Deeply offensive,' Holocaust Museum says of now-canceled protest

(JNS) — The members of Doctors Against Genocide, which calls itself “a global health coalition committed to stopping genocide” and has some 3,100 combined followers on Instagram and X, may have taken their Hippocratic Oaths. But the group first did a good deal of harm. 

First, the group announced a Dec. 28 gathering at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum at 11 a.m., followed by a 3 p.m. gathering outside the White House. “Urgent call to action,” it announced. “Stop the genocide in Gaza.” 

The announcement urged attendees to get free tickets to the museum. “Don’t ring in 2024 with an ongoing genocide,” it said. “Action is open to all. We encourage healthcare workers to wear white coats/uniforms.”

The Holocaust Museum website prohibits a list of things, including: “protest or demonstrate on museum property or display or carry placards, signs or banners.”

“Our museum is the national memorial to the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. It is deeply offensive to survivors and the memory of the victims to exploit Holocaust history,” the museum posted Tuesday to its 437,000 followers on social media. 

“Our long-standing policy against protests in our museum preserves this space for the solemn memory of victims, the reflections of survivors and its educational mission,” it added.

Doctors Against Genocide posted that “We made a decision to cancel the event. We will be announcing future events with more detailed communication.”

It also claimed that there were “misconceptions surrounding our Holocaust Museum event, which has been misrepresented as an antisemitic gathering.” Instead, the group claimed, the goal was to visit the museum “to express our empathy for the horrors of that genocide. Additionally, we wanted to bring awareness to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

“Our initial communication did not sufficiently convey this, leading to misinterpretations and unfounded accusations from parties with ill intentions,” it said.

In a separate post, the group claimed the event was supposed to be a way “to learn from the museum’s initiatives in genocide education and prevention to inform our own efforts as an organization dedicated to preventing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide around the world.”