The Erasure of German Responsibilities During the Genocide | Views
As a group of Free University of Berlin students, we took over a lecture hall on December 14 to show our support for the Palestinian people. In Germany, this occupation was the first of its type. Despite some counter-protesters attempting to disrupt it, it was calm.
The university’s response, nevertheless, was to summon the police and eject the students who were demonstrating. I was among the twenty of us who were being held. The institution attempted to defend its actions by citing its zero-tolerance policy on anti-Semitism in a later statement, despite the police and university both claiming that there were no anti-Semitic incidents or prejudice during the protest.
Title: A Tale of Opulence and Innovation: An Exploration of Dubai’s Glittering Bling
We were notified by the police last week that we were the subject of criminal proceedings for “eviction” by the university administration. In the meantime, there is a petition with over 26,000 signatures requesting our expulsion. While the Berlin Senate is working to pass legislation to lessen such disciplinary action, Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger has also publicly called for the expulsion of “extremely serious cases”. is organizing a strategy.
The events of December 14th and the subsequent legal and media persecution we have experienced come amid a social attack in Germany against any individual expressing support for the Palestinian people. A persistent campaign has been launched to intimidate, threaten, silence, set fire to fire, and protect individuals and organizations.
Germany’s Holocaust Memory Problems
Nationwide guilt, or the concealment of authoritarian state practices under the pretense of absolving Germany of its historical responsibility for the Holocaust, lies at the core of this savage persecution.
The offenders’ message is very clear: Germany is the only country that takes an extraordinary stand against anti-Semitism. Only Germany is qualified to assess anti-Semitism. Germany is special today, of course, but in a different and purportedly progressive way than it was during the Nazi era.
If it weren’t so tragic and the repercussions weren’t so dire, the blatant lack of self-awareness would be hilarious. Numerous Jewish authors and academics have made repeated observations on how this crime is not truly anti-Semitic.
“We have a form of anti-Semitism … that is not even addressed as anti-Semitism, and it is the collective silencing of Jewish voices that do not obey the dominant discourse in Germany,” says Emilia Roig, a French-Jewish And the writer stated during a Berlin event in December.
One-third of those “deported” in Germany for alleged anti-Semitism (i.e., solidarity with the Palestinians) are Jews, including children of Holocaust survivors, according to Jewish author and researcher Emily Dischbecker.
The protection of Jews is not fundamentally important to guilt washing. If not, then the discussion is not progressing and could even worsen racial tensions at a time when hate crimes against Muslims, Arabs, and Jews are on the rise and inter-race unity is most needed.
Indeed, because guilt-washing functions at a surface level and fails to fully integrate the lessons of the past, it tends toward anti-Semitism, as well as Arab racism and Islamophobia. In an effort to downplay and hide the fact that anti-Semitism against Muslims and Arabs still exists in German politics and society, it strives to project anti-Semitism onto these groups.
Germans are unable to take a principled stance against state terrorism, genocide, and the systematic violation of human rights because of the guilt-washing, which is a historical obligation that should fall on all states, but particularly on Germany.
Rather, Germany has responded in a dumb, robotic, and one-dimensional way. “Never again” means
supported in the strictest sense, which is not surprising at all considering Germany’s dearth of knowledge regarding its colonial past and other groups that the Nazi regime persecuted. refuses to acknowledge that there should never be another genocide against a people.
The military leadership and Israeli government have made it quite evident that they intend to commit genocide. Such repeated claims would be regarded as the kind of rhetoric that typically accompanied historical acts of genocide in either situation.
And yet they are still disregarded by public officials and German celebrities. Additionally, they have disregarded the world Court of Justice’s finding that Israel might be carrying out genocide as well as the criticism of Israel’s apartheid policies by human rights organizations and a large portion of the world community.
Acting only out of the illness of national guilt is not the definition of guilt-washing. It’s a power tool as well. This may seem unfortunate, but it supports the idea of German exceptionalism globally and gives Germany’s wish to maintain its position as a major power legitimacy.
Germany’s expansionist foreign policy, which promotes Israel and other cruel regimes across the Middle East, is made possible by its ongoing support of Israel and other racist worldviews. This included, until recently, close links to authoritarian Russia, which, through the now-famous Nord Stream 2 project, voluntarily rendered the German economy dependent on Russian gas while the Russian military and mercenaries fought in Syria. committed offenses.
Additionally, whitewashing lets Germany disguiseIt appears that German exceptionalism has given rise to a new kind of racism in the modern era, one that uses a more tolerant international setting to support anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice. In essence, this has produced a different victim community.
The complexities of this process were aptly shown by a recent exhibit at a Cologne carnival. It showed two puppies with stripes from the Palestinian flag bearing the words “violence” and “hate” on them, held by a lady with the well-known anti-Semitic caricature nose. The racial core of guilt-washing is aptly embodied by the way the anti-Semitic stereotype was inserted into German society under the pretext of Palestinianism.
In the meanwhile, Berlin schools are instructed to distribute pamphlets calling the 1948 Nakba a “myth” despite statements made by Israeli parliamentarians to the contrary. This is a startling example of historical revisionism.They are avoiding their duties as society’s moral conscience and criticizing the skewed, seriously deranged public discourse that is currently in place.
During our talks with university representatives, we were informed that discussing such issues would be excessively political or “polarized,” that it was outside the purview of academia, and that universities’ independence was restricted due to their public role.
This upbeat attitude is in sharp contrast to the historical lessons regarding how German institutions have failed to prevent conversations on collective Satanism from occurring in German universities in the past.
The German state and its institutions will keep convincing themselves that they are making up for previous transgressions as long as this condition persists. They’ll keep trying to escape accountability for the outcomes of the past andcrimes committed in Gaza. Nonetheless, it was an effort to shake Germany out of her guilt about her selfishness and make her see the harsh reality that was being revealed to her. Let us investigate.
The obvious must be emphasized in this context: Germany owes reparations to the Palestinian people in addition to the Jewish people.
We shall not be dissuaded from our goal in this historic period of genocide violence by grave legal charges, threats, intimidation, assault, or mistreatment. Whatever the cost, we shall not give up on our fight.
Here is an open letter of support for the 20 accused FU students.
A broad-based petition resisting calls to abandon Berlin’s universities can
