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Through a hall in the building's basement, past a large colour poster of Yasser Arafat and photos of Palestinians refugees in 1948, is a room where the cracked cement walls are covered with black-and-white photos showing the bodies of emaciated Jews piled high, with German SS soldiers looking on.

Arab Israeli lawyer Khaled Mahameed, the man who initiated this Holocaust memorial photo exhibit in the West Bank, is convinced that teaching about Jewish trauma is the path to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

“The photos of the Holocaust have enormous strength to change the positions of both sides, more than all the armies in the world,” says Mr. Mahameed, who bought the photos with his own money from Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem and translated all the captions into Arabic.

But teaching the Holocaust to Palestinians is no simple task. The subject is controversial here and throughout the Middle East. In Israel, it is often viewed as a justification for the Jewish state's existence. That is exactly what causes Palestinians to either ignore it or deny that it ever happened.

Palestinians explain they are hurting from the Jewish state so why should they learn about Jewish suffering. In the past year in Ni'lin, Israeli soldiers have killed four youths from this once quiet agricultural community during weekly protests against the construction of the Israeli security barrier.

One of them was 10-year-old Ahmed Mussa. His uncle, Hassan Mussa, is one of the leaders of Ni'lin's Popular Committee for the Resistance to the Fence, which Mr. Mahameed had to convince in order to display the exhibition in the town.

“The impetus behind this exhibition is to express our absolute rejection of killing of people – regardless of their place, religion and even colour,” Mr. Mussa, a 35-year-old schoolteacher, said in fluent English. “We are informing the Jewish people we feel sorry for what was done to you. But we have a question: Why do you punish us?”

Mr. Mussa, who learned about the Holocaust from Mr. Mahameed, gives a tour of the exhibition. But he turns his head away when he reaches a photo in which two people stand on top of a pile of naked corpses.

“I don't want this to happen to people and I don't want to see this happen to my people,” he said pointing, but not looking. “It made me think about random killing of innocent people and about Gaza and all that.”

The death of hundreds of Gazans in Israel's recent invasion is still fresh on many Palestinians' minds. It's also depicted on a short wall reserved for Palestinian pain. Here, photos of dead Gazan children are glued alongside pictures of the four dead Ni'lin youth and other photos of soldiers dragging Ni'lin farmers from their land.

Mr. Mussa said says the exhibit may “bring people closer together … [and] give a push to make peace because we'll have become totally aware that both are victims.”

Mr. Mahameed has meetings planned with people in the Palestinian Authority to convince them to teach about the Holocaust in the school system. But, in the meantime, his efforts in Ni'lin may soon come to an end. The Amira family, whose basement hosts the exhibit, said it has received a call from someone in the Israeli security services, who advised to take down the exhibit or risk troubles to the family.

Special to The Globe and Mail