Berlin, November 2023
More than two years after the last outbreak of conflict in Palestine-Israel in 2021, the repercussion for Jews around the world is back – stronger than in previous years. Our voices and perspectives on this are diverse, we are a left-wing group of migrant Jews of Bukharian, Mizrahi and Ashkenazi origin in Germany.
What unites us is the bewilderment with which we look at the horror that took place in Israel on October 7th. Simultaneously, we must observe the right-wing extremist Israeli leadership disregarding the relatives of the hostages. Deploying their military force onto the Gaza Strip, causing the deaths of thousands of people.
As friends and family in Israel mourn their losses and the people in Gaza, overlooked by the world, lay their dead to rest, the struggle with the narrative still persists.
From the right and left, we are confronted with loud cries devoid of humanity and compassion or we’re met with an unsettling silence: the revealing silence of our political allies and friends, coupled with our own apprehensive silence. It seems that especially polarizing voices from people who have no personal connection to Palestine-Israel tend to escalate the situation and fuel it for their own purposes.
Peace initiatives within civil society on the ground have been striving for decades to shift from the war logic “us or them” toward an attitude of “us with them”. However, the polarizing discourse here is destroying these de-escalative efforts. We hear the same loud positions over and over again, entrenched behind a discursive front line.
The majority of the German society isn’t assisting Jewish individuals by endorsing racist and inhumane deportation policies, attempting to legitimize them through ‘imported antisemitism’. Germany’s and the EU’s racist migration policy has demonstrated very impressively for years that this society is still focused on excluding “foreigners” from Germany and Europe and not allowing them to reach German soil in the first place. It is outrageous how the German mainstream talks in unison about “imported antisemitism” – and over 90% of all antisemitic acts of violence are still committed by Germans! A society that boldly promotes falsehoods, offers no assurance for our security; relying on racism will not shield us from antisemitism!
German politicians should cease deflecting responsibilities onto minorities for the actions of their parents and grandparents generation and instead prioritize addressing issues within their own house. It would be ridiculous to claim that Germany has come to terms with its antisemitism or its Nazi continuities and has adopted a respectful attitude towards us Jews. Antisemitism is firmly anchored in the center of German society and the ever-present philosemitic excesses are superficial attempts to whitewash the failure to come to terms with Nazi structures and the actual tolerance towards Nazis, while ‘youth sin’ Nazis (such as Aiwanger) meet with great approval in ministerial posts and Nazi structures are tolerated and promoted in the German domestic intelligence services and the police.
This is precisely why we should not leave it to these (pseudo-enlightened) Germans to criticize antisemitism in our migrant ranks. But instead, the left migrants and anti-Zionist Jews close their eyes to the undeniable antisemitism in “our” ranks. While the left migrants adopts anti-Zionist positions, anti-Zionist Jews often find themselves in a token role. For the majority of these left individuals, Israel is seen as a colonial state founded by white settlers.
In Germany, Jews are not seen as part of a migrant community and are directly or indirectly excluded from it. They are ascribed privileges and denied that they are affected. In many places, the discourse of left migrants succumbs to the philosemitic German narrative about itself.
The narrative of Ashkenazi, Euro-American Jews, the focus on their experiences excludes our realities and our perspectives, leaving us alone with our pain and grief.
We rarely hear about the expulsion of ancient Jewish communities from the so-called MENA region with the rise of Arab nationalism. The Mizrahim and later also the Jewish people from Ethiopia (Beit Israel) and many other Jewish communities such as the Jewish community from Cochin (India) or the Jewish communities from China etc. represent more than half of Israel’s Jewish population and they have had a profound impact on Israel’s culture, politics and religion then and now.
Accordingly, labelling Israel entirely as a European colonial project of white Jews not only negates the antisemitic violence in the West, it also negates our non-ashkenazi history of expulsion from the Global South in a racist way.
Our impression of many prominent anti-Zionist Jews is that, after an initial Zionist socialization, they make a 180° turn – and ultimately entrench themselves in a “Zionist-Guilt” attitude.
As correct and valuable as their analysis of “Jewish supremacy in Palestine-Israel” may be at times, this Jewish anti-Zionist position fails to consider the reality of our lives, being socialized in antisemitic, even non-European, societies.
Therefore, we find it unacceptable to remain silent about the undeniable antisemitism within our migrant ranks, as some anti-Zionist Jews do. It is the silence about it that speaks particularly loudly.
In this context, an abstruse, selective and authoritarian reference to identity categories is very often found within the left migrants: all possible substantive positions are justified with the oppression of one’s own identity; all possible statements and actions – such as even the Hamas massacres – are categorized under the banner of anti-colonialism simply because it is (undoubtedly) oppressed people who are acting here. It is bizarre when criticism of BIPOCs is dismissed across the board as racist – even if it is other BIPOCs or Jewish Blacks and Jews of Colour who formulate this criticism. When criticism is voiced by BIPOCs, we see that the critical BIPOCs themselves are denied their identity – they are too assimilated, not real migrants at all; if you speak out against anti-Semitism as a migrant, you are immediately an anti-D – regardless of whether you are a migrant or a Jew.
In order to ultimately shield themselves from criticism, those anti-Zionist Jews are often brought out: people even have Jews as comrades, so they can’t be antisemitic themselves. Just as all men who have women as comrades cannot be sexist. Logically.
We all know that there is a certain amount of anti-Black, anti-Kurdish or anti-Arab racism in POC communities – as well as other forms of oppression, such as antisemitism. We should not continue to ignore this, but grow through solidarity and criticism to counter these forms of oppression in our ranks.
Jews are universally ascribed the attributes of being white and privileged – many Goyish migrants are completely ignorant of the antisemitic oppression that we experience both here and in our countries of origin. Ultimately, ignoring these experiences is a form of antisemitism that is both palpable and yet difficult to name.
Experiences of antisemitism from our countries of origin, some of which were post-Soviet, were often not directly verbalized by our parents and grandparents. The next generation was told: “Don’t tell anyone you’re Jewish. Don’t wear a star of David openly .” We learnt this as their children, we were taught from an early age onwards. These concerns have lost little of their justification in this country; in fact, they are more relevant today than ever. There is a painful lack of left migrant solidarity regarding antisemitic attacks and assaults in Germany these days.
The Shoah survivors living in Germany were robbed of their family members, a happy childhood, their health, and their family’s possessions. Low or very late compensation payments under the ‘reparations agreement’ do not prevent 93% of Shoah survivors from post-Soviet states living on basic income support and in poverty.
Contingent refugees, who make up the majority of Jews living in Germany, were comparatively less harassed by the immigration authorities and generally did not have to fear for their residence status. Apart from this, they are exposed to the structural racism in Germany that continues unabated today, the redistribution according to federal states, communal accommodation and precarization. The educational qualifications of quota refugees were generally not recognized. Many have toiled under precarious and exploitative conditions in German factories and care homes. The attribution of alleged Jewish privileges is tantamount to making these stories invisible.
We are aware of how anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim racism flares up in times of a renewed outbreak of war. We clearly criticize the one-sidedness of many pro-Israeli voices and stand in solidarity against the undeniable massive oppression of Palestinians – here and now, in Palestine-Israel and in Germany. In these “our ranks”, too, we are currently experiencing a flare-up of “friend-enemy” thinking and open anti-Arab racism; we are witnessing a blanket demonization of Palestinian voices, Palestinian flags, Kūfiyyāt – all in the name of supposedly protecting us Jews. We are experiencing a silence in our Jewish ranks regarding the warmongering in Palestine-Israel, a hesitation to clearly reject it.
Yes, Israel should defend itself – and Israel has all the means to do so. But how many more wars (2008, 2012, 2014, 2021) are to take place, none of which have brought peace or security? How many more of our relatives and friends should die in these “wars on terror”, which have already failed to bring peace to other countries (Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria…)? It is always the same solution: violence against as well as harassment of Palestinians, supposedly in defense of one’s own security – these supposed “solutions” have not brought security for anyone for decades, neither for Jews nor for Palestinians. We do not want mantra-like solidarity with Israel.
At Arab-Palestinian demonstrations in Neukölln, we see the sad and horrified faces that fear and worry for their siblings in Palestine. We show solidarity with the demonstrators who are exercising their basic right to demonstrate despite a repressive state, a political establishment, and a violent police force.
But the demonstrations and the slogans being shouted there, as well as the acceptance of Islamofascist elements, also remind us of the stories of our families who had to flee from brutal pogroms (by the Muslim majority communities) in Yemen and Syria.
We want civil society peace initiatives in Palestine-Israel in particular, to take ‘Oasis of Peace’ as an example, to be heard. We join their voices and are in favor of the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas. In the short term the protection of civilians can only be achieved through a ceasefire. In the long term that can only be achieved by peace negotiations.
We are fighting for a common critical and solidary Jewish left migrant that stands on the side of civilians in Palestine-Israel and firmly rejects the extremist leaderships of both sides.
In joint force such as “Palestinians and Jews for Peace” in Cologne and many other initiatives in Palestine-Israel show that solidarity between Jews and Palestinians is possible. That we can listen to each other, discuss and be active together.
We agree with the statement from Palestine-Israel and its core statements:
“There is no contradiction between the firm rejection of Israeli subjugation and occupation of the Palestinians and the unequivocal condemnation of brutal acts of violence against innocent civilians. In fact, any consistent person from the radical left must hold both positions simultaneously.”
Berlin, November 2023
written by three members of the Jüdisches Revolutionskomitee