Dutchman returns Holocaust medal after family deaths in Gaza

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"The great-great grandchildren of my mother have lost their grandmother, three uncles, an aunt and a cousin at the hands of the Israeli military."

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: BBC News
By BBC News | August 15, 2014

The director of the Righteous Among the Nations department at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial Museum holds the 'Righteous Among The Nations,' medal, on September 30, 2013 in Jerusalem.

A Dutchman honoured by Israel for hiding a Jewish child during World War Two has handed back his medal after six of his relatives were killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza.

Henk Zanoli, 91, wrote to the Israeli embassy in The Hague to say he could no longer hold the honour.

He said an Israeli F-16 had destroyed his great-niece's home in Gaza, killing all inside, in the recent offensive.

The Israeli embassy has declined to comment on Mr Zanoli's action.

'An insult'

Mr Zanoli and his mother were awarded the "Righteous Among the Nations" honour by Israel in 2011 for helping to shelter a Jewish child from the Nazis in their family home from 1943-45.

The award is accorded to non-Jews who risked their lives to protect and save Jews during the Holocaust.

However, Mr Zanoli said in a letter published by Israel's Haaretz newspaper that "to hold on to the honour granted to me by the State of Israel under these circumstances, would be an insult... to those in my family, four generations on, who lost no less than six of their relatives in Gaza."

"The great-great grandchildren of my mother have lost their grandmother, three uncles, an aunt and a cousin at the hands of the Israeli military," he wrote, referring to an air strike by the Israeli military on 20 July.

His great-niece is a Dutch diplomat who is married to Palestinian economist Ismail Ziadah, who was born in a refugee camp in central Gaza.

Mr Ziadah's mother, three brothers, a sister-in-law and nine-year-old nephew were all killed after their family home was hit by Israeli aircraft.

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