On January 27th 2026, the world commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day; a day dedicated to the loss of six million Jewish lives at the hands of the Nazis. However, year-by-year, we see how politicians, news broadcasters, and schools have started to omit Jewish suffering from events.

This year, we have seen this go a step further. Britain’s national broadcaster, the BBC, which is viewed by more than 90% of Britain’s adults, chose to erase Jews from its morning coverage on Holocaust Memorial Day. While the BBC did apologise eventually, the damage was done. Its coverage had already reached millions across the UK. This was one of many controversies among the Jewish community. 

But the BBC wasn’t the only one to erase Jewish victimhood on Holocaust Memorial Day. One of Britain’s most popular political parties – the Greens – also chose to erase Jews from the memory of the Holocaust. Despite being the only Jewish-led party in Britain, their message, which chose to remember “ all genocides,” twists the narrative about the Holocaust into a narrative device that can ultimately be used to defame survivors and their descendants who overwhelmingly support Israel . Given that the majority of the party’s members are young Britons, this message plays a significant role in shaping their understanding of the Holocaust.

Two major consequences arise from this pivot away from publicly acknowledging Jews. First, it makes it easier for antizionists to invert the memory of the Holocaust to defame Israelis and Zionist Jews. Second, it contributes to the wider public’s refusal to confront anti-Jewish sentiment within movements widely seen as morally righteous or to reckon with their role in the rising number of antisemitic attacks. To some, this can ultimately lead to rationalizing or even justifying violence against Jews.

As Israel’s war on Gaza has intensified, antisemitism and antizionism has skyrocketed to the point where many refuse to see Jews as victims and will appropriate the symbolic power of the Holocaust to disregard and sometimes justify the current targeting of the Jews. If detractors aren’t erasing Jews as the main targets of the Nazi ideology, they are inverting its memory to vilify Israel’s defensive actions in Gaza. This was seen most recently when anti-Israel groups planned a protest at Buchenwald Concentration Camp in response to a ban of pro-Palestinian symbols on the camp’s grounds.

This is further exemplified by the discourse around the Bondi Beach Hanukkah massacre. On that day, many lives were spared by a civilian, Ahmed Al Ahmed, who disarmed the attacker. The overall target of the attack couldn’t have been clearer: Jews. Yet, when videos circulated of Ahmed’s heroic actions, the world rushed to turn an antisemitic tragedy into a feel-good story. Within hours after the shooting, a GoFundMe was set up for Ahmed. Donations flooded in from over 43,000 people, raising over $2.5M overnight. The suffering of the Jewish victims at the hands of Islamist terrorism were overshadowed by a narrative focused on fighting Islamophobia. 

Ahmed Al Ahmed is nothing short of a hero, but the way his story was treated in popular discourse reflects this growing aversion to empathy toward Jews. 

Without that, the Holocaust (and every other massacre of Jews) can be recast not as the product of a profound hatred of Jews but as merely another example of ethnic tribalism. The implication follows that anyone is capable of committing the same evil, Jews included, even Holocaust survivors and refugees. Once that premise takes hold, the antizionist falsehoods about Israel dominating public discourse globally begin to appear plausible. Since Israel is not what antizionists claim it to be, no diplomatic or nonviolent strategy can “solve” the problem as they define it. 

Once Israel is framed as a moral equivalent to the Nazis, the logic leaves little room for anything but confrontation. In that framework, violence is no longer seen as extreme but as justified. Since antizionism is essentially the newest form of bigotry against Jews, its violence targets Israel as a military force, then as a state, then against its citizens, and eventually against its supporters. Those supporters make up 15 million of the world’s 17 million Jews and millions of others. To call this a slippery slope would be an understatement. 

But there is a third explanation. I’ve noticed that in all political situations but particularly with Jewish issues, people are forced to ‘pick sides’ and stick with them unconditionally. People are terrified to show even the slightest amount of support for Jews in case it suggests that they support Israel, which may lead to being ostracized by their social circles. For the last 2 years, this fear has become deeply embedded into the minds of millions of people that they view any acknowledgement of terror attacks against Jews equal to supporting Israel and therefore, controversial. 

I’m not suggesting people need to become  card-carrying Zionists,, But they should at least not repeat the sins of the past. The Holocaust started with words that dehumanized Jews. No one challenged the lies. We all have a duty to act differently. . The promise of ‘Never Again’ applies today. We must ensure we do everything in our power to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive and to keep local Jewish communities safe.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)