1. To create wide public awareness about the imminent danger of a bloodbath and mass deportation of the Palestinians;
2. To enable the establishment of a strong and effective German peace movement, which will pressure its government to play a more active and positive role in the Middle East;
3. To counter the lobby supporting Israeli war crimes;
4. To stop the Israeli abuse of Jewish history as a free license to kill;
5. To discuss the question of whether it is legitimate to draw comparison between the Nazi and Israeli politics and, if yes, under what circumstance.
The main vehicle for this campaign at the moment is a libel suit which the Syrian-born German parliament member Jamal Karsli is bringing against the president and vice-president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Messrs Paul Spiegel and Michel Friedman.
Several Jewish activists, realizing the importance of the issue at hand, have already declared their readiness to support this new campaign. Among them are the political scientist Ilan Pappe; the former lawyer Felicia Langer, Bilha Golan, a principal activist of the Coalition of Women for Peace; and Gideon Spiro of the Israeli Campaign for Mordechai Vanunu.
It all started on 15 March 2002 with a press declaration made by Jamal Karsli, who was at that time a Green Party legislator in the assembly of Germany's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia. Karsli called on Germany to stop selling weapons to Israel because, among other things, its armed forces employ Nazi methods. He referred specifically to the Israeli practice of marking numbers on the forearms of detained Palestinians.
Following his statement, Karsli was sharply criticized by his Green colleagues. On 23 April he declared that he could no longer continue to be a member of the Green Party, which he argued participates in a government that had sabotaged the proposed sanctions of the European Union against Israel. The next day Karsli joined the Free Democratic Party (FDP), whose deputy leader, Juergen Moellemann, propagated a position on the Middle East conflict closer to his own, i.e. based on a just peace.
On 3 May Karsli broke another taboo by criticizing in an interview the strong influence of the Zionist lobby over the media. A ferocious attack was launched against him, as his statements were considered to be anti-Jewish. Very central in this assault were Michel Friedman, the most eloquent Jewish spokesperson in Germany, and Paul Spiegel, the president of the Jewish community.
Juergen Moellemann tried to help his friend Karsli and declared that Israel and Jewish officials, like the arrogant Michel Friedman, are responsible, through their politics, for the rise of Judeophobia (he used the popular but racialist word "anti-Semitism").
Moellemann's statement is actually corroborated by the findings
of Professor Dina Porat, the director of Tel-Aviv University's
Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism
and Racism. Porat stated in a recent radio interview that in the
last 20 years every time Israeli policy caused a worldwide condemnation,
e.g. in 1982 because of the Lebanon invasion, there was a rise
in anti-Jewish attacks. This means that there is a causal connection
between crimes committed by Israel and outbursts of anti-Jewish
activities abroad. Israeli atrocities are to be considered among
the main triggers for Judeophobic eruptions. This is because Jews
are being automatically identified with Israel. Responsible for
this equation are not only deep rooted prejudices, but also Israel's
false claim that it represents all Jews. The widespread public
support for Israeli crimes led by many Jews all over the world
is an additional factor in the increase of anti-Jewish expressions.
The Jewish German leaders Friedman and Spiegel used Karsli's and
Moellemann's statements in order to silence the critics of Israel.
This goal was achieved in full. Karsli was forced to resign from
his new party and, at this very crucial moment for the Palestinians,
most of the potential German supporters of a just peace in the
Middle East are almost completely neutralized.
In the present atmosphere in Germany many people are afraid to utter loudly what they think and to express their legitimate critique against Israeli war crimes. Because of this, a growing number of people feel that only the right-wing radicals are courageous enough to declare publicly the widespread disapproval of Israeli politics. This development is, of course, not only dangerous for the Jews in Germany, but to the whole society, as a dramatic rise in the power of these fascists movements is to be expected.
Still, neither the Jewish officials nor the Israeli government really seem to care. On the contrary, they obviously believe they will be able to profit from this very terrible development, and might even provoke a further escalation.
But why is Karsli's claim that the Israeli army applies Nazi method considered to be anti-Jewish? This kind of question is not even allowed to be discussed in the "free" German media.
The Israeli member of the Knesset (parliament) Yosef Lapid, himself a survivor of the Nazis, expressed outrage at the practice of numbering the arms of Palestinians. He said that the "...connotation of the act is unbearable", noting that it was carried out at Auschwitz. He added that Israeli Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz had "...confirmed [that] the marking of Palestinians was carried out at Tulkarem area refugee camps" (Jerusalem Post, 13 March 2002).
Perhaps the most discussed reaction in Israel to this numbering of arms came from the famous Israeli icon, Yaffa Yarkoni, known also as the songstress of Israel's wars. She said in an interview broadcast on the Israeli army radio: "We are a people that lived through the Holocaust. How can we be capable of such things?" (Galatz, 14 April 2002). Asked later what "things" she had referred to, Yarkoni answered: "I meant the writing of numbers on their arms. It really shocked me. Isn't that what the Germans did?" (Ha'aretz, 3 May 2002).
Wasn't Jamal Karsli entitled to draw the same conclusion?
As a sign of physical abuse, one cannot call the marking of the Palestinians as the worst of its kind. Nonetheless, it reflects the inhuman attitudes which are common in the Israeli army.
A much clearer example of adopting Nazi methods was reported by the renowned military expert, Amir Oren. A general expressing the prevailing opinion among the High Command told him: "If the mission will be to seize a densely-populated refugee camp... then [a commander] must first analyse and internalize the lessons of earlier battles - even, however shocking it may sound, even how the German army fought in the Warsaw ghetto." (Ha'aretz, 25 January 2002).
Such lessons were obviously applied in the refugee camp of Jenin two months later. One has to be reminded that, confronted with fierce Jewish resistance, the Nazis set people's houses on fire in the Warsaw ghetto in order to force the fighters to surrender. The Israeli army used the same approach by using bulldozers to destroy houses, as described by a participating D-9 operator (see the English version of this testimony, which was published in the Yediot Ahronot newspaper on 31 May 2002 and posted on the Israeli Peace Bloc Gush Shalom's website.
A factual investigation is necessary in order to verify how far we can really talk about Nazi influence on the Israeli army, and what similarities exist between the situation in Nazi Germany and in Israel. This should be done while bearing in mind that it is widely accepted among historians that the Nazi politics towards the Jews was characterized by a continuous escalation. From 1933 until 1938 the Nazis tried to force the Jews to emigrate from the country "voluntarily". After 1938 they resorted to forcible expulsion, and in 1941 began the systematic extermination of Jews.
In today's Israel there are very loud and menacing voices demanding the "voluntarily transfer" of the Palestinians, propagating ethnic cleansing and using arguments which strongly resemble those of the Nazis.
This led the former Israeli education minister, Shulamit Aloni, to declare: "We shoved the Palestinians into a situation similar to the concentration camps. Should we just wait till they are also gassed?"
Karsli's accusation that the Zionist lobby manipulates the media should be investigated as well. Here again it should be realized that the reactions of the Jewish leaders to his criticism and their influence on the German media is the best proof for his argument.
In order to enable an open public discussion, to support the development of a more effective German peace movement and a more active German government, Jamal Karsli declared on 21 June that he was going to sue for libel the two most prominent Jewish officials in Germany, Messrs Paul Spiegel and Michel Friedman. They are actually being sued for their central role in the Anti-Karsli campaign, because they abuse Jewish history and because they are consciously functioning as willing collaborators in Israel's repressive policy. Any money gained through this suit would be donated for peace projects.
Such a lawsuit might turn into an indictment of Israeli war crimes and of the Zionist lobby. In this framework experts would be called as witnesses, e.g. persons like the political scientist Ilan Pappe or the Israeli journalist Uri Blau, who possesses many documents on Israeli crimes.
Because most of the critical non-Jewish Germans are afraid to raise their voice publicly, they need Jewish support in order to be able to overcome their own fears and develop an honest movementthat will oppose racism and hypocrisy.
We need all the help we can get for this campaign. Until a better solution is found, please sign the online petition below.
We, the undersigned, support the German MP Jamal Karsli in his lawsuit against the Jewish officials Paul Spiegel and Michel Friedman.
We protest against the attempts to silence critics of Israel's policies, to muzzle activists who search for a just peace in the Middle East and who try to prevent the present catastrophe from escalating further.
Jamal Karsli, like some Israelis, accused the Israeli army of using Nazi methods. Although not all of us will use the comparison between the Israeli and Nazi atrocities, still we consider it to be a legitimate mode of protest in the present context. There is a growing danger of a huge bloodbath and a mass deportation of the Palestinians. This is an intended consequence of Israeli policies, which should be denounced in the strongest language possible.
Currently there are in Israel very loud and menacing voices demanding the "voluntarily transfer" of the Palestinians, propagating ethnic cleansing and using arguments which bear a strong resemblence to the ideology and practices of the Nazis. One must bear in mind that from 1933 until 1938 the Nazis tried to make the Jews emigrate the country "voluntarily". After 1938 they switched to forced expulsion, and in 1941 the systematic extermination of Jews started.
We consider it a form of racism if the comparison between the Nazi crimes and any other form of barbarism is a priori forbidden. Such a taboo implies that Jewish suffering counts more than the agony of any other group of people.
We hope that, through the impending lawsuit, the facts underlying Karsli's charge will be impartially and publicly analysed and that the abuse of Jewish suffering in order to legitimize Israeli aggression will be stopped.
We are convinced that, through his statements, Jamal Karsli wishes to draw attention to the plight of the Palestinians and strengthen the efforts for peace for all the inhabitants of the Middle East.
Therefore, we call on the German people to support Jamal Karsli and we hope that, through this campaign, the German government will acknowledge its duty to stop supporting Israeli crimes, to help to stop the ongoing catastrophe in the Middle East and to support the forces searching for a just peace.
Sincerely,