Arab-Israeli delegation to tour Auschwitz, meet with Polish Jews

Event will mark the first-ever Arabic-language Holocaust memorial ceremony at Auschwitz.

By World Israel News Staff

A delegation of Arab-Israelis is set to hold a memorial service at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland later this week on Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah).

Led by pro-Israel Zionist advocate Yoseph Haddad, a Christian-Arab citizen of Israel, the group will travel to eastern Europe to tour the death camp and hear from Holocaust survivors.

According to a statement from Haddad, this will mark the first time ever that a Holocaust memorial event will be held in the Arabic language at Auschwitz.

“It is important to us to make the memory of the Holocaust accessible to Arab Israeli society and to the Arab world, because every person must be familiar with the most horrific event in human history and learn about it and from it, and thus fight despicable phenomena, from Holocaust denial to all expressions of racism,” Haddad said.

The group, made up of Christians, Druze and Muslims, are all members of the NGO founded by Haddad, Together — Vouch for Each Other, which encourages greater integration and participation of Arabs into Israeli society.

On Monday morning, the group boarded an El Al flight bound for Poland. Upon arrival, they will meet with members of Krakow’s Jewish community.

Haddad said that the delegation brought along bags of food to distribute to Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

In preparation for the trip, the delegates toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem and met with Holocaust survivor Aryeh Shilanksy.

Shilansky’s grandson, Gili, speaks Arabic and translated his testimony in real-time.

In February, Haddad’s visit to the Irish parliament was opposed by the far-left Sinn Fein party due to his Zionist views.

“For years, Palestinian and anti-Israel speakers have been hosted in the Irish Parliament, and I expect to come and speak to the Irish people and MPs to [let them] hear a different point of view,” Haddad told media in response to a lawmaker’s call to ban him from speaking.

“It is important that they now hear an authentic voice from the Israeli-Arab society that will present the truth.”