[THS] Finkelstein Banned in Berlin: A Democracy that isn't a Democracy

[Peter Webster]

Finkelstein Banned in Berlin: A Democracy that isn't a Democracy

by Anis Hamadeh

19/02/2010

Dr. Norman Finkelstein wrote several books in the field Israel/Palestine/Holocaust and
is one of the most sagacious analysts of our time. Similar to Professor Ilan Pappe, he
formulates sharp criticism in respect to past and presence of the State of Israel, and
both use very rational argumentations and are reliable researchers. Especially since
the mass murders in Jenin and in Gaza, these two men and many other Jews (also in
Germany) speak out, because they do not want to be taken in for violent purposes by
a state that arrogates to speak and act in the name of all Jews.

As is known now, both the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Rosa Luxemburg
Foundation have canceled Finkelstein talks that were already scheduled in Berlin.
While the foundation close to the Green party did not even bother to explain its
behavior, the board of the foundation close to the Left party explained its drawback
in a media info with the empty statement that such a talk would be "explosive"
("brisant").

What is going on there, one wonders. Does Finkelstein call for violence? Are his views
outside legal norms, does he disesteem the human rights? Nothing of all this. On the
contrary. The reason for banning him is the veto of groups that seek to avert criticism
of Israel, connecting this issue with the reproach of anti-Semitism. This is an old
chestnut and not specifically interesting. What is interesting, though, is that the
German public buys this nonsense and denies a man, who lost his family in German
concentration camps, to talk on German soil, tolerating that he is labeled an anti-
Semite for his reflections on violence in Israel. The same thing actually happened
only some months ago to the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe in Munich, when the city's
Lord Mayor canceled a scheduled talk. Pappe then wrote in an open letter that his
father "was silenced in a similar way as a German Jew in the early 1930s".

The German Self-Conception

So let us revisit the German self-conception and then take a short look at the
historical background to understand this apparantly great fear that is going around in
Germany. Recently, when the Israeli politician Shimon Peres talked on the occasion of
the Holocaust Memorial Day in the German Bundestag, he received standing
ovations. The few, who did not stand up for their refusal of Peres' and Israel's violent
policies, were publically attacked. There is, for example, the quote of a member of
the Bundestag: "The Nazi crimes, the Shoa, and the war of annihilation are the
original crime of humanity. (...) The Jewish victims of National Socialism are
memorized on January 27 in the Bundestag memorial. On this occasion, only they
and the reminder of `Never again!' can be the topic. Everything else in this context is
a relativization of the Nazi crimes." It is a quote typical for Germany and reveals the
German angst as well as the great danger that goes with it.

The genocide of the Jews in this quote is taken out of any historical context and
declared a unique event. Firstly, this reveals a "We (We!) are the greatest"
narcissism. Secondly, it reveals a pro-Jewish racism, as if one racism could make up
for another one. Not the victims are important, no, the Jewish victims are. The Nazi
killing of Sinti and Roma thus is kind of OK. And how much then will the killing of
Palestinains be OK if conducted by Jews. Put in a more general way: while calling the
genocide of the Jews the "original crime", the unique and incomparable act, every
other crime is relativized and thus not so important. Finkelstein and Pappe do not fit
in here, they disturb the celebration by entering the historical framework, which is all
the more embarrassing as they are Jews with family ties to Nazi victims. Banning
them shows that in the end even Jewish Nazi victims are not what the whole circus is
about, despite all the pathetic oaths and solemn declarations. This is what Germany
fears, that people realize that public "Remembering the Holocaust" is a fake and that
Finkelstein and Pappe are eloquent and powerful enough to unmask this pharce.

Germany has decided to do penance for the Nazi crimes by means of supporting the
State of Israel. When it stands in solidarity with the Zionist state, then Germany
would fulfil its historical responsibility. This dogma is not questioned, although it is
beyond any logic to support Zionism of all things in order to do penance. Beyond
logic not in the first place because there had been fruitful cooperations between
Nazis and Zionists. (It was in the interest of both ideologies to bring Jews out of
Germany.) What is much worse is that violence is not recognized as the problem.
Thus Hitler has won in the end, for the violence that made this criminal a criminal in
the first place, this violence has not stopped. On the contrary: the compulsive "Never
again!" serves as a justification of violence and killing. This works only because the
genocide of the Jews was taken out of its historical context and floats around freely.

The Israeli Self-Conception

Both Finkelstein and Pappe write about the missing historical context and this is what
people are afraid of, for both use their arguments brilliantly, even compelling, and
they are concerned as Jews whose families have Nazi experiences. Like Goldstone,
Chomsky, and some others, the two academics are subject to hate and rejection of
the ruling Zionism and its strenuous friends. Finkelstein lives in the USA, where
Zionism is even stronger than in Israel, and he does not lead an easy life. Pappe
needed to go to exile in England, because life in Israel became unbearable for him.
He wrote the book "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" in which he clearly shows how
the Israeli state was built on heavy violence. Considering that both authors face bans
in Germany it is no wonder that there is not much heard of the events around 1948
other than flat stereotypes.

According to the Israeli self-conception the Zionist state emerged out of a "War of
Independence". In this view, the Jewish victims of National Socialism have created a
state to protect themselves and were immediately attacked by their evil Arab
neighbors. This version of the story is sacrosanct and is defended with great hysteria,
be it in Israel or in Germany, because it does not bear with a neutral analysis. For
when Israel was founded in May 1948, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine had already
been going on for half a year. This was called "Plan Dalet/Plan D" and everybody can
read about it. Hundreds of indigenous Palestinians were killed and hundreds of
thousands were expelled from their villages by Zionist militias. According to the Israeli
self-conception many Palestinians went away voluntarily, as if anybody would
voluntarily leave their home and property just like that.

International pressure led to the UN partition plan which deprived the native
population of a little more than half of Palestine which was to be given to the Zionists.
Yet the Zionists were not content with that. They received weapons and took more of
the land by force. When they then built a state on this land, they did not do it in
agreement with anybody, but unilaterally and surprisingly. The dogma of the "right
of existence" was invented so that people would not talk about these events
anymore. Here is the seed of the problems we are confronted with until today. It is
possible to begin earlier, with the Sykes Picot Treaty or the first settlers from abroad
who for the most part did not integrate, but appeared aggessively. One can talk
about the British and about Zionist and Arab terrorism, about Jabotinsky and other
pioneers. But it is the founding of the state and Plan D which show most clearly why
history is escalating until today.

The massacre of Deir Yassin happened in the framework of this plan, it was covered
in the world press. Nobody was ever held responsible for this blood-spree and thus a
precedence was created which is working until today. Nobody has been taken to
account for the mass murder in Gaza, neither, and all the other massacres that Israel
habitually commits. The Plan D land theft is another precedence, for up to this day
the Israeli territory gets wider while the Palestinian territory shrinks. All this is inherent
in the biased concept of "right of existence", as are the race laws from 1950 which
guarantee all Jews in the world a "right of return" to Israel while the expelled native
population had to keep out, an unprecedented act in the long history of the country.
Their land and property was confiscated by the new masters who clinged to a blood-
and-soil ideology. A lot of this reminds one of the Nazis, which by no means is a
wonder, when you consider the victim/perpetrator dynamics. It is known that victims,
because of their traumas, are prone to become perpetrators and it is so obvious that
it takes a whole lot of energy to suppress the respective discourse. It is suppressed,
in militarized Israel just like in Germany, it is taboo. For this reason, a government of
right-wing extremists in Israel is not a problem. Right-wing extremism is not right-
wing extremism, when it comes to Israel.

The Tip of the Iceberg

The cancelation of Finkelstein's talks are but the tip of a huge iceberg. While these
lines are written, Palestinian houses in Barta'a Ash-Sharqiya are being demolished
and in Sheikh Jarrah/Jerusalem new land thefts are scheduled. A big historic Arab
graveyard is to be confiscated to build a "Museum of Tolerance" on it while in Bil'in
the nonviolent resistance against the wall enters its sixth year. The protesters are
injured by the army on a regular basis, and also killed. The world press says almost
nothing about the heroes of nonviolent resistance, because it does not fit the image.
Russian Jews in Be'er Sheva in the Negev have just killed a bedouin boy and heavily
injured another, while a group of fundamentalist settlers have injured a Palestinian
child in Hebron. About 11.000 Palestinians are kept in Israeli prisons. The
"checkpoints" to Nablus have been closed down recently so that nobody can enter.
The Gaza fishermen are being shot at by the Israeli navy and Gaza is still under
siege. The head of the Dubai police just confirmed that according to police
investigations there is a very high probability that the Mossad is behind the murder of
a Hamas politician in the Emirates. Every day you can read on
http://www.theheadlines.org what happens in the country and that since 1948 there
has been no change of the routine. In Germany, the Palästina Portal is one of the
sources one can turn to.

Most of what happens remains unknown to us, our media skips most of it, in fear of
an increasing "anti-Semitism". It is for the same reason that we are not to listen to
Finkelstein and Pappe, for they verify the terrible events and the historical
development sketched above. Instead, we are fed with "information" on "terrorism".
It is well-known to some of the leading politicians and opinion-leaders that the Israeli
policy can only lead to the self-destruction of the State of Israel. Call it a culture of
death. Maybe self-hatred is another reason for this behavior, something human
rights advocates like Finkelstein and Pappe are labeled by exactly those who display it
themselves. But even according to our mainstream dogmas we have a big problem
here, for this development is bad for the Jews, too, the Zionists among them and the
anti-Zionists.

Norman Finkelstein (http://www.normanfinkelstein.com) will talk about Gaza in
Munich on Feb. 24, 7 p.m. Amerikahaus, Karolinenplatz 3, and on Feb. 25, 7 p.m.,
Kulturhaus Milbertshofen, Curt-Mezger-Platz 1

SOURCE http://www.anis-online.de/1/essays/24.htm

Link: http://www.theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/finkelstein_banned_in_berlin_a_democracy_that_isnt_a_democracy/0017924