Pro-Palestinian student activist at George Washington University claimed Anne Frank did not die in a concentration camp
By Spencer Irvine
Accuracy in Academia
January 18, 2020
A progressive, left-wing alternative media website called NowThis News published a video where four pro-Palestinian student activists at George Washington University criticized President Donald Trump for signing an executive order on anti-Semitism. But, within a couple of days, the website removed the video due to one of the students insinuating that the Holocaust did not exist.
At least three of the students wore a keffiyeh, a checkered black and white scarf, which is considered a symbol of Palestinian nationalism. The students held up a flag which read, “Jewish Voice for Peace,” and the video referred to another pro-Palestinian activist group, Students for Justice in Palestine (known by the acronym SJP). The video was ironic because none of the activists could explain why they were offended by the executive order, which aimed to protect Jews as anti-Semitic attacks have increased in recent years.
One of the activists claimed that Anne Frank did not die in a concentration camp. Referring to Trump and his support for Israel, the activist said, “We’re already seeing what’s happening. We’re seeing people die at the border from lack of medical care. That’s how Anne Frank died. She didn’t die in a concentration camp. She died of typhus.” The activist’s remarks demonstrated that she did not believe that the Holocaust happened and therefore, millions of Jews did not die in Nazi Germany’s concentration camps. But the video edited her comment’s subtitles to ignore this example of Holocaust revisionism.
The edited subtitle replaced “in” to “from” to mitigate the impact of what the activist said. But the editing job did not erase the fact that the activist’s remark implied that she believed the Holocaust was a hoax.
Contrary to the activist’s claim, Anne Frank died of typhus while living in a concentration camp. Concentration camps were facilities operated by Nazi Germany, where they subjected Jews and other groups of people to horrific acts, such as death by gas chambers, lack of nutrition, government experimentation, and abuse. The activist’s Holocaust denial demonstrated an egregious example of rampant anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial at its worst.
It was not surprising that NowThis News removed the video from its website due to the offensive, anti-Semitic content.
The activists’ primary complaint was that Trump was the “least qualified person in the planet” to talk about Judaism and Jews in general. The video claimed that Trump often promoted anti-Semitic rhetoric, without recognizing that Trump was joking about Jewish stereotypes. The activists complained that Trump’s executive order discriminated against their pro-Palestinian views and put them at risk of investigation by the federal government, if not the banning of their activist activities at George Washington University.
None of the activists acknowledged how multiple Jewish groups praised the executive order’s signing, such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which tracks anti-Semitic crimes as a part of its mission. The ADL said the following:
“In a climate of rising anti-Semitism, this Executive Order provides valuable guidance on anti-Semitism, giving law enforcement and campus officials an important additional tool to help identify and fight this pernicious hate. It also reaffirms protection of Jews under Title VI without infringing on First Amendment rights. These are all important steps forward.”
Instead, the activists focused on anti-Trump rhetoric and blamed the Trump administration for attempting to censor their criticism of the Israeli government. Yet and still, they did not explain why their activism was different from acts of anti-Semitism or anti-Semitic rhetoric.
In other words, the video was yet another example of anti-Israeli, left-wing propaganda which has become a serious problem on college campuses across the United States.
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