“The first Arab museum of the Holocaust,” as it is touted, somewhat tentatively in the Israeli press, is in fact a hopeful shot in the dark fired off by a single man: the Israeli-Arab attorney Khaled Mahmid, 43, whose education at Hebrew University opened his eyes to the horrors of the Holocaust in a way an Arabic education in Israel did not. Mahmid has spent 20,000 shekels (about $5,000) of his own money to turn a section of his flourishing Nazareth offices into The Arab Institute for The Holocaust Research and Education.

Pointing out that the Israeli ministry of education has never printed more than “a half-page” on the Holocaust in Arabic, Mahmid has produced an entire pamphlet and a Web site (alkaritha.org) to instruct and educate the Palestinian people, and perhaps the Arab world, about the tragedy of the Jews.

Its perspective is uncommon for most Holocaust memorials and museums, arguing — in Mahmid’s words — that “the Palestinian people paid the price for the Jewish Holocaust in that they became the refugees and remained without a country. The fact that Jews were murdered in Germany led to Palestinians not having a state.”

It may be the most explicitly political of all Holocaust museums. Mahmid hopes the place will help Israeli Jews and Arabs understand each others’ variously intertwined torments and afflictions. It will “hopefully lead toward a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an end to discriminatory policies towards Arab citizens and the acceptance that they deserve equal rights,” Mahmid has told Israeli media.

“Israel was established on the ashes of the Holocaust,” he said in a press conference last month. “This is how Jews around the world see Israel… understanding the fact that personal security is perhaps the major concern of Jews in Israel and elsewhere, as a direct outcome of the Holocaust and the feelings of persecution, is extremely important.”

This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.

We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.

This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.

With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

Don't just read the Forward - invest in it. Make a gift today.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Support Our Work