{"id":528200,"date":"2022-02-24T20:11:05","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T20:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=70780"},"modified":"2022-02-24T20:11:05","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T20:11:05","slug":"the-nz-anti-vax-movements-exploitation-of-holocaust-imagery-is-part-of-a-long-and-sorry-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/02\/24\/the-nz-anti-vax-movements-exploitation-of-holocaust-imagery-is-part-of-a-long-and-sorry-history\/","title":{"rendered":"The NZ anti-vax movement\u2019s exploitation of Holocaust imagery is part of a long and sorry history"},"content":{"rendered":"
ANALYSIS:<\/strong> By Giacomo Lichtner<\/a>, Te Herenga Waka \u2014 Victoria University of Wellington<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n During the anti-lockdown protests<\/a> at Parliament last year, I was told about a 15-year-old who stopped to ask someone why they were crying.<\/p>\n The person replied they were Jewish and had been upset by Nazi imagery used by some protesters, including swastikas chalked on the ground.<\/p>\n Water bottle in hand, they set about washing these off, until a well-dressed, middle-aged woman threatened to kill them and parliamentary security ushered them away.<\/p>\n The local Jewish community sounded a warning<\/a> about the \u201cgrotesque and deeply hurtful\u201d appropriation of the Holocaust by protesters that, as the situation in Wellington suggests, went unheeded.<\/p>\n The current occupation of Parliament grounds this month has also seen disturbing references<\/a> to Nazism and the Holocaust. These have been variously deployed to call for the execution of journalists and politicians, invoke the Nuremberg Code<\/a> and compare vaccine mandates to the Nazi persecution of the Jews.<\/p>\n Not only do such comparisons rest on false equivalences, absurd leaps of logic and historical anachronism, they are also tactics that tap into long histories of exploitation of the Holocaust for political ends.<\/p>\n Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors are condemning the use of anti-Semitic material at anti-mandate protests and are urging people to watch their language. https:\/\/t.co\/KhhqpA1CPT<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 The Press Newsroom (@PressNewsroom) February 20, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
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