In a press release dated 26 August 2002, the AKdH (Aktion Kinder des Holocaust, Switzerland) expresses its opinion about the suspension of criminal proceedings which it had instituted against the Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff over a publication of his in Indymedia.org. The subject was a cartoon showing a boy with a Star of David saying: "I am Palestinian". This cartoon is placed among other, similar cartoons showing a black person, an American Indian and other people in situations of oppression. All say: "I am Palestinian".
In the official judgement suspending the proceedings, it is said:
Even if the observer is emotionally biased
against the Jewish people with this [cartoon], it is not the Jewish
people as such that is being criticized, but their political behaviour
towards the Palestinians. The issue is not a certain characterization
of the Jews, but their stance in the current conflict. The constitutional
equality of the Jews as human beings is thereby not denied. (p.2,
paragraph 1.2.)
In its reply, AKdH says, among other things:
The district attorneyship talks about "THE
Jewish people", which seems to have "ONE political behaviour"
towards Palestinians. The invention of a homogeneous Jewish attitude
of "the Jewish people" is a manifold, scientifically
proven anti-Semitic/anti-Jewish stereotype! Not only is the "Jewish
people" denied pluralistic political attitudes - this view
specially is the basis for the anti-Semitic frenzy of the existence
of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy.
Samuel Althof, spokesman for AKdH, adds:
"We are of the opinion - in order to prevent misunderstandings
- that the political behaviour of the current political and military
authorities in Israel towards the Palestinians can and should
by all means be subject to criticizm."
Since he deserted the Israeli army in 1975, Sami Althof has been
a peace worker, and I have been reading his contributions for
some time with benevolence. It is the job of Jews and Israelis,
respectively, like him, and Palestinians, like me, who detest
violence, to care for peace in the Middle East and to try to have
a positive effect on the extremists on our respective sides.
Yet the criticizm of AKdH towards the district attorneyship indicates
how Israel's guilt is concealed even by Jewish peace activists:
it views even the term "the Jewish people" as a stereotype
and as latently anti-Semitic and racist. Cui bono? This
hypersensitivity most of all serves Israeli perpetrators of violence
and oppression, like the army. "The Jews" or "the
Israelis" simply do not exist in this view; apportionment
of guilt for human rights violations are passed over to extremist
groups, but the others have nothing to do with it. With this -
I believe subconsciously-held - attitude, attention is diverted
from Ariel Sharon. Parallel with complaints of this kind, AKdH
stresses its own victimhood ("how Indymedia activists try
to blackmail AKdH"; "Indymedia propagates absurd anti-Semitic
conspiracy theories about AKdH"; "Indymedia-Switzerland
is still publishing absurd allegations, lies and insults about
AKdH spokesman Samuel Althof"; "AKdH and other involved
parties are threatened with raw violence"; "hacker attacks
by Indymedia on AKdH", etc.)
This hypersensitivity and over-eagerness to sue people is distorting
the discourse at the expense of the Palestinians. Small wonder
that Germans, for example, are afraid of criticizing Israel, if
they have to deal with such overreactions. Let us also remember
the recent problems of the Israeli peace group Gush Shalom, the
founder of which, Uri Avnery, who I presently hold in high esteem,
is being pushed on the pages of AKdH (and many other Jewish Internet
sites) almost as an alibi. When Gush Shalom circulated a brochure
among Israeli soldiers in which they talked tacheles (i.e.
straight), the Israeli public reacted in a similar manner to AKdH:
of course you may criticize, but not so far that it could bring
about real changes!
It is sad that good men like brother Sami Althof, for whom I had
a lot of good feelings, do not have the courage to have a consequential
opinion. If he only pumped up Sharon once in a way he did with
Carlos Latuff! Where is the sense of proportionality? The deeper
reason for the anti-anti-Semitic howling and the resort to law
suits is that many Jews do not consider themselves to be sufficiently
acknowledged as victims of the Holocaust, an argument which surely
has a point to it, because Germany - as is known, has not come
to terms with its past. The lack of identity among the Jews, which
is common knowledge for activists like Althof, is bridged by this;
a substitutional home is created through merely building an antithesis
to others (right-wing extremists, racists, anti-Semites, Palestinians).
The Palestinians frequently are not much better; however, it is
not the Palestinians who occupy Israel, but it is the Israelis
who occupy Palestine. This is often forgotten.
Sami Althof's unwillingly comical comment on this criticizm, which
he made in an email, is that hypersensitivity is "an old
anti-Semitic stereotype of mind". I rest my case.
*Anis Hamadeh is a German Palestinian musician and writer.
© Anis Hamadeh