Contesting the “Zionist” Narrative: Arab Responses to the Holocaust

Using several anecdotal examples as case studies, this chapter examines Arab responses to the Holocaust and highlights continuities and changes in Arab attitudes and in academic research since the emergence of an Arab-Holocaust discourse. It juxtaposes these examples with the reactions to the signing of the reparations agreement between Israel and West Germany in September 1952. The chapter shows that despite the changes in the discourse, most of the themes that appeared after World War II still prevail and that the Holocaust is used as a tool in the Arab–Israeli conflict to contest the legitimacy of Zionism and the state of Israel. In view of the crisis in Jewish–Muslim relations, especially since the eruption of the Arab–Israeli conflict, the rescue stories, even if they are myths, are instrumental as a pedagogical tool for improving Muslim-Jewish relations, encouraging interfaith dialogue, combating Holocaust denial, and immunizing anti-Zionism and anti-Israel rhetoric from accusations of antisemitism.