Zensur in der Ruhr

For German speakers:
Hier ein link zu einem kurzen Beitrag von mir in Deutschlandfunk Kultur. Es geht um die Frage, wie es dazu kommt, dass ein renommierter Afrikanischer Philosoph und Historiker in Deutschland mundtot gemacht wurde.

BDS / Schuster / Schäfer / Grütters

The biggest support which the Palestinian civil society non-violent BDS movement is getting, does not come from some haters of Israel, or hard-line anti-Zionists, nor even from Antisemites, but from… the Israeli government and its allies.

BDS has been around for some 15 years and has, sadly for the Palestinians, not achieved much. Israel – that for its internal purposes, constantly needs to define enemies of the State, be they Iran or BDS – is investing millions in fighting this movement. This way, BDS gets much more attention than it otherwise would.

The most recent explosion is now taking place in Germany. A group of semi-educated German parliamentarians together with some hyperactive Philosemites, manipulated by the Israeli embassy in Berlin, have managed to pass a motion in the Bundestag, defining this non-violent Palestinian movement as antisemitic. Let me be totally clear about this: whether one supports BDS or not, BDS is not antisemitic. Those claiming that it is, are either ignorant or liars. Take your pick.

A group of 240 Israeli and Jewish academics worldwide (me included) have a signed a letter calling on the German government to reject the Bundestag ’s motion. The Jewish Museum in Berlin tweeted a recommendation to read this petition. As a result, its director, Peter Schäfer, a renowned scholar of Judaism and Talmud, was bullied by the President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Joseph Schuster, into resignation.

Mrs. Grütters, the Federal Secretary of State for the Arts has, instead of rejecting the resignation and standing by the freedom of speech principle, accepted it. Monika Grütters evidently also does not want to get in trouble with the Central Council. Dark times for Germany.

Germany and its warped Relationship with the Jews

Nothing seems to have changed. Only the direction of its pathological warpedness. A recent decision of Germany’s parliament is a point in case: In its immense wisdom, the Bundestag decided to define BDS as antisemitic. BDS is a Palestinian civil society movement calling for unarmed actions, such as boycott, divestment and sanctions, to fight Israeli occupation.

BDS – perhaps deliberately – is an unclear entity, some believe that it calls for the State of Israel to cease to exist, others that it aims for a departure of Israel from those areas it conquered in 1967 and has been occupying since and in which it has settled more than 600,000 of its own (Jewish) citizens. I doubt not that there are many Arabs who would prefer for Israel not to exist – a wish that I do not share. I do, however, share the wish for Israel to get out of the occupied West Bank. One may not share the demand, but there is nothing antisemitic about the demand to penalise Israel for the occupation. Let a thousand Bundestags repeat the folly: it can also decide that the earth is flat or that it was created by God in six days, 5779 years ago.

Whatever BDS’ aim may be, they do not try to achieve it by with armed violence. Instead, they try to get Israel boycotted into submission. An effort which has up to now, not been very successful. The Israeli government, however, has been panicking about BDS and together with several Jewish lobby organisations is bullying whoever they can into delegitimizing BDS. The instrument used to vilify BDS is one frequently used by Israel to shut up critics: blaming the critics of Israel or its actions as anti-Semites. What has happened last week in Germany is a spectacular success of the Netanyahu regime. In an obscure joining of souls, Angela Merkel’s CDU has, together with its coalition partner, the SPD (social democrats), joined forces with the ultra-right-wing AfD, in handing this coup to Mr. Netanyahu.

Germany’s political class still operates with a need to show that they atone for the country’s past and in this case, the price is paid by the Palestinians: Germany is helping Israel to eradicate Palestinian civil society’s agitation for their cause.