A ceremony marking the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust held at a Cambridge Theological Federation College on January 27th, invoked comparisons between the situation of Palestinians in the recent Gaza war and Jews during the Holocaust. Related allusions were conveyed at the conclusion of the event in a “Prayer for Peace in Israel and Palestine”. While the wording of that intercession remained subtle, it, arguably, also resonated with accusations that Israel committed a genocide of Palestinians or intended to do so. The prayer (a slight adaption of “A Prayer for the Holy Lands” written by Reverend Dr. Sam Wells, the vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, a parish church at London’s Trafalgar Square) appeals to the Almighty to “Speak to the hearts of those intent on hatred and extermination”. In addition, it makes a plea to “Open the borders that aid may reach those most desperate” and to “Empower the international community that it may bring reason and  understanding to all amid grief and loss” (Cambridge Theological Federation, 2025).

To be sure, taken by themselves, those sentences neither blame Israel nor compare Palestinians to Jewish Holocaust Victims. Yet, read in the context of a ceremony marking the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust and when related to current debates about “Israel and Palestine”, as the title of the prayer suggests, they dog-whistle sounds resonating with Holocaust- inversions, frequently expressed in the context of recent pro-Palestinian activism. The term “extermination”, featured in the prayer, has been used in charges pressed by the chief persecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) against both Israeli and Hamas leaders (International Criminal Court, 20. May 2024). While the Hamas-led attacks against Israel of 7 October 2023 have occasionally been looked upon as being genocidal (Frantzman, 2024, p. xix), it is Israel that has been put on trial for an alleged genocide of Palestinians in front of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) (International Court of Justice, 29. 12. 2023) and it is Israel that has frequently be accused of that crime in public rallies and other forms of pro-Palestinian activism (Palestine Solidarity Campaign. 2025). Whether intended or not, associations with those charges inevitably come up when God is petitioned to “speak to the hearts of those intent on hatred and extermination” in a “a prayer for Peace in Israel and Palestine”. In addition, the plea to “open the borders that aid may reach those most desperate” and to “Empower the international community that it may bring reason and understanding to all amid grief and loss”, evokes appeals by the international community that Israel shall allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, in order to ease the situation of Palestinians trapped by the recent war in the region. Israel has been charged by the ICC prosecutor to implement a policy of “extermination” of Palestinians by preventing access of humanitarian aides into Gaza (International Criminal Court, 20. May 2024).

While the ambivalent wording of the prayer can certainly be interpreted in various ways, it is clear that it addresses, at least amongst other things, the subject of Palestinian suffering due to the recent war between Israel and Hamas. While that, taken by itself, would not be problematic, doing so in the context of an event marking the day dedicated to the commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust, implies that the situation of Palestinians in Gaza would be comparable to the situation of Jews in the Shoah. Why else would the matter be brought up in that context, if there are plenty of other opportunities to do so?

Indeed, there is no lack of possibilities to raise Palestinian issues in day to day discourse. The 27 th of January, however, has been proclaimed by the United Nation’s (UN) General Assembly to be “an annual International Day of Commemoration in MEMORY OF THE VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST” (United Nations General Assembly, 2005, emphasis by author). Reassigning the focus of events marking that day to matters other than the one it was designated to by the UN, is to deprive the victims of the Holocaust of their right to be remembered. While it is important to draw the universal lessons of the Holocaust as well, this must not come at the expense of the commemoration of its actual victims, lest, after their physical extermination, their heritage will be obliterated too. In addition, using that day to raise matters of Palestinians, implies that their situation equals that of Jews during the Holocaust. Comparing the situation of Palestinians as a result of Israeli military operations with the situation of Jews persecuted by the Nazis is a false historical and political analogy and resonates with the antisemitic demonization of the state of Israel. From here it is only a short step to the equations of Swastikas with Stars of David featuring prominently in contemporary pro-Palestinian activism.

The comparison between Israel and Nazi-Germany has been listed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) as an example of current day antisemitism (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, 2016, Working definition of antisemitism). In the context of current pro-Palestinian activism, it often underpins legitimizations of the October 7 Hamas-led attack as a form of “resistance”. Stemming from Stalinist roots, this kind of Holocaust-inversion has become increasingly commonplace in Western academic circles. As the late historian Robert Wistrich observed: “The Nazi-Zionist parallel has never, of course, been confined to the Communists or the radical Left. It is a staple of Arab propaganda and increasingly encouraged by seemingly respectable academics, journalists, and sometimes by politicians, priests, and even so-called Middle East experts. Repellent comparisons between the Warsaw Ghetto and Gaza are legion today. Such distorted propaganda has become self-reinforcing through the immense power of the mass media, amplified still further by the Internet and the sheer force of repetition.” (Wistrich 2012, p. 472)

The “Prayer for Peace in Israel and Palestine” read out at the College ceremony, does not explicitly equate the state of Israel with Nazi Germany. But it strongly resonates with related ideas. Whether this has been intended is barely relevant, for the effect remains the same. It is all the more worrying that mixing Palestinian grievances with Holocaust commemoration has become something quite normal. Indeed, there were various Holocaust commemoration events in Cambridge this year where the deliverers of introductory remarks felt compelled to somehow address the question of whether raising Palestinian issues in the given context would be appropriate, as if this would be an expected thing to do.

References:
Cambridge Theological Federation, Westminster College. “A prayer for Peace in
Israel and Palestine”. Holocaust Memorial Day 27/1 (Ceremony Handout). 27.
January 2025.
Frantzman, Seth J. The October 7 th War: Israel’s Battle for Security in Gaza. 2024.
New York, Nashville: Wicked Son, Post Hill Press.
Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). “Working definition of antisemitism”. 2016.
https://holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antisemitism.
International Court of Justice. “Application Instituting Proceedings Containing a
Request for the Indication of Provisional Measures filed in the Registry of the Court
on 29 December 2023: Application of the Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel)”. 29. 12. 2023.
https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231228-app-01-00-
en.pdf.
International Criminal Court (ICC). “Statement of ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan
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Palestine Solidarity Campaign. “We will march against Israel’s genocide and BBC
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genocide-and-bbc-bias/.
United Nations General Assembly, “Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on
1 November 2005: 60/7. Holocaust remembrance”. 1. 11. 2005.
https://docs.un.org/en/A/RES/60/7.
Wells, Sam. “A Prayer for the Holy Land”. St Martin in the Fields.
https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/a-prayer-for-the-holy-land/.

Wistrich, Robert. From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews, and Israel.
2012. University of Nebraska Press.