Germany accused of silencing voices critical of Israel

CGTN Europe

Germany has been accused of silencing voices critical of Israel. The government views any criticism of Israel as “anti-Semitic”, with any action, slogan or symbol deemed critical at risk of being met with opposition from authorities  https://tinyurl.com/yzer2tbu

Transcript

00:00Oyun is a migrant-led cultural center in Berlin focused on marginalized communities,

00:06but last year the city cut off the center's funding for what Oyun says was an event they

00:11held last November. So we were defunded in December 2023 for hosting an event with

00:20Jewish voices that might not be the ones that the government wants to highlight.

00:26The Jewish Voice for Peace is an anti-Zionist group who are critical of Israel's occupation

00:31of the Palestinian territories. Many other artists who have shown similar opinions have

00:36also had their events cancelled. Videos of police violence against pro-Palestinians are circulating

00:42on social media, while the leading press in the country are being accused of bias.

00:49International criminal lawyer Nadia Samour defends many of those who've been arrested

00:53for their support of Palestine. It goes through the entire societal spectrum. I would say

01:00artists, journalists, students, certain activities considered anti-Semitic. There's like very

01:10concrete repression. Germany's profound sense of guilt for the Holocaust more than eight decades

01:16ago underpins a perceived moral obligation to protect the Jewish people and their homeland,

01:23but now many questions are being raised as to whether or not this is leading Berlin to

01:28undermine the human rights of others. The German government supports a ceasefire in the Middle East

01:34but has warned against any acts of anti-Semitism at home. Yet Berlin's chief rabbi feels more can

01:41be done. Much has been done but it's far from enough. The federal government, particularly

01:47the state government, are really trying to strengthen Jewish life. However, it is not

01:54enough when an anti-Semitic attack occurs. There has to be a clear message that those

02:02that will not be tolerant have no place here in society. According to police, over 3,200

02:09anti-Semitic crimes nationwide have been recorded since the beginning of the year,

02:14including an attack on the Israeli consulate general in Munich in September. Yet many argue

02:20that the government's definition of anti-Semitism, which they adopted from the International

02:25Holocaust Remembrance Alliance or IHRA, is flawed. The IHRA definition of anti-Semitism

02:32is basically a definition that conflates the criticism of Israel or anti-Zionism with

02:42anti-Semitism. When you criticize Israel, that's an anti-Semitic act. When Palestinian people here,

02:48Lebanese people here, are phoning every day for dead cousins, dead sisters, dead mothers,

02:53these people are grieving but also have a right to adjust to anger against German's complicity in

02:59this genocide. Last year, Germany approved over 360 million U.S. dollars worth of arm exports to

03:06Israel, a tenfold increase from 2022. However, that support has slowed down in light of international

03:13legal challenges. The shock waves from the escalating conflict in the Middle East are

03:18clearly being felt on the streets of Germany, making it difficult for the country to detangle

03:24its past from a very different present. Natalie Carney, CGTN, Berlin.

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