Two months ago, the Muslim lawyer from the biblical town of Nazareth took it upon himself to do what no Arab has ever before dared — he launched a museum dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust.
As museums go, it isn't much. Working with a little help from Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, Mahameed transformed the waiting room of his law office into an abbreviated yet highly disturbing and historically accurate gallery of Jewish suffering at the hands of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.
But as symbols go, Mahameed's efforts have been hailed as a watershed moment in Israeli-Arab relations. In a conflict that trades on mutual exclusion, perceptions of hatred and the denial of pain other than one's own, he appears to have risen above it all.
Not much to add, other than that this kind of empathy is far too often lacking in public discourse. Kudos to Khaled Kasab Mahameed, and to the Star for covering the story.
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