The letter came with a picture of Barakeh, on which a swastika had been drawn. He has filed a complaint with the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) Officer. Barakeh receives many threatening letters, and that these are usually opened carefully and then given to the Knesset Officer. However the letter in question was not, as in the past, related to his parliamentary and political activities but rather to an upcoming trip.

 Type-written in Hebrew in red, blue, and black print, it resounded with curses and said, “If you go to Auschwitz your entrance there will pollute the camp”. A newspaper article on a bill proposed by MK Danny Dannon (Likud) was attached. Dannon had proposed that Barakeh be banned from traveling with the delegation. Barakeh’s picture, with a swastika drawn on his forehead, was also included.

Yet Barakeh says he was not surprised. “If an MK appealed to this level of ignobility and said in parliamentary language that I shouldn’t be allowed to go, than why shouldn’t a citizen react this way? I have long since ceased to marvel at people’s ignoble racism,” he said. He added that it was “needless to ask” whether the letter would stop him from traveling to Auschwitz for the 65th anniversary of its liberation.

Last week Barakeh walked out of a lecture held for the members of the delegation at Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. The leading communist party member was angered by remarks made by the lecturer, who made accusations against communists and Arabs. Barakeh said the lecturer called them anti-Semites due to claims they have raised against the occupation policy of the Israeli government. 

He accused the lecturer of belittling the Holocaust, said he would have no part in the farce, and stormed out of the auditorium. “I regret that there are people who try to use this terrible tragedy in order to push an anti-communist and racist political agenda”, Barakeh said.