As the war in Gaza continues, Germany’s unstinting defence of Israel has unleashed a culture war that has just reached Australia
His work led him to being offered a stint at Germany’s prestigious Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology.
- His work led him to being offered a stint at Germany’s prestigious Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology.
- This came less than two months after the Max Planck Foundation, with war in Gaza raging, had announced “additional funding for German-Israeli collaborations”.
- What to me is a fair, intellectual critique of Israel, for them is “antisemitism according to the law in Germany”.
A political ideal
- As he succinctly writes:
I have a political ideal that I have always struggled for regarding Israel/Palestine. - It is the ideal of a multi-religious society made from
Christians, Muslims and Jews living together on that land. - I have a political ideal that I have always struggled for regarding Israel/Palestine.
- It is the ideal of a multi-religious society made from
Christians, Muslims and Jews living together on that land. - His criticism of current Israeli policy, he insists, stems from the Netanyahu government’s determination to “work against such a goal”.
Self-imposed red lines
- It is worth pointing out that it is not just happening in Germany.
- Universities in the United States are under siege from students and community groups variously accusing them of both antisemitism and Islamophobia.
- Largely, however, what’s happening in Germany is a result of some self-imposed red lines the German press, the German courts and the German parliament have imposed on public debate.
- Rather, it is a result of Germany’s current belief that its genocidal, antisemitic Nazi past implies future unwavering support for Israel.
- It might equally be said that Germany has a special responsibility to stridently oppose ethnic cleansing, war crimes and genocide wherever they occur.
Enough?
- Sharp words from German government officials about the renewed Israeli campaign in Rafah suggest this might be possible.
- The German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned recently “the people of Gaza cannot vanish into thin air”.
Matt Fitzpatrick receives funding from the Australian Research Council.