A new chapter for Arabs and Jews - at Auschwitz

[Behind the Aegis]

As I marched on the ground of Auschwitz, dozens of visitors asked to take my photo. I’m not a celebrity of any sort, but wearing a hijab and walking with other Arabs from Morocco, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Algeria in a place known for Jewish suffering made our presence there a source of fascination.

Dozens came up to us and with tears in their eyes and said how grateful they were to see Arabs acknowledge — and not dismiss — their suffering.

I arrived as part of a delegation organized by Sharaka, a non-governmental initiative that grows the impact of the Abraham Accords by transforming the vision of people-to-people peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors into a reality.

While this was my second time joining Sharaka on a mission to March of the Living — the annual march from the Auschwitz concentration camp to the Birkenau extermination camp on Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah) — my knowledge about Jewish and Israeli history continues to evolve.

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[electric_blue68]

1. Quite moving. Reminds me a bit of the group "Seeds of Peace".