Anti-Semitism is No Friend to Those Who Support Palestinian Rights

[Darranar]

Every time I stand on German soil, I ask myself: What and where would I be now, if Adolf Hitler had never been?

Would I be standing here with Sari Nusseibeh? Would I be an Israeli at all?

I was born not far from here, in Beckum, Westphalia. My grandfather, Josef Ostermann, was the teacher of the small Jewish community there.

But my family originally came from the Rhineland. My mother once told me the name of the place, but I have forgotten it. Now there is no one left to ask.

Tikkun

[vierundzwanzig]

1. Dude,

I was born in Germany, I attended a 'humanist' school there, I learned seven years of Latin and my dad was a Nazi.

Those anecdotes don't cut it.

Oh, I was born in the Rhineland, too.


Edited for last sentence.

[rini]

2. and your point is?

[The Magistrate]

3. Since He Is Addressing, So To Speak, Mr. Avnerny, Ma'am

It is difficult to conceive any point he could possibly be making.

The speech seemed to me a most reasonable and fascinating one. The gentleman's father must have been a real pistol.

[Violet_Crumble]

5. I've got no idea either...

But what I do know is that Uri Avnery's point was very clear. I agree with him about seeing a huge sense of insult as playing a large part in Jews and Germany divorcing. I've read lots about the indignities suffered by Jews in the early days of Nazi rule, but probably due to visual images having more power, it took a mini-series on the rise of Nazism where a fictitious character (though I know this happened in reality) who'd been a WWI war hero was told he wasn't German because he was Jewish for that sense of insult to hit in a really hard way. Germany betrayed its Jewish population in the worst way possible, and I'm grateful Uri Avnery's father made the choice to leave when he did before things got so bad that he wouldn't have been allowed to leave at all...

It was a really good speech, though that comes as no surprise, as I'm a big fan-grrrl of Uri Avnery :)

Violet...

[bluesoul]

6. Avnery is a moral giant

as opposed to some others that are called "giants"...

[Jack Rabbit]

4. Thank you, Darranar

Mr. Avnery's words, as always, are most thoughtful and welcome.

There is no reason for supporters of Palestinian rights to engage in anti-Semitism, nor is there any reason for Zionists to engage in Islamophobia.

Both peoples can and must be accommodated. Human rights is not a zero-sum game.