Anne Frank House from a Palestinian perspective

Besides of the joy travel brings to one’s heart, each destination is also an eye-opener.

When getting out of one’s environment, one starts wondering whether he/she would still have the same values, beliefs and norms.

Moreover, one would also learn tolerance and acceptance.

I took a trip to the Netherlands. A trip to Amsterdam, where culture and history are rich, and people are nice and open cannot be complete without a visit to Anne Frank House, the hiding place of the German Jewish girl who was one of the million victims of Nazi persecution.

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Anne had to move to Amsterdam with her family when the Nazis gained control over Germany.

When the persecution of the Jewish population increased, the family had to hide for two years in the annex of a friend’s house; later they were betrayed and sent to concentration camps and died.

Anne’s father, Otto Frank, the only survivor, published her diary later on. It became an international bestseller.

“People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but that doesn’t stop you from having your own opinion,” Anne said.

Touring the place where she and her family had to live silently for two years is an emotional experience that touches any human’s heart.

At the end of the tour, there was a short documentary with famous people commenting on their visit to the Anne Frank House, including Shimon Peres, the former Israeli president.

Peres said: “Her innocent, truthful voice will sing all over the world by many generations to come, so to understand the difference between being human and being satanic.”

When I heard his speech, all the grief in my heart turned to rage. I wanted to stand up and shout so all the tourists there could also hear my voice.

I imagined myself making this speech: “This man is such a hypocrite. His people were once subjected to racism, but his country is still doing the same thing to us. We, Palestinians, are the victims of a racist Zionist ideology. We have thousands of Anne Frank houses. Any tourist is welcome to visit.

“Our equivalent for this house are refugee camps located in Palestine and also in many neighbouring countries. The main difference is that visiting them could endanger one’s safety.

“We may not guarantee to you all the facilities offered here, like heating in winter and cooling in summer. If you visit in winter, rain will flood the camps and open sewage is washed into people’s houses. If you visit in summer, you may have a sunstroke.

“We cannot offer coffee or tea in a nice café after the tour, for lack of water. Electricity is not there most of the time so you might need to bring with you your own torches.

“If you pay attention during your tour at night, you will see in the tents the shadows of many children writing their diaries in the light of a candle.”

People were still watching the documentary while I was sitting with tears in my eyes.

They have to know that Palestinian refugees are still waiting. They have been waiting for 67 years. They were not sent to concentration camps to be burned, but instead to refugee camps were death is very slow and the right to return is a dream.

They often live in the worst conditions, have no citizenship, no fundamental rights and few life essentials.

If visitors do not like to pay a visit to the refugee camps, they can instead observe the daily life of the Palestinians.

A tour of the West Bank will make them familiar with the humiliation and segregation Palestinians are subjected to on daily basis.

The checkpoints, the segregation wall, the illegal settlements, youths in administrative detention, innocent blood spilled in the streets and much more would be the highlights of such a journey.

To paraphrase Peres’ quote, I could say that our innocent, truthful voices will keep resisting until the world can understand the difference between being human and being a Zionist.

The creation of Israel is “Palestine Holocaust Day” and the Palestinian people were subjected to the worst holocaust in history,” said Yasser Arafat.

The writer is a student at the University of Jordan. She contributed this article to The Jordan Times.