Germany’s anti-Palestinian censorship turns on Jews
JVL Introduction
Germany’s post-war concern to atone for the and to actively educate its population about Germany’s historical responsibility for the Holocaust was and remains admirable, but it has been leading recently in increasingly perverse directions.
So concerned not to cause offence to any Jew, it has ended up effectively labelling criticism of Israel in any shape or form as antisemitism.
Palestinians in Germany have suffered from constant accusations of being antisemitic merely for drawing attention to the nakba and their ongoing oppression. The anti-BDS resolution passed by the Bundestag in 2019 has opened the way to increasing repression.
Increasingly, it is critical Jews – often Israelis who have chosen to live in Germany – who are on the receiving end of such accusations, as Hebh Jamal describes below.
This article was originally published by +972 Magazine on Tue 4 Apr 2023. Read the original here.
Germany’s anti-Palestinian censorship turns on Jews
Anti-Zionist Jews in Germany are increasingly being targeted with accusations of antisemitism, a charge usually directed at Palestinians.
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Recent publications have suggested that the association of Islamophobia with support for Israel’s illegal actions against Palestinians is three times more common than antisemitism in supporters of Palestinian equal rights.
Maybe it’s time we went on the attack?
https://jewishvoiceforliberation.org.uk/article/is-censoring-only-one-side-of-the-israel-palestine-debate-justified/
People might want to see an article I did on this
https://azvsas.blogspot.com/2022/12/when-german-state-bans-jewish-anti.html
The irony is that the Nazi state too banned anti-Zionist organisations from 1936 whilst according Zionist organisations a fully legal status until 1939.
On 28 January 1935 Reinhard Heydrich solution’ issued a directive stating:
‘the activity of the Zionist-oriented youth organisations that are engaged in the occupational restructuring of the Jews … lies in the interest of the National Socialist state’s leadership…. (they are) not to be treated with that strictness that it is necessary to apply to the members of the so-called German-Jewish organisations (assimilationists).’
But even the Nazis didn’t claim that their actions were motivated by opposition to anti-Semitism!
The underlying source of the problem is never stated by jvl. The US gives $5bn military aid to the Zionist Israeli state, but not for nothing. Israel acts as a resolutely committed military cop in the region for Western imperialism, which is absolutely indispensable to imperialism. The Zionist state is also by far the supreme intell gatherer across the region, not just for its own needs but all the more so for the needs of its military paymasters. Quid pro quo, imperialism more and more organises, ideologises and establishes all the obscene, warped “antisemitism” that eg your publication exposes.
Their hugely motivated “antisemitism” is not really about actual antisemitism but instead serves as a device to defend Israeli Zionist bantustaning of the Palestinians.
However, a very large part of the anti-BDS politicians, administrators, journalists, media moguls, imperialist military top brass, and so on — are not at all hostile to antisemitism, but indeed are antisemites.
They are only protecting Israel and Zionism for the outlined military reasons. That’s it. Otherwise they are antisemites, in many cases quite virulently. The mass of antisemites in their political parties for example have been placed under order to keep their antisemitism bottled up, completely.
However, when the Zionist state begins to fall to bits and its capacity as military cop becomes comprised and shakey, imperialism will have to place its military aid under review, likewise its intense political support internationally. Then one can expect the bottled up antisemitism to be relaxed, then relaxed so more. What then? Do you find this important at all?
So why participate in the suppression? Taking the line of least resistance on the issue will just make the eventual explosion more powerful. Don’t you realise this?
Of course, other states present pro-Palestinians with similar problems, not least the UK. But the most blatant example of this is what is currently happening in the British Labour Party: the parallels could not be plainer.
Disgusting. How stupid can the German government be? They’re bending over backwards to apologise for the Holocaust while on the other hand targetting Jews who support Palestine, calling them anti-Semites. That’s exactly what the LP in Britain is doing to Jewish members here. I wonder what the German view of an apartheid South Africa was. Did they support that too?
I live in Germany and believe me subtlety won’t work.
Germans have convinced themselves that their unconditional support for a state that owes its existence to ethnic cleansing in 1948 proves that Germany has abandoned racism for good. We need to point out politely but firmly that it proves exactly the reverse is true.
Pointing out the plight of the Palestinians won’t work with German politicians or the German public.
Pointing out that many Jews are anti Zionists also won’t work because Germans will convince themselves that those Jews are misguided, mentally ill or self hating.
No I’m afraid that the only thing that will work is to point out that their support for Israel is racist. Being accused of racism is the vulnerability of the German political establishment. That is what they fear most.
BDS was established in 2005, and I can only assume became active in Germany within a year or two or three. And my point is of course that if BDS is anti-semitiic, then how come it took the German political establishment so long to realise it!
The ruling class of practically every country on the planet is inherently fascist, and in so-called Democracies, democracy is just an illusion created by the ruling class. And it is of course no coincidence that it’s those who strive and campaign against war and poverty and oppression and the destruction of the natural environment etc – ie the reality created by the fascists (who are invariably psychopathic) – that are targeted by the fascists and, as such, smeared and demonised.