A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR ……. FOR SOME, NOT ALL
There is nothing to celebrate for Jews who shut their eyes to the crimes of Zionist regimes German exclusion By Evelyn Hecht-Galinski Comment from the high blue For the New Year of the Jews 5780 (2020) I feel marginalized, among many others who are working to end the illegal occupation of Palestine.
A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR ……. FOR SOME, NOT ALL
October 2, 2019 at 14:17 (Palestine, Associate Post, DesertPeace Exclusive, Germany)
There is nothing to celebrate for Jews who shut their eyes to the crimes of Zionist regimes
German exclusion
By Evelyn Hecht-Galinski Comment from the high blue
For the New Year of the Jews 5780 (2020) I feel marginalized, among many others who are working to end the illegal occupation of Palestine. The Jewish New Year festival literally means “head of the year” and initiates the ten days of penance that end in Yom Kippur, literally “day of atonement”. If you read the many greetings to the Jewish New Year, from politics and religion, then you can literally feel the Transfiguration of a religion that flourished despite the Holocaust in Germany – if, for example, Chancellor Merkel in her congratulation so flowery formulated as: “It is a unique and wonderful proof of trust and a great enrichment for our country, that Jewish life could blossom again after the collapse of civilization of the Shoah … At the same time, courageous people stand up for our values.
I did not survive Auschwitz to keep silent on new injustice
When my father returned to Berlin in 1945, Belsen was freed from concentration and extermination camps such as Auschwitz and Bergen. Alone, his wife and mother were gassed, father had already died at police station, but it was still or just for this reason his only goal in life, again a ” normal and worth living for Jews in Germany. This task he realized under the most difficult conditions in his city Berlin. What he began in 1948, he led until his death in 1992 against all resistance to an end. He, who educated me to be a critical political citizen, free of complexes and traumas, was an uncomfortable person. To be uncomfortable with the “rulers” was not easy even then, after all he had to fight against all the old Nazis in the new parties, who immediately fell to their feet again and came in successfully. At that time it was not liked to be reminded of what Germany had done for evil especially against Jews, but also against other peoples and occupied countries. At that time, anti-Semitism was still very much alive. Nevertheless, he went his own way and achieved his goal of reviving the Berlin Jewish community and a Jewish community in Germany.
His life motto after the liberation “I have not survived Auschwitz to silence to new injustice” he fully exhausted and passed it on to me.
So I feel very connected to Gideon Levy, the important supporter of Palestinian freedom and outstanding Haaretz journalist. He wrote a very personal commentary in Haaretz entitled “Another Israel: The Rosh Hashanah of My Childhood” on September 29, 2019, in which he bills the injustice policy of the “Jewish State”. No, I am not an Israeli citizen, but a German citizen with Jewish roots. But our goals and thoughts are very similar. Levy writes “My father did not want to come. He loathed religion and knew nothing about the Jewish holidays, even though his father ran the church in his city. He came to Palestine illegally. In Israel in 2019 they would call him an intruder. At that time, they called him a secret immigrant. At the train station in Prague he said goodbye to his parents and fiancée whom he would never meet again. He spent five months at sea on an illegal immigration ship (now referred to as a refugee ship), including detention in Beirut, an institution now known in Israel as ‘Holot’, the detention center for African asylum seekers. We knew nothing about transit camps for immigrants or ethnic communities. Where the Tel Aviv Dizengoff Center stands today was a transit camp for immigrants built on the ruins of a village. ” So far excerpts from Levy’s readable article. (1) He spent five months at sea on an illegal immigration ship (now referred to as a refugee ship), including detention in Beirut, an institution now known in Israel as ‘Holot’, the detention center for African asylum seekers. We knew nothing about transit camps for immigrants or ethnic communities. Where the Tel Aviv Dizengoff Center stands today was a transit camp for immigrants built on the ruins of a village. ” So far excerpts from Levy’s readable article. (1) He spent five months at sea on an illegal immigration ship (now referred to as a refugee ship), including detention in Beirut, an institution now known in Israel as ‘Holot’, the detention center for African asylum seekers. We knew nothing about transit camps for immigrants or ethnic communities. Where the Tel Aviv Dizengoff Center stands today was a transit camp for immigrants built on the ruins of a village. ” So far excerpts from Levy’s readable article. (1) was a transit camp for immigrants, built on the ruins of a village “. So far excerpts from Levy’s readable article. (1) was a transit camp for immigrants, built on the ruins of a village “. So far excerpts from Levy’s readable article. (1)
Terrifying deficit of democratic attitude and empathy
But let’s get back to Chancellor Merkel. If, in her message to the Central Council of Jews, she advocates respect and tolerance, a peaceful and prosperous togetherness, I ask myself: how can she allow Jews in Germany to be marginalized again just because they are to ensure that the “Jewish State” complies with international law and human rights? When Merkel made the German raison d’être for the security of Israel an “order per mutti”, she certainly did not think about the security of Palestine and the Palestinians. After all, there is still no Palestinian state today. Merkel is not innocent of this fact among many other colleagues. It is not enough, Mrs. Merkel, to appeal to “our” values, to demand courage and the “two-state solution”, but, on the other hand, inactively watching the Zionist regime implement new settlement plans on a daily basis and conclude annexation plans – while brave Palestinians who resist the Zionist illegal occupation and are even willing to sacrifice their lives for it, are being fought as terrorists. When you, Ms Merkel, conveyed your solidarity to the Netanyahu regime during the Gaza genocide and awarded the right to “self-defense” by the “most moral” of all Jewish “Defense Forces” (IDF), they charged us “a German debt,” urgently waiting for “reparation”. who are legally resisting the Zionist illegal occupation and are even willing to sacrifice their lives for it as terrorists are being fought. When you, Ms Merkel, conveyed your solidarity to the Netanyahu regime during the Gaza genocide and awarded the right to “self-defense” by the “most moral” of all Jewish “Defense Forces” (IDF), they charged us “a German debt,” urgently waiting for “reparation”. who are legally resisting the Zionist illegal occupation and are even willing to sacrifice their lives for it as terrorists are being fought. When you, Ms Merkel, conveyed your solidarity to the Netanyahu regime during the Gaza genocide and awarded the right to “self-defense” by the “most moral” of all Jewish “Defense Forces” (IDF), they charged us “a German debt,” urgently waiting for “reparation”.
When the chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference Cardinal Reinhard Marx sends his wishes for peace and blessing to the Central Council of Jews, a man who visited the occupied West Bank in 2007 – at that time as a bishop – and knows exactly how the suffering and occupation of the Palestinian people looks, but today can not say a word more in his message about it, then that is regrettable. If Marx praises Christians who resisted their lives and rescued Jews, but regretfully found that most Christians were indifferent, we must not forget the parallels to today. Resistance to injustice and occupation is indivisibly linked and human obligation! In 2007, did not the then tour group of the bishops react in horror to Ramallah and call the states a ghetto? How they were then attacked by the Central Council of Jews under Paul Spiegel, because they had dared to use the word ghetto. Immediately, the Central Council forbade the word ghetto, since that word applied only to the Warsaw Ghetto and would not tolerate any comparison. I still remember very well how I supported her and called ghetto a “common term today”, which he is. There is no Jewish “exclusive claim” to the word ghetto. (2) Would not it be time for David Schuster, the current President of the Central Council, who is always the mouthpiece of the Israeli government? to speak in the conscience? Just a message of greeting for the Jewish New Year would be a hitch, Cardinal Marx. Why not take a role model in the Anglican Church of South Africa, which just joined a boycott decision by the BDS movement (boycott, divestments and sanctions). After all, these South African Anglicans know only too well what apartheid and occupation mean. Let’s just read the former Jewish ANC activists and ministers, supporters of the BDS movement, Ronnie Kasrils, who equates the Zionist occupation of Palestine and the crackdown on critics with South Africa’s apartheid situation. (4) (5) Divestments and sanctions). After all, these South African Anglicans know only too well what apartheid and occupation mean. Let’s just read the former Jewish ANC activists and ministers, supporters of the BDS movement, Ronnie Kasrils, who equates the Zionist occupation of Palestine and the crackdown on critics with South Africa’s apartheid situation. (4) (5) Divestments and sanctions). After all, these South African Anglicans know only too well what apartheid and occupation mean. Let’s just read the former Jewish ANC activists and ministers, supporters of the BDS movement, Ronnie Kasrils, who equates the Zionist occupation of Palestine and the crackdown on critics with South Africa’s apartheid situation. (4) (5)
So, when Jewish citizens celebrate New Year around the world but Palestinian people are incarcerated to avoid disturbing the “festivities on stolen land”, and that is not mentioned in a message of congratulation or political response, that is not an encouraging sign, but proves a frightening one Deficit in a democratic attitude and empathy. No, not Israel criticism is anti-constitutional, but it’s decisions of the Bundestag, such as those against the BDS movement and this as anti-Semitic declare. (6)
Something is wrong in the state
If the “Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East” bank accounts are terminated because they support the BDS movement, if Jewish journalists, writers, activists, associations that promote Palestinian freedom and support the BDS movement, public spaces be denied or terminated and only courts have to guarantee the right to freedom of expression, then something is quite wrong in the state.
If award ceremonies – as just happened – are canceled to the British-Pakistani author Kamila Shamsie just because she actively supports the BDS movement, then a point has been reached that has nothing to do with democracy anymore. The Nelly Sachs Prize, which was to be awarded to Shamsie, but then withdrawn, hit waves worldwide. Nelly Sachs, the German-Jewish-Swedish namesake of this award from the city of Dortmund, dedicated her life to others. Even her serious illness did not prevent her from digesting her terrible experiences literarily and poetically. She received countless honors and awards – as in 1965, when she was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. In 1966 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature together with Samuel Joseph Agnon by the Swedish King Gustav VI. Adolf. She quoted a poem written especially for this ceremony and gave away half of her prize money to the needy and the other half to her old friend Gudrun Harlan. When Nelly Sachs had to cancel a planned trip to Israel on the advice of her doctor in 1967, she did not hesitate to intervene in a public telegram for the reception of Günter Grass by the Israeli Writers’ Association. Nelly Sachs would surely have been horrified if she had yet to experience a prize being denied her name – a great literary colleague who fights for the freedom of Palestine. She who feared that in Israel “the persecuted might soon become persecutors,” was scared of these atrocities. She who was so astute and forward-looking, who championed colleagues, would surely have been proud of the high-profile supporters of an open supporters letter with high-profile names among the 240 intellectual signers who rightly speak of punishment. This open letter, first published by the London Review of Books, is entitled “The Right to Boycott – Right to Boycott”. (7) This open letter, first published by the London Review of Books, is entitled “The Right to Boycott – Right to Boycott”. (7) This open letter, first published by the London Review of Books, is entitled “The Right to Boycott – Right to Boycott”. (7)
On September 30, Aachener Nachrichten reported that the city of Aachen is withdrawing from the awarding of the Aachener Kunstpreis. Reason: the designated prizewinner, the Lebanese-American artist Walid Raad, is accused of being a follower of the BDS movement and repeatedly been on “measures to the cultural boycott of Israel,” as Aachen Mayor Marcel Philipp (CDU) said. Whether the donors of the award, the association of Friends of the Ludwig Forum to the award holds, decides this week. This witch hunt and a sneak peek against internationally respected artists will lead to more and more “honorees” turning away when a prize-giving ceremony threatens. Even more explosive gets the thing, if the “constitutional contactor” of federal and state governments should classify the BDS movement as anti-constitutional. Will supporters ever be allowed into the country, or have we fully adopted the Israeli practices? (8th)
There is no right to exist of a state without borders on stolen land!
When the Berlin Interior Senator Andreas Geisel (SPD) in a TIME interview threatens to let BDS of the protection of the Constitution observed, even fundamental criticism of Israel in question, then he faces as well as many of his political colleagues against UN decisions and presents typically German, with a morally raised index finger to the side of peoples and human rights criminals of the “Jewish state”. What is your opinion, Senator Geisel, about the aims of the BDS movement? No, Mr. Geisel, there is no right of Israel, this state without borders on stolen land! If in Germany criticism of the “Jewish state” again and again points to historical contexts that prohibit us from supporting boycott decisions against Israel, that is unacceptable. Instead of “Do not buy with the Jew”, in reality, it must really read: “Do not buy from the Jewish occupier,” as I wrote. However, Geisel knows no qualms when it comes to Russia boycotts, a country that had to complain thanks to our “help” 27 million war dead. Even with Iran, we are fast in here, but this may not have nuclear weapons, because he allegedly threatened Israel with a “Holocaust” – while from traumatized policy out of the “Jewish State” any support – including in the form of armaments – is assured and being granted with impunity, being a nuclear power. After all, they need self-defense. (8th) that thanks to our “help” 27 million war dead had to complain. Even with Iran, we are fast in here, but this may not have nuclear weapons, because he allegedly threatened Israel with a “Holocaust” – while from traumatized policy out of the “Jewish State” any support – including in the form of armaments – is assured and being granted with impunity, being a nuclear power. After all, they need self-defense. (8th) that thanks to our “help” 27 million war dead had to complain. Even with Iran, we are fast in here, but this may not have nuclear weapons, because he allegedly threatened Israel with a “Holocaust” – while from traumatized policy out of the “Jewish State” any support – even in the form of armaments – is assured and being granted with impunity, being a nuclear power. After all, they need self-defense. (8th) Be nuclear power. After all, they need self-defense. (8th) Be nuclear power. After all, they need self-defense. (8th)
If, at the moment, this is once again demanded by the anti-Semitism commissioner of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Michel Blume, to revise or renew the Nakba exhibition, that would be a fake of history. There is nothing to correct for the “Nakba” and the scientifically flawless traveling exhibition “The Nakba – Flight and Expulsion of the Palestinians in 1948” about the catastrophe of the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians after and during the founding of the state of Israel. If, in the first anti-Semitism report of the country, the impression is given by Blume that without the correction the exhibition would be anti-Semitic, then this is a malicious insinuation which urgently needs a correction. I commend the anti-Semitism commissioner Blume, to freshen up his historical knowledge the book by Ilan Pappe “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”. I myself was allowed to open the Nakba exhibition in Tübingen in 2008 and had an accompanying event on the topic: “May the birthday of Israel be celebrated so uncritically against the backdrop of the Nakba”? (10)
This exhibition is so important and correct that it should become a permanent fixture throughout Germany. The path to the future begins with remembering, and so does Palestine and the Palestinians, who are still waiting for their legal right of return to Palestine.
There is nothing to celebrate for Jews who shut their eyes to the crimes of Zionist regimes
After only 86 years after the seizure of power and the persecution of the Jews, today Jews who bravely and uncomfortably participate in BDS and are calling for an end to the illegal occupation of Palestine are again marginalized as anti-Semites. In a Germany where philosemitism has replaced anti-Semitism, where open letters are negated by internationally recognized artists and scientists, one can not celebrate a Happy New Year 5780. There is nothing to celebrate for Jews who close their eyes to the crimes of Zionist regimes in the “Jewish state”. Only when Palestine is free and human rights and international law apply to all its citizens and refugees returned home, is there something to celebrate. For this we support together the BDS-movement with all strength and “last ink”, as Günter Grass wrote so impressively in his poem “What else must be said”. (11)
Much has to be said and done until Palestine is freed and Germany no longer excludes critical Jews and BDS supporters.
footnotes:
(1) https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-another-israel-the-rosh-hashanah-of-my-childhood-1.7917710
(3) http://www.bdssouthafrica.com/post/anglican-church-in-southern-africa-adopts-bds-boycott-of-israel/
(6) https://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/textarchiv/2019/kw20-de-bds-642892
(10) https://www.attac-netzwerk.de/index.php?id=7582
Originally published AT
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