Washington DC- January 3rd, 2024: Supporters of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum projected, Wednesday evening, photographs and slides on the exterior walls calling on the world to “Never Again” tolerate genocide for anyone. The photographs showed scenes of atrocities in Gaza with words saying “Stop the Genocide in Gaza” “Ceasefire Now” and “Silence=Death.”

“We are here to help fulfill the mission of the Holocaust Museum which is to ensure that ethnic cleansing and genocide never happens again for all people not just Jews,” said organizer, Michael Beer, Director of Nonviolence International, himself a descendent of Holocaust victims. “As an institution created by Congress”, he said, “the Museum has a special responsibility to speak up against genocide in Gaza, in part, because US weapons and support are involved.”

The projection on two western walls of the Museum follows a tradition of anti-genocide images in the Museum with regard to Darfur and internal exhibits regarding the Rohingya.

Helping with the projection was Marianne Ehrlich Ross, a Holocaust survivor, and long-time supporter of the Museum, who spoke about her experience being expelled from Vienna, then Prague, and then being stranded in England during the war. She is shocked that Israel, with US support, is engaging in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, and asked the Museum to not be silent on the present war on the Palestinian people – or anyone else.

Explaining the pictures of destruction and suffering in Gaza, Jonathan Kuttab, Director of Friends of Sabeel North America, spoke about his experience of Palestinians suffering from expulsion, occupation, and murder on a vast scale. He spoke about the horrors of the Holocaust in Europe and said that “it is tragic that the Jewish state is perpetrating ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and genocide.” Kuttab, a renowned International human rights lawyer, said “The Genocide Convention is clearly being openly violated by Israel and the US. I call on the Museum to live up to its stated mission which is to prevent and oppose genocide across the whole world.”

Scott Weinstein, a health care provider, spoke in French and English as a Canadian Jew, saying that the Israeli government’s genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is causing more anti-Semitism. “The October 7th attacks against Israel came about partially as a response to generations of Israeli abuse and that this should be a wake-up call for the need for justice for Palestinians, not revenge.”

In 1993, Beer and Starhawk organized a large alternative opening ceremony for the Museum urging the inclusion of the persecution and extermination of homosexual and bisexual men which the Museum promptly did. Beer and Starhawk sent an open letter in November 2023 calling on the Museum to replicate its 1993 inclusive response and to again fulfill its mission to end genocide against all people. Beer said “We stated on this Museum plaza then and today, “Silence=Death”.

This action was endorsed by Nonviolence International, Jewish Voice for Peace-DC Metro, and Friends of Sabeel North America. A video of the event can be found here.

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November 10, 2023

Letter to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum: Silence = Death

Dear US Holocaust Memorial Council Chair, Stuart E. Eizenstat,

The huge pogrom attack on Jewish communities near Gaza, and revenge attack on 2.2 million Palestinian Gazan residents raises the painful question – What can and should the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) do now? The Holocaust Museum has shown years of leadership as it seeks to inspire “citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity.”  The Museum also memorializes the experience of Jews and the cancer of anti-Semitism and humanizes other victim communities of the Holocaust. 

The Museum has come a long way.  We organized an alternative opening ceremony for the Holocaust Museum in 1993 because the official ceremony explicitly excluded Gay/Bi/Lesbian people (homosexuals). Within the year, the Museum embraced the pink triangle Holocaust story and doubled down on its inclusion of other victim groups such as the Roma, people with disabilities, Slavs, and others. To ensure that the Museum maintains its contemporary relevance, it created the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide whose purpose is genocide prevention, crisis response, justice, and accountability. Recently, the Museum’s exhibition on the genocide of the Rohingya was a strong political statement and superbly presented. 

Last month, the museum (on the Press Room webpage) condemned the horrific attacks on Israel and Jews by Hamas on October 7th and then released a statement in defense of the State of Israel. Yet, when it comes to genocidal threats and the attack on 2.2 million Palestinian people, (not to mention scores of Jewish pogroms on many communities in the West Bank), the Holocaust Museum website appears to be silent. Setting the bombing (and 10,000 deaths) aside, halting water, food, medicine and fuel to an entire population is barbaric and genocidal. The fact that this is being done by a Jewish state is doubly tragic and ironic.

Attacks on Palestinian civilians and the death of thousands of children will not make Israel safe; it will only foster more anger and resentment.  Only a just resolution of the conflict can assure true peace for Israel and Palestine alike. 

At the alternative opening ceremony in 1993, we laid a pink triangle flower arrangement on the Museum Plaza with a black and white sign that read “Silence = Death.” This referenced the silence of the Museum toward Gay & Bisexual men as well as the silence of policymakers and society towards a generation of Gay & Bisexual men who died unnecessarily from AIDS. 

Will the Museum speak up for an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire and humanitarian assistance for all? Will it help decision-makers, the military, and the public work to prevent genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians now and in the longer term? 

The mission of the Holocaust Museum should be universal, not one primarily based on the exceptionalism of Jews.  There is an urgent and dramatic opportunity for the Holocaust Museum to elevate its mission of Never Again. Silence in this case means death for countless Palestinian people.

Shalom,

Michael Beer

Starhawk

Michael Beer serves as the Director of Nonviolence International and author of Civil Resistance Tactics of the 21st Century.

Starhawk is an author, activist, permaculture designer and teacher, and a prominent voice in modern earth-based spirituality and ecofeminism.