institute.
[2] United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
PhD in Sociology and PhD in History. Currently, he is pursuing a PhD in Philosophy at Ramon Llull University.
Director of Estrategies de Qualitat Urbana, S.L. President of the Foundation Ciudadanía y Buen Gobierno, and a founding member and coordinator of AERYC.