Genocide against the Jews does not justify new genocide
Scorched earth or the ethnic cleansing of Palestine
By Evelyn Hecht-Galinski
If the Zionist annexation plans planned by the Netanyahu regime for Wednesday, July 1, 2020, are put into practice, the “Jewish state” will once again have violated all democratic norms and international law. It is only the result of decades of impunity for an unrestrained genocidal cleansing policy towards the Palestinian people, a colonization policy of disregard for Palestinian rights that is unique in the world. All of this was and is only possible in the eyes of the international community and with their active help. For Wednesday, Palestinian factions have called for a “day of anger”, which should also be directed against all German forces that made this annexation possible and possible.
Genocide against the Jews does not justify new genocide
In fact, we are dealing with ethnic cleansing, because it is Palestinian scorched earth that, through Zionist expansionist policies, made Palestine the “Jewish state” whose right to exist on this inhuman cleansing policy is vehemently rejected.
The genocide of the Jews does not justify a new genocide. This fact cannot be repeated often enough, after all it was an attempt to put the victim-perpetrator relationship on a basis that does not exist. Because injustice will never become justice, no matter by whom and for what reasons.
It is this creeping genocide based on the violent displacement, land grabbing, physical and psychological humiliation that, since the state was founded in 1948, the beginning of the Nakba and the catastrophe for the Palestinians, was supposed to legitimize supremacy over this “Jewish apartheid state”. This is a crime against humanity and contradicts our German constitution. Article I: “Human dignity is inviolable” is also decisive for Palestine and for the dignity of the Palestinians.
A miserable tragedy
The Bundestag also plans to “criticize” Israel’s plans for annexation on July 1 and to warn of the possible consequences. What a pitiful tragedy. Because according to the draft application, no punitive measures against the “Jewish state” are planned. The planned “urgent request” to the Israeli government to refrain from the announced step is no longer enough! Contrary to the draft of the Union, SPD and FDP, which rejects economic punitive measures, the Federal Government also wants to work against sanctions proposed by other EU countries.
Neither the Greens nor the Left want to support this draft. The Greens want the 1967 borders to be drafted because the mention of the borders should be a matter of course, which the international community always mentions as the basis for a negotiated peace solution. The left, which was scandalously not included in the application consultations, is clearly more positive and clearer. They are planning to submit their own proposal after the party leadership of the Left on June 6th passed a much more clearly worded decision. This calls for the association agreement between the EU and Israel to be suspended in the event of an annexation and the “military cooperation with Israel” to be discontinued. (1)
More than a thousand MEPs, mainly left-liberal MEPs, including the Greens chairmen Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, as well as over 200 MEPs from right-wing parties, have published a letter on the initiative of former Knesset President Avraham Burg and then declared: “Appropriating land by force must no longer happen in 2020 and must have corresponding consequences”. However, the CDU and FDP parliamentarians were missing. On the contrary, the CSU deputies Hohlmeier and Baer had just campaigned for stronger cooperation with Israel! So we are dealing with the sad fact that an annexation is ultimately decided in Washington. While leaving Europe with symbolism. (2)
Feelings of guilt for 6 million Jews murdered, but not for 27 million Soviet war victims
How untrustworthy does the draft of the Union, SPD and FDP seem to be, since no one is afraid to take sanctions against Russia, for example, on the grounds of the breach of international law due to the “annexation” of the Crimea. Comparing Russia and the “Jewish state” is – with all due respect – inappropriate. After all, Russia does not maintain an occupation state and does not pursue a colonial policy towards a people. In fact, Germany should think about why it only has traumatized feelings of guilt towards 6 million murdered Jews, and not against the 27 million Soviet victims of war.
If Germany takes over the EU Council Presidency and the presidency of the UN Security Council on July 1st today, it should do justice to this role and not inflate itself as “important” and repeatedly refer to Germany’s “special” role.
Just as the Netanyahu regime does not provide equal civil rights or justice for the Palestinians, a particularly extremist section of the Jewish settlers protests against this annexation, which does not go far enough for them. In their opinion, “Judea and Samaria” belongs entirely to them, and they have called for a protest against Trump’s partition plan because he “leaves too much land” for the Palestinians. However, most of the 450,000 West Bank settlers support the Trump plan because it is “just the beginning” with the prospect of all of “Greater Israel”. The United States said it was giving Israel a “free hand”. The implications will be further ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population, and German MPs should be aware of this if they human dignity and also international law are obliged to refuse to impose sanctions against the excessive “Jewish state”. Those who still speak of a “peace solution and peace negotiations” between Israel and the Palestinians have ignored the present. It consists of more and more Jewish settlements, checkpoints, raids and massacres. The “Jewish state” wants everything, just no peace. Germany must finally face reality and give up its “special role” of complicity in these crimes. Checkpoints, raids and massacres. The “Jewish state” wants everything, just no peace. Germany must finally face reality and give up its “special role” of complicity in these crimes. Checkpoints, raids and massacres. The “Jewish state” wants everything, just no peace. Germany must finally face reality and give up its “special role” of complicity in these crimes.
History is always dirty
On June 25th a very interesting conversation with the historian Wolfgang Reinhard appeared in the FAZ, from which I would like to quote a few particularly remarkable passages. Under the title: “History is always dirty” it is about colonialism, slave trade, the concept of race and the German culture of memory. Reinhard begins with a criticism of the anti-Semitism commissioner of the federal government Felix Klein because of his criticism of Achille Mbembe’s comparison between apartheid in South Africa and the Israeli occupation regime. Reinhard finds Mbembe’s comparison worthwhile, “because Israeli occupation policies sometimes significantly restrict the Palestinians’ freedom of movement.” Unlike others like Jürgen Habermas in 1986, Reinhard also questions the comparability of the Holocaust. He considers this “nonsense because there are no historical phenomena that are incomparable”. “Whether it’s a good comparison or a bad one is something else.” The questioners also address Reinhard to his book “The Submission of the World”, in which one of the last chapters states that “Israel is the last settler colony in the West”. “The settler colony is simply an empirical fact. Israel is the foundation of settlers and settlements, always at the expense of the previous inhabitants. Israel is the last settler colony because this type of settlement has never worked anywhere else ”. It continues with the remarkable answer: “The founding of Israel typologically connects the type of the settler colony and the type of the ruling colony, since even Israeli Arabs are not fully equal. This applies to people in the West Bank or Gaza anyway. So if there is colonialism – the terms are always a bit dubious – then I would say that is colonialism. An exploitation system, a system of rule, a system of discrimination, what more do you want?
In the next paragraph he contradicts Klein again, who claims that the Germans must not relativize the Holocaust by blaming Israel for the colonial features of its settlement policy, because it was founded after the Holocaust for the victims of the Holocaust. Reinhard replies: “The fact that Israel was founded because of the Holocaust does not mean that it cannot be a colony. In addition, the quest for a state was preceded by the Holocaust ”. “So once again the German obligation to remember”. FAZ: Klein speaks of “memory culture”. Reinhard’s answer: “I would define the German culture of remembrance as an obligation to remember. The obligation to remember and to forget the ban are legally established in Germany. I personally would say that the ban on Holocaust denial is also inappropriate. If someone wants to deny that, you have to deal with him, but not with the help of the Kadis to force a certain view of the culture of remembrance. We are back at the beginning. Achille Mbembe may talk nonsense, but he still has the right to speak nonsense ”.
There is a kind of monopoly on the victim among the Jews – and: victims turn into perpetrators in an instant
Pretty much at the end of the interview comes a more than important question and answer. FAZ: “Today there is a kind of victim community of the peoples of Africa with the Arab world. And there are different axes of thinking that it runs through. One is Israel, the treatment of the Palestinians. The other is France, which had Arab, North American, North African and Sub-Saharan colonies. How long will this community of victims last? Reinhard: “Is it a community? I think you rival violently. There is, excuse me, if I put it this way – a kind of monopoly on the victim among the Jews. I know that because my name is Reinhard, and possibly a gypsy by default. And the Sinti and Roma, as we are still called today, took a lot of effort until they had their memorial. Generally speaking, everyone wants to be a victim, but the others should not be allowed to be. I highly appreciate that Mbembe has renewed a very old insight that I, as a historian, once came to; Victims, if they get the chance, quickly turn into perpetrators. Unfortunately, Israel is also such a case ”. Quote end. (3)
I can only thank Wolfgang Reinhard for his clear statements, which you hardly ever hear, especially from German intellectuals, especially when it comes to Israel. At the moment such clarifications are so important.
The anti-Semitism officer Felix Klein: dangerous as his office
What has the federal government’s anti-Semitism officer Felix Klein achieved so far with his millions of budgets and staff apart from sowing hate? Why is he not primarily concerned with how to prevent the “Jewish state” from being annexed, writes petitions and calls for protests? Only then would he be believable and would do something to ensure that there was a German-Jewish normality that also demands international law when it comes to Jewish-Zionist perpetrators. But in this way Klein is as useless, even dangerous, as his office.
The upcoming annexation, which I will discuss in the next article, is only a continuation of the ongoing US Zionist annexation process, which has been going through the Jewish occupation regime since 1948. The German “Auschwitz Minister” is particularly asked to finally admit that his policy has completely failed. He must finally face the fact that it is not the Palestinians who break international law and illegally occupy a country and a people, but “Jewish friends”. However, if Maas praises the importance of “transatlantic relations” and the SPD and the SPD faction now want armed drones for the Bundeswehr to protect them in their dangerous foreign missions, this is another sad climax in the decline of an SPD, that seems no different than a sad copy of the Union. So what can you expect from this coalition?
Palestinian people, don’t despair!
In the upcoming role in the EU Council Presidency in particular, Germany would have to take responsibility for Palestine, which the Holocaust and its consequences demand. At a Fatah rally in Jericho, the envoys of the EU, Russia, Japan, China and the United Nations demonstrated a hopeful approach: they made clear speeches against the expected Israeli annexation. Was there ever before that a Fatah demonstration had representatives from various key states, including the British consul or the German deputy envoy? Sven Kühn von Burgdorff emphasized the responsibility of Brussels to respect international and EU law without forgetting to point out to the “Palestinian friends” but to refrain from “one-sided” steps, to increase the legitimacy of the Palestinian leadership. A completely unnecessary and one-sided appeal to the wrong side. In fact, the “legitimacy” of the PA under Abbas has long been a waste and a change has long been demanded by the Palestinian people.
Most impressive, however, were the words of the UN Special Representative Nikolaj Mladenow: “People of Palestine, do not despair, do not give up, you do not rent a house here, this is your home.”
Footnotes:
(2) https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2020-06/westjordanland-annexion-israel-kritik-eu-abestage
Originally posted AT
Desertpeace 