An Israeli student was arrested and fined for performing a Nazi salute at Auschwitz during a school trip.

An Israeli high school student was arrested and questioned by police for doing a Nazi salute during a school trip to Auschwitz, Israeli media reported on Sunday.

The teenager from Kiryat Bialik was on his school’s field trip to Poland when he did the gesture under the entrance sign to the camp.

He was questioned for two hours by Polish police and was fined approximately NIS 1,500 after security guards observed him performing the salute. The museum also captured the incident on its security cameras; the footage was handed over to the police.

Polish police charged him with promoting Nazism, local media reported. Performing a seig heil is illegal in Poland, and carries a potential sentence of up to two years in prison.

  • FundMECFSEnglish
    45·
    6 days ago

    Personally knowing some young Israeli’s.

    A lot of them don’t take the holocaust very seriously and tend to joke about it a lot, (maybe it’s a coping mechanism)? In any case, this is probably a case of an edgy high schooler trying to make their friends laugh.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      46·
      6 days ago

      Could be a coping mechanism. If they took it seriously they would probably have to reflect about the similarities between the Nazis and Israel.

      • kreskin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        Come on, we’re all thinking it: could also be that the student likes the thought of exterminating people. Maybe we just found a really honest zionist. How many videos have we all seen of Israelis jumping up and down and partying when they hear of their military’s war crimes?

      • ilega_dh@feddit.nlEnglish
        27·
        6 days ago

        It’s not that deep. Lots of teenagers do edgy stuff just because it’s edgy and not allowed.

        He’ll look back in 10 years cringing about himself.

              • jsomae@lemmy.mlEnglish
                1·
                2 days ago

                Touch grass, man. When people call zionists nazis, they mean they are genocidal ethno(-religious) fascists. They don’t literally mean they speak german, sport swastikas, heil hitler, and hate jews. Zionists despise literal nazis. I can’t believe this actually has to be explained.

                • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
                  1·
                  2 days ago

                  they don’t tend to speak german at a higher rate than the general population, that part is true. many prefer a burning cross or killing star to a swastika, that’s true. the ones that aren’t also old fashioned nazis, which are increasingly common.

                  the rest of what you’re saying is bullshit. the current head zio is a literal hitler apologist. look outside before asking me to touch grass, please.

      • sunflowercowboy@feddit.orgEnglish
        6·
        6 days ago

        It makes sense, essentially by remaining oblivious and reductive about one act you can then allow yourself to also be blind to your own current amoral actions. Essentially it’s easier to stay dense than it is to actually face the reality you are a part of.

        • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          1·
          6 days ago

          no. No I think they know what side of that conflict they would have been on. because it’s the side their ancestors were on-literally, look at what the zionists were doing during the run-up to world war two. it’s so bad. then look at how they treated holocaust survivors after. also not great.

          • jsomae@lemmy.mlEnglish
            1·
            2 days ago

            I think most teenagers are not nearly so self-aware. Most people see things as in-group/out-group, simple as that. Doing a nazi salute was probably meant as am (ignorant) way to defy authority; teen most likely was not thinking about palestine at all.

            • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
              2·
              2 days ago

              it’s not defying authority, and you’re thinking of american teens. zios absolutely do. they sing songs about killing them in school as young children. this is not a defiance of authority, it’s perfectly acceptable in that culture. expected, even.

              • jsomae@lemmy.mlEnglish
                1·
                2 days ago

                No – nazi salutes are not acceptable in Israeli culture. Nazi salutes are the ultimate anti-semitic gesture. Why would those be “expected”?

    • Madison420@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      5 days ago

      Fun fact Israelis in large part are not and were not German Jewish immigrants from WW2 and in fact there was a large vocal cadre of actual Holocaust survivors that weren’t and aren’t in favor of Israel as a country created in the mandate of Palestine in large part because of the whole terrorism and murdering Muslims thing.

  • jsomae@lemmy.mlEnglish
    28·
    7 days ago

    This is an idiotic teenager and should have no bearing on your opinion of Israel. (I shouldn’t have to say this, but if I don’t somebody will m’accuse: please note that I’m not defending Israel.)

    • kreskin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      Ben Gvir, Netenyahu, and Smotrich go on tv all the time calling for ethnic cleansing and war crimes. Should that have any bearing on my opinion of Israel?

      • jsomae@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        2 days ago

        Don’t really want to engage with an obvious troll, but yeah when the head of state says something like that, it should tell you all you need to know. I’ve seen idiotic teenagers from all over the world say idiotic things enough to know not to judge a society by their teenagers.

        • kreskin@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          If you want to ignore the obvious thats on you. And if you want to paint my citations of the facts reported in network news as “trolling” then its reality itself that you have a problem with.

            • kreskin@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              2 days ago

              eh, yeah. I guess I am loathe to excuse a teens misbehavior when it just reinforces the criminality of his government, but broadly speaking I do agree that teens arent capable of understanding their own actions like adults should be. I get the feeling theres a lot of apologists here saying One teen doesnt represent much, and how do we know the teen is even jewish, to try to make the issue go away, and I see a lot of disenganuous arguing by the zionists so I get an itchy finger on that. Anyway, my apologies, your reasoning is sound, if inconvenient.

              • jsomae@lemmy.mlEnglish
                1·
                2 days ago

                My point is that a teen’s behaviour doesn’t reinforce the criminality of his government, but is mostly orthogonal to it. I can see perhaps there’s a monkey-see monkey-do argument that does link a teen’s behaviour to his society’s, but Israelis are not fond of literal Nazi iconography, so I don’t think that applies here.

                If you try to use sketchy arguments like this to reinforce your opinions about Zionism, it only opens you to attack. Please, try to keep a level head, or we’ll all look stupid. Rather than trying to guess if somebody is an apologist based on the consequence of their argument, maybe check if the premise is sound instead like a rational person.

                (Aside: I also disagree with you about teens and self-understanding – I do think a lot of teenagers are mature and self-aware; my point is that it’s a high-variance distribution really.)

  • Treczoks@lemmy.worldEnglish
    22·
    6 days ago

    No need to put a stupid teenager in prison for a longer time for being stupid, but: A day or two behind bars on top of the fine might have had a better educational effect.

    • zer0@lemmy.mlEnglish
      56·
      7 days ago

      Teens doing dumb stuff isn’t a hall pass. Actions have consequences. Those consequences take this into account and often are mitigated but still enforced

      • Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.worldEnglish
        29·
        7 days ago

        Yeah the kid got like a $400 fine and told not to do that again. I think that’s a fair punishment for doing something really really stupid as a teenager.

        • uuldika@lemmy.mlEnglish
          3·
          7 days ago

          I’d thrown in some community service on top, or 24 hours in jail if that’s not feasible. Fines just go to the kid’s parents - who also deserve to be punished tbf, based on how badly they’ve raised their kid to behave.

          • Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            6 days ago

            Yeah I considered community service too, and I think it would be a fair alternative.

            When I was young and dumb I got caught spraying some graffiti and got like 50 or 60 hours of community service. Which would equal like $6-8/hr, and I think that’s a pretty even trade.

      • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
        7·
        7 days ago

        Most of the time I would agree with this. If a teen gets caught stealing or vandalizing I think they need to be taught a lesson. However, this feels like something done just to break the rules which is on point for most teens.

        • thisNotMyName@lemmy.worldEnglish
          34·
          7 days ago

          I’d rather see teens getting away with stealing or vandalism than with normalizing Nazi shit (especially at a place like Auschwitz)

          • M0oP0o@mander.xyzEnglish
            15·
            7 days ago

            Nazi shit, from an israeli teen. I can’t wrap my head around chocking such a onion worthy act getting written off by “boys will be boys”.

            Actually now I think on it, almost any time I hear about “dumb teen” stuff I think they get away with way more then what is healthy for society.

            • Norah (pup/it/she)English
              2·
              6 days ago

              It’s about the fact that teenagers have underdeveloped reasoning skills and deserve some leniency while they develop their sense of right from wrong. As well just, if your goal is there being a net reduction of nazis in society, then imprisoning a teenager for throwing the salute is probably not going to achieve that.

              • barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
                2·
                5 days ago

                Teens have a perfectly functional frontal cortex thing is they are still figuring out when to actually use it. They can be perfectly adult one moment, or in a particular area, and completely stupid in the other. Visiting Auschwitz, one might presume, would be a situation where an Israeli teen isn’t a rage of hormones. Be that when racing shopping carts.

                Sense of right and wrong develops way earlier.

              • M0oP0o@mander.xyzEnglish
                2·
                6 days ago

                the fact that teenagers have underdeveloped reasoning skills

                I can get that to a degree (like a 13 year old) but by 15 or 16 I expect about the same level of adulting as a US midwestern adult (not really a super high bar but enough to know that doing a nazi salute in a place dedicated to the memory of the victims of nazis while on a school trip from the only nation made up of the primary target of those same nazis, might be a life changing act).

                I just don’t get the level of coddling that is now going on with an increasingly older limit of what is considered children. I remember working my first part time job at 13 and told by older people then they moved out at the same age (so I should stop complaining or some such), and now I am told about 25 year old “kids”. Its nuts, these are functioning people and although yes some stupid actions are expected when young there is no reason to not hold people to at least a modicum of responsibility.

                • queermunist she/her@lemmy.mlEnglish
                  2·
                  6 days ago

                  … do you think Midwesterners have undeveloped reasoning skills on par with 16 year olds? I mean you readily admit that you expect stupid actions from them.

                • Norah (pup/it/she)English
                  1·
                  6 days ago

                  The fact that a 16yo has worse reasoning skills than an adult is fairly well researched. I wouldn’t call them a child though. But as a society we decided long ago that an <18yo isn’t held to the same standard of criminal liability as someone 18 or older. I don’t really know that I’ve seen what you’re referencing with 25 year olds being called kids. I just think there are too many folks in this thread that seem to think a high school student should go to prison for something like this.

  • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    9·
    6 days ago

    why is this in ‘not the onion’? just nazis being nazis. whose fucking idea was it to take a literal fucking nazi on a tour of auschwitz anyway?