It's only April, and we already have a real contender for photo of the year. On April 12, the German police shut down the Palestinian Congress that was supposed to be held in Berlin, and among those arrested was Udi Rac, a devout Jew with a red yarmulke. Photos and videos of the incident clearly show the mocking aggression on the faces of the policemen - reminiscent of their predecessors from the 1930s - as they drag away a Jew.
Among those affected by the ongoing fight against anti-Semitism in Germany are many Jews. The Palestinian Congress itself was a joint initiative of the Berlin organization "Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East" (Jüdische Stimme für Gerechten Frieden in Nahost) and the pan-European political movement and party DiEM25, whose leader is Yanis Varoufakis. However, the German interior ministry banned Varoufakis not only from entering the country, but even from participating online in any political activities there.
Varoufakis is fully justified in claiming that with this ban, the German government crossed the line of authoritarian behavior. Worse, the German political establishment – including even the Greens and the Left (Die Linke) – supported the move, reflecting the extent of the new anti-Semitic cancellation culture. Of course, similar incidents are occurring in the United States where, for example, Hobart and William Smith Colleges recently placed political theorist Jodi Dean on administrative leave after she published an essay in which she saw the emancipatory potential of the October 7 Hamas attack. However, Germany represents an extreme example of how the establishment has appropriated a culture of cancellation.
To dispel any doubt that Varoufakis may have prepared an anti-Semitic speech for the Palestinian Congress, one simply needs to read the text of the speech. It unequivocally condemns any form of anti-Semitism and demands only that the same standards be applied to both sides of the conflict.
On April 13, CNN reported that "hundreds of Israeli settlers surrounded Palestinian villages and attacked residents across the occupied West Bank […] after an Israeli boy, who had gone missing from the settlement, was found dead." Let's call these attacks by their proper name: lynching. Far from a normal police investigation, the Israel Defense Forces simply let the mob take justice into their own hands. We can only imagine how the enlightened West would react if hundreds of Palestinians attacked Israeli settlements after the disappearance of a Palestinian boy.
Let's take another case: On January 18, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the idea of a Palestinian state and promised that Israel would bring under control the entire region it currently occupies: "And so let me make it clear that in any new arrangement, in the future, the State of Israel must it controls the entire area from the river to the sea.” Netanyahu's use of the phrase “from the river to the sea” attracted particular attention, and for good reason. When Palestinians or anyone on the left use the same phrase as a demand for a free Palestine (as in the popular chant, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free"), the right falsely claims that they are calling for the death of the entire Jewish people in Israel.
In short, Netanyahu now uses a phrase that is declared genocidal when Palestinians use it. The formula "from the river to the sea" represents what Israel actually does and plans to do, but would never publicly admit, until now - when the Israeli prime minister himself turns it into an obscenity.
I could list more examples like this. On April 2, Netanyahu called the airstrike, which killed seven aid workers in Gaza, "a tragic case in which our forces inadvertently hit innocent people." How then would you describe the death of thousands of Palestinian children at the hands of Israeli forces?
The house of cards is collapsing. Previously, Israel at least pretended to follow two rules: criticism of Israeli politics was allowed, but anti-Semitism was not; and the bombing of Gaza is aimed at Hamas, which itself terrorizes ordinary Palestinians, not at the entire population of Gaza. Recently, however, these differences have collapsed. In interviews, Netanyahu openly states that in cases where direct anti-Semitism is not allowed, criticism of Israel has taken its place. Also, many senior Israeli officials are increasingly openly equating Gaza with Hamas.
According to Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, over 70 percent of Israelis support the idea of "encouraging voluntary immigration," because "two million people [in Gaza] wake up every morning with the desire to destroy the state of Israel." (If that's the case, it may have something to do with Israel's indiscriminate bombing of Gaza.) The implication is that all Gazans are legitimate targets—and clearly the West Bank is next.
Given this, the oft-repeated argument that Israel cannot truly eliminate Hamas misses the point. For Israel, the real goal of the war is the absorption of Gaza and the West Bank: Greater Israel, from the river to the sea. Until then, Israel needs to be able to argue that Hamas continues to pose a threat, in order to justify continued military intervention.
The widening gap between the attitudes of the elite and the common world in Western developed countries, as well as in some Arab countries (Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, for example) can no longer be concealed. While governments basically support Israel, their citizens can only protest—and, increasingly, get fired, threatened, and even arrested for doing so. The danger I see is that, if it explodes, popular discontent will take the form of anti-Semitism. That is why actions like Germany's cancellation of the Palestine Congress should be seen clearly: it is a new perverted chapter in the history of anti-Semitism.
(Project Syndicate; peščanik.net; translation: M. Jovanović)
Bonus video:
