What Germans owe Palestinians and Jews

JVL Introduction

We publish here a few short extracts from Peter Beinart’s most recent blog following his participation in the Hijacking Memory conference in Berlin.

German fears of being called antisemitic are – for obvious reasons – acute but have had the misplaced effect of outsourcing responsibility for identifying antisemitism and dealing with it to others.

The most uncritical supporters of “the Jewish state” have stepped in, and criticism of Israel is virtually beyond the pale.

Failing to recognise the lively debate and dissent among Jews over what constitutes antisemitism, the German parliament itself has advised that any support for BDS is antisemitic.

Its effect has been to criminalise support for Palestinian rights in contradiction with the democratic and universalist principles Germany claim to cherish at home.

This article was originally published by the Beinart Notebook on Tue 14 Jun 2022. Read the original here.