This week I heard Germany is actually going to ship weaponry to Israel. I am German. Not in my name!
Germany needs to listen to more Jews who are not identifying with Israel. Requiring identification with a state committing grave war crimes, should never be asked of anyone. Reducing Jewishness to Zionism seems an affront against the grater part of its culture to me. Using the unconditional acceptance of the State of Israel as a conditional to not be termed an antisemite – while Israel kills mercilessly – generates empathy with antisemites and makes it difficult to understand the heterogeneity of Jewish perspectives.
The term antisemitism was used by Germans in the Third Reich to hide hate against Jews behind a “scientific” facade. It has been understood to mean hate against Jews because they are Jews. This is rightly called out as racism and should not harvest empathy in anybody. Changing the meaning to include critique directed at Israel defines many people to be antisemitic, just because they care for the lives of the civil population of historic Palestine. To uphold the grave meaning associated with it, critique directed at Israel should not be termed antisemitic.
In search of German voices for Peace I found: https://voicesineuropeforpeace.org/
Michael Lüders fasst in deutscher Sprache zusammen, worum es geht:
The news have been more dominated by weather reports and stories about monarchs, it seems. My contribution to icy winter and beauty comes in the form of some photographs:
