“Terrible things are happening outside. At any time of night and day, poor, helpless people are being dragged out of their homes. Families are torn apart; men, women, and children are separated. Children have come home from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Everyone is scared.” -Anne Frank, 1943
You’d think that a book about a genocide that killed ⅔ of Europe’s Jewish population, specifically the parts about what would happen before they knew that people were being killed, wouldn’t be relevant nearly 100 years after the start of the Second World War, but here we are. The same people who don’t like being called Nazis because they think it’s “offensive” are repeating the exact same ideology that they were pushing back in 1939. The state protects its hate as “free speech” yet censors anyone criticizing Israel.
Now, you might be wondering what Israel has to do with any of this, and I have one word in response: Nakba. Nakba is an Arabic word meaning “catastrophe”, and it’s only ever used in English to describe a particular event that occurred in Occupied Palestine in 1947, where the Israeli settlers forced upwards of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and into camps, just as the Nazis had done to them 10 years earlier.
Let that sink in. When, as of recently, have we seen a forced mass exodus of a particular group of people to camps in places they weren’t originally from? Maybe a particular acronym would jog your memory: USA. The United States started off as a British colony, just like Palestine. However, the US actually gained its independence, unlike Palestine, which was set up for failure by the British from the very beginning. While Palestinians are native to that land, the Europeans are not native to this one. Jewish people, while certain groups do hail from West Asia, most do not. The majority killed in the Holocaust belonged to the Ashkenazi & Sephardic Jewish diaspora, which emerged from Europe, not Palestine. Just like in the United States, both states had mass exoduses of their native populations, forcing them into smaller plots of land where they would be starved, treated inhumanely, and left to die in disease-ridden squalor. Known by different names, they both served one goal: to take the natives out of power to make way for the settlers. And they both succeeded.
Now, 249 years later, we have an official government group made to expel foreigners who overstayed their government-decided welcomes—just as the British did in the 17th century and the Zionists did in 1947. They always say, “But that history’s past us now! It could never happen again because we know how it happened the first time!” And to that, I say it absolutely can. Trump’s rise to power has had some very concerning similarities to the rise of power of Adolf Hitler, and not even in a subtle way. MAGA Republicans worship Trump the same way that the Nazis worshipped Hitler. They voted for racism, and they got racism delivered. They all were convinced by Trump that they wanted to expel the Latinos because they were “ruining their economy” and “stealing their jobs,” just as Hitler convinced Germans that Jewish people were doing the same. They dehumanized them. Hitler called them demons; Trump calls them illegals.
This is where it doesn’t click for me. In fact, the whole concept of ICE doesn’t click for me. How could you, a descendant of an immigrant who obviously did not arrive in America legally—the husband of an immigrant, who only got papers for marrying you—shun those who commit the same actions as your own ancestors years later? How could you have an organization that strips people from their homes for not having proper documents that you not only made extremely hard to obtain in the first place, but also have squadrons of armed agents at these sites ready to arrest the undocumented who try to obtain documents? How do you, colonizer, have the gall to come to our land and displace us for trying to live by the rules you forced upon us? Why are the brown people “illegal” and not you?
Why do we need to know our rights for detainment when your people could come onto the land and hunt ours for sport? Why should we obey the orders of an occupying agent in our land? No human, no matter the race, religion, or identity, is illegal. We did not cross your borders; your borders crossed us. The land you call yours was stolen from us in wars you facilitated for your selfish needs. You colonized our brothers and sisters in Polynesia, in Southeast Asia, and in the Antilles, all while clutching the bible in one hand, the flag in the other, and speaking the word “freedom” as if you’ve brought it to us. You claim to be the land of the free while you imprison millions, deport thousands, and kill hundreds in silence.
“Illegals” plague the streets, and they’re clad in yellow-embroidered camouflaged gear and face coverings with hats proudly flaunting who they are. Today’s Nazis.
Now, you might be wondering what Israel has to do with any of this, and I have one word in response: Nakba. Nakba is an Arabic word meaning “catastrophe”, and it’s only ever used in English to describe a particular event that occurred in Occupied Palestine in 1947, where the Israeli settlers forced upwards of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and into camps, just as the Nazis had done to them 10 years earlier.
Let that sink in. When, as of recently, have we seen a forced mass exodus of a particular group of people to camps in places they weren’t originally from? Maybe a particular acronym would jog your memory: USA. The United States started off as a British colony, just like Palestine. However, the US actually gained its independence, unlike Palestine, which was set up for failure by the British from the very beginning. While Palestinians are native to that land, the Europeans are not native to this one. Jewish people, while certain groups do hail from West Asia, most do not. The majority killed in the Holocaust belonged to the Ashkenazi & Sephardic Jewish diaspora, which emerged from Europe, not Palestine. Just like in the United States, both states had mass exoduses of their native populations, forcing them into smaller plots of land where they would be starved, treated inhumanely, and left to die in disease-ridden squalor. Known by different names, they both served one goal: to take the natives out of power to make way for the settlers. And they both succeeded.
Now, 249 years later, we have an official government group made to expel foreigners who overstayed their government-decided welcomes—just as the British did in the 17th century and the Zionists did in 1947. They always say, “But that history’s past us now! It could never happen again because we know how it happened the first time!” And to that, I say it absolutely can. Trump’s rise to power has had some very concerning similarities to the rise of power of Adolf Hitler, and not even in a subtle way. MAGA Republicans worship Trump the same way that the Nazis worshipped Hitler. They voted for racism, and they got racism delivered. They all were convinced by Trump that they wanted to expel the Latinos because they were “ruining their economy” and “stealing their jobs,” just as Hitler convinced Germans that Jewish people were doing the same. They dehumanized them. Hitler called them demons; Trump calls them illegals.
This is where it doesn’t click for me. In fact, the whole concept of ICE doesn’t click for me. How could you, a descendant of an immigrant who obviously did not arrive in America legally—the husband of an immigrant, who only got papers for marrying you—shun those who commit the same actions as your own ancestors years later? How could you have an organization that strips people from their homes for not having proper documents that you not only made extremely hard to obtain in the first place, but also have squadrons of armed agents at these sites ready to arrest the undocumented who try to obtain documents? How do you, colonizer, have the gall to come to our land and displace us for trying to live by the rules you forced upon us? Why are the brown people “illegal” and not you?
Why do we need to know our rights for detainment when your people could come onto the land and hunt ours for sport? Why should we obey the orders of an occupying agent in our land? No human, no matter the race, religion, or identity, is illegal. We did not cross your borders; your borders crossed us. The land you call yours was stolen from us in wars you facilitated for your selfish needs. You colonized our brothers and sisters in Polynesia, in Southeast Asia, and in the Antilles, all while clutching the bible in one hand, the flag in the other, and speaking the word “freedom” as if you’ve brought it to us. You claim to be the land of the free while you imprison millions, deport thousands, and kill hundreds in silence.
“Illegals” plague the streets, and they’re clad in yellow-embroidered camouflaged gear and face coverings with hats proudly flaunting who they are. Today’s Nazis.
