諾貝爾獎得主赫塔-穆勒於5月25日在斯德哥爾摩舉行的「瑞典猶太文化」10月7日論壇上宣讀了這篇文章。
她是當代德國最偉大的作家之一。現在,諾貝爾文學獎得主赫塔-穆勒寫下了一封令人震驚的呼籲書,喚醒西方–自哈馬斯襲擊以色列以來,西方社會的部分人陷入了瘋狂。
他們變成了怪物
在大多數關於加沙戰爭的敘述中,戰爭並不是從哪裏開始的。戰爭並非始於加沙。戰爭始於 10 月 7 日,距埃及和敘利亞入侵以色列整整 50 年。巴勒斯坦哈馬斯恐怖分子在以色列進行了一場難以想象的大屠殺。他們把自己拍成英雄,慶祝自己的浴血奮戰。他們的勝利慶祝活動繼續在加沙老家進行,恐怖分子在那裏拖著受到嚴重虐待的人質,將其作為戰利品獻給興高采烈的巴勒斯坦民眾。這種可怕的歡慶一直延續到柏林。在新科隆區,人們在街上跳舞,巴勒斯坦組織 Samidoun 分發糖果。互聯網上充斥著歡樂的評論。
1200 多人在大屠殺中喪生。在遭受酷刑、肢解和強奸後,239 人被綁架。哈馬斯的這場大屠殺完全是文明的脫軌。這種嗜血行為中蘊含著一種古老的恐怖,我認為在這個時代已經不可能再有這種恐怖了。這場大屠殺具有通過大屠殺消滅猶太人的模式,這是猶太人幾個世紀以來就知道的模式。這就是為什麽整個國家都受到了創傷,因為以色列國的建立就是為了防止這種大屠殺。在 10 月 7 日之前,人們一直認為以色列國受到了保護。盡管哈馬斯自 1987 年以來就一直坐在以色列國的脖子上。哈馬斯的建國憲章明確指出,消滅猶太人是其目標,”為上帝而死是我們最崇高的願望”。
盡管此後該憲章有所改動,但顯然沒有任何改變:消滅猶太人和毀滅以色列仍然是哈馬斯的目標和願望。這與伊朗的情況如出一轍。在伊朗伊斯蘭共和國,消滅猶太人也是其建國以來,即 1979 年以來的國家理論。
在談論哈馬斯的恐怖行為時,伊朗也應被納入討論範圍。同樣的原則適用,這就是為什麽老大哥伊朗為小弟弟哈馬斯提供資金和武器,並讓其成為自己的心腹。兩者都是無情的獨裁者。我們知道,所有獨裁者都是統治時間越長越激進。如今,伊朗政府完全由強硬派組成。毛拉國家及其革命衛隊是一個肆無忌憚、不斷擴張的軍事獨裁政權。宗教不過是一種偽裝。政治伊斯蘭教意味著蔑視人性、公開鞭笞、死刑判決以及以上帝的名義執行死刑。伊朗沈迷於戰爭,但同時卻假裝沒有在制造核武器。這個所謂神權國家的創始人阿亞圖拉-霍梅尼頒布了一項宗教法令,即 “法特瓦”(fatwa),聲明核武器是非伊斯蘭的。
2002 年,國際核查人員已經發現了伊朗秘密核武器計劃的證據。一名俄羅斯人受雇研制核彈。這位蘇聯核武器研究專家曾在伊朗工作多年。看來,伊朗正在效仿朝鮮,尋求實現核威懾–這是個可怕的想法。特別是對以色列而言,但對整個世界而言也是如此。
毛拉和哈馬斯對戰爭的癡迷是如此之深,以至於在滅絕猶太人的問題上,他們甚至超越了什葉派和遜尼派之間的宗教分歧。其他一切都服從於對戰爭的癡迷。哈馬斯蓄意讓民眾陷入貧困,與此同時,哈馬斯領導層的財富卻在大幅增長–據說在卡塔爾,伊斯梅爾-哈尼耶就擁有數十億美元。對人性的蔑視無以覆加。對於民眾來說,除了殉教,幾乎別無他法。軍事加上宗教,完全是一種監視。在加沙的巴勒斯坦政壇上,簡直不容許有任何不同意見。哈馬斯以難以置信的殘暴手段將所有其他政治勢力趕出了加沙地帶。2007 年以色列撤出加沙地帶後,法塔赫成員被從 15 層高的大樓上扔下,以示威懾。
我們的感情是他們最有力的武器
哈馬斯就是這樣奪取了對整個加沙地帶的控制權,並建立了不受質疑的獨裁統治。無人質疑是因為質疑者都活不長。哈馬斯沒有為民眾建立社會網絡,而是在巴勒斯坦人的腳下建立了一個隧道網絡。甚至在國際社會資助的醫院、學校和幼兒園下面也是如此。加沙是一個單一的軍營,是一個深藏在地下的反猶太主義國家。徹底而又無形。在伊朗,有這樣一種說法: 以色列需要武器來保護它的人民。哈馬斯需要它的人民來保護它的武器。
這句話最簡短地描述了在加沙無法將平民與軍人分開的窘境。這不僅適用於建築物,也適用於建築物中的人員。以色列軍隊在應對 10 月 7 日事件時被迫陷入了這個陷阱。不是被引誘,而是被迫。他們被迫進行自衛,並通過摧毀基礎設施和所有平民受害者來使自己承擔罪責。而哈馬斯正是希望並正在利用這種不可避免性。從那時起,哈馬斯就一直在指揮向全世界發布的新聞。苦難的景象每天都在困擾著我們。但是,任何戰地記者都無法在加沙獨立工作。哈馬斯控制著圖像的選擇,並精心安排我們的感受。我們的感受是他們反對以色列的最有力武器。通過選擇圖片,哈馬斯甚至可以把自己打扮成巴勒斯坦人的唯一捍衛者。這種玩世不恭的算計得到了回報。
完全正常的人
自 10 月 7 日以來,我一直在反覆思考一本關於納粹時代的書,即克裏斯托弗-R-布朗寧所著的《Ganz normale Männer》一書。他描述了後備警察 110 營對波蘭猶太村莊的剿滅,當時奧斯威辛集中營的大型毒氣室和火葬場還不存在。這就像哈馬斯恐怖分子在音樂節和基布茲的嗜血行為。1942 年 7 月的一天,約澤夫村的 1500 名猶太居民遭到屠殺。兒童和嬰兒在家門口的街道上被槍殺,老人和病人在床上被槍殺。所有其他人都被趕到森林裏,他們不得不脫光衣服在地上爬行。他們受到嘲弄和折磨,然後被槍殺,躺在血淋淋的森林裏。謀殺變得反常。
這本書之所以被稱為 “Ganz normale Männer”(相當正常的男人),是因為這個後備警察營並不是由黨衛軍或國防軍士兵組成的,而是由那些因為年齡太大而不再適合服兵役的平民組成的。他們來自完全正常的職業,卻變成了怪物。直到 1962 年,才開始對這起戰爭罪案件進行審判。審判記錄顯示,一些人 “從整件事中得到了極大的快感”。虐待狂的程度甚至到了一個新婚上尉帶著妻子來屠殺現場慶祝他們的蜜月的地步。因為嗜血在其他村莊仍在繼續。這位婦女穿著她帶來的白色婚紗,在集市廣場上被趕到一起的猶太人中間漫步。她並不是唯一獲準探訪的妻子。在審判文件中,一位中尉的妻子說:”一天早上,我和丈夫坐在他住處的花園裏吃早餐,這時他所在排的一個普通人走了過來,擺出一副僵硬的姿勢,說:’中尉先生,我還沒吃早餐!當我丈夫疑惑地看著他時,他進一步解釋說:’我還沒有殺過一個猶太人。
不再享有自由
在 10 月 7 日緬懷納粹大屠殺對嗎?我認為這樣做是對的,因為哈馬斯本身就想喚起人們對納粹浩劫的記憶。它想證明以色列國不再是猶太人生存的保障。他們的國家是海市蜃樓,救不了他們。邏輯禁止我們接近納粹浩劫這個詞。但為什麽要禁止呢?因為你的感覺無法避免這種悸動的接近。
我還想到了其他一些東西,讓我想起了納粹:巴勒斯坦國旗上的紅色三角形。在集中營裏,它是共產主義囚犯的標志。今天呢?今天,在哈馬斯的視頻和柏林的建築物外墻上,我們又可以看到它。在視頻中,它被用作殺人的號角。在建築物外墻上,它標志著將要攻擊的目標。在技術俱樂部 “關於空白 “的入口處,一個巨大的紅色三角形若隱若現。多年來,敘利亞難民和以色列同性戀者在這裏跳舞是理所當然的事。但現在,一切都不再理所當然。現在,紅色三角形在入口處尖叫。一位來自利比亞和摩洛哥猶太家庭的狂熱者說: “政治氣候喚醒了所有惡魔。對右派來說,我們猶太人不夠白;對左派來說,我們太白了”。對猶太人的仇恨已經在柏林的夜生活中紮根。10 月 7 日之後,柏林的夜總會簡直畏縮了。盡管有 364 名年輕人,像他們一樣的狂熱者,在一個技術音樂節上被屠殺,但俱樂部協會直到幾天後才對此發表評論。即便如此,也只是敷衍了事,因為反猶太主義和哈馬斯甚至都沒有被提及。
我在獨裁國家生活了三十多年。當我來到西歐時,我無法想象民主會受到這樣的質疑。我以為在獨裁國家,人們會被系統地洗腦。而在民主國家,人們學會獨立思考,因為個人是最重要的。而獨裁國家則不同,在那裏,人們被禁止獨立思考,被迫接受集體訓練。在那裏,個人不是集體的一部分,而是敵人。我感到震驚的是,西方的年輕人、學生如此困惑,以至於他們不再意識到自己的自由。他們顯然已經喪失了區分民主和獨裁的能力。
例如,同性戀者和同性戀者為哈馬斯示威–就像他們 11 月 4 日在柏林所做的那樣–是荒謬的。不僅哈馬斯,而且整個巴勒斯坦文化都鄙視和懲罰男女同性戀、雙性戀和變性者,這已不是什麽秘密。在加沙地帶,只要有一面彩虹旗就難以想象。哈馬斯對同性戀者的制裁從至少一百鞭到死刑不等。2014 年在巴勒斯坦領土上進行的一項調查顯示,99% 的受訪者表示同性戀在道德上是不可接受的。你也可以采取諷刺的方式,就像博主大衛-萊瑟伍德在 “X “上所做的那樣:以同性戀者的身份為巴勒斯坦示威,就像以雞的身份為肯德基示威一樣。
我還想知道,許多美國大學的學生在示威遊行中高呼 “我們是哈馬斯”,甚至 “我們是哈馬斯”,他們是否知道自己在做什麽: “我們是哈馬斯”,甚至 “親愛的哈馬斯,轟炸特拉維夫!”或 “回到 1948 年”。這還是無辜的,還是已經白癡了?盡管這些示威活動不再提及 10 月 7 日的大屠殺。而當 10 月 7 日甚至被解釋為以色列制造的事件時,這就令人憤怒了。或者,對要求釋放人質只字不提。相反,當以色列在加沙的戰爭被描繪成一場殖民國家任意征服和毀滅的戰爭時,這才是令人憤慨的。
難道年輕人只會看 Tiktok 上的片段嗎?與此同時,”追隨者”、”影響者”、”活動家 “這些詞在我看來不再無害。這些時髦的網絡詞匯是嚴肅的。它們都存在於互聯網之前。我把它們翻譯回那個時代。突然間,它們變得像金屬板一樣僵硬,而且過於清晰。因為在互聯網之外,它們意味著追隨者、影響力代理、活動家。就好像它們是從法西斯或共產主義獨裁政權的訓練場接管過來的一樣。無論如何,它們的柔軟只是一種假象。因為我知道,言出必行。它們在集體中鼓吹機會主義和服從,讓人們不必為集體的行為負責。
如果其中一些示威者是幾個月前還在伊朗抗議壓迫的學生,我也不會感到驚訝,他們的口號是 “婦女、生命、自由”。今天,同樣的示威者聲援哈馬斯,這讓我感到震驚。在我看來,他們似乎已不再明白這些內容的嚴重矛盾之處。我想知道他們為什麽不關心哈馬斯甚至不允許為任何婦女權利舉行最小型的示威遊行。10 月 7 日,受到侵犯的婦女被當作戰利品遊街示眾。
在營地
“悲傷的人把對親人的思念
在他們的背包裏,在他們的側口袋裏
在他們的子彈帶上,在他們的靈魂袋裏,
在他們眼底沈重的夢幻泡影中”。
1969 年保羅-塞蘭訪問以色列時,阿米猜翻譯了塞蘭的詩歌,並用希伯來語朗讀。兩位納粹浩劫的幸存者就此相遇。耶胡達-阿米恰伊的父母從維爾茨堡逃難時,他的名字叫路德維希-普費弗。
對以色列的訪問激起了塞蘭的興趣。他遇到了來自羅馬尼亞切爾諾維茨的同學,他們與他被殺害的父母不同,得以逃到巴勒斯坦。保羅-策蘭在訪問以色列後,在塞納河畔去世前不久,給耶胡達-阿米恰伊寫了一封信: “親愛的耶胡達-阿米恰伊,請允許我重覆一下我們談話時我脫口而出的話: 我無法想象沒有以色列的世界;我也不想想象沒有以色列的世界”。
An OPEN LETTER from Herta Muller
Nobel Prize winner read this text at the October 7 Forum of “Jewish Culture in Sweden” in Stockholm on May 25.
https://truthofthemiddleeast.com/herta-muller/
She is one of the greatest contemporary German writers. Now, Nobel Prize winner Herta Muller has written a shocking wake-up call to the West – The madness that has gripped parts of Western society since Hamas attacked Israel
They turned into monsters
In most narratives about the war in Gaza, the war does not begin where it began. The war did not start in Gaza. The war began on October 7, exactly 50 years after Egypt and Syria invaded Israel. Palestinian Hamas terrorists committed an unimaginable massacre in Israel. They filmed themselves as heroes and celebrated their bloodbath. Their victory celebrations continued back home in Gaza, where the terrorists dragged severely abused hostages and presented them as spoils of war to the jubilant Palestinian population. This macabre jubilation extended all the way to Berlin. In the Neukölln district there was dancing on the streets and the Palestinian organization Samidoun distributed sweets. The internet was buzzing with happy comments.
More than 1,200 people died in the massacre. After torture, mutilation and rape, 239 people were abducted. This massacre by Hamas is a total derailment from civilization. There is an archaic horror in this bloodlust that I no longer thought possible in this day and age. This massacre has the pattern of annihilation through pogroms, a pattern that the Jews have known for centuries. That is why the whole country has been traumatized, because the founding of the state of Israel was intended to protect against such pogroms. And until October 7, it was believed to be protected. Although Hamas has been sitting on the state of Israel’s neck since 1987. The Hamas founding charter clearly stated that the destruction of the Jews was the goal, and that “death for God is our noblest wish”.
Even though there have been changes to this charter since then, it is clear that nothing has changed: the destruction of the Jews and the destruction of Israel remain the goal and desire of Hamas. This is exactly the same as in Iran. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the destruction of the Jews has also been state doctrine since its foundation, that is, since 1979.
When talking about the terror of Hamas, Iran should always be included in the discussion. The same principles apply, which is why big brother Iran finances, arms and makes little brother Hamas its henchman. Both are merciless dictatorships. And we know that all dictators become more radical the longer they rule. Today, the government of Iran consists exclusively of hardliners. The state of the mullahs, with its revolutionary guards, is an unscrupulous, expanding military dictatorship. Religion is nothing more than camouflage. Political Islam means contempt for humanity, public floggings, death sentences and executions in the name of God. Iran is obsessed with war, but at the same time it pretends that it is not building any nuclear weapons. The founder of the so-called theocracy, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a religious decree, a fatwa, stating that nuclear weapons are un-Islamic.
In 2002, international inspectors had already uncovered evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program in Iran. A Russian was hired to develop the bomb. The expert from Soviet nuclear weapons research worked in Iran for years. It seems that Iran is seeking to achieve nuclear deterrence, following the example of North Korea – and that is a scary thought. Especially for Israel, but also for the whole world.
The mullahs’ and Hamas’ obsession with war is so dominant that – when it comes to the extermination of Jews – it even transcends the religious divide between Shiites and Sunnis. Everything else is subordinated to this obsession with war. The population is deliberately kept in poverty, while at the same time the wealth of the Hamas leadership is increasing immeasurably – in Qatar, Ismael Haniye is said to have billions at his disposal. And the contempt for humanity knows no bounds. For the population, there is almost nothing left except martyrdom. Military plus religion as a complete surveillance. There is literally no room for dissenting opinions within Palestinian politics in Gaza. Hamas has driven out all other political currents from the Gaza Strip with incredible brutality. After Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2007, Fatah members were thrown from a fifteen-storey building as a deterrent.
Our feelings are their strongest weapon
This is how Hamas seized control of the entire Gaza Strip and established an unchallenged dictatorship. Unchallenged because no one who questions it lives long. Instead of a social network for the population, Hamas has built a network of tunnels under the feet of the Palestinians. Even under hospitals, schools and kindergartens financed by the international community. Gaza is a single military barracks, a deep state of anti-Semitism underground. Complete and yet invisible. In Iran, there is a saying: Israel needs its weapons to protect its people. And Hamas needs its people to protect its weapons.
This saying is the shortest description of the dilemma that in Gaza you cannot separate the civilian from the military. And that applies not only to the buildings, but also to the personnel in the buildings. The Israeli army was forced into this trap in its response to October 7. Not lured, but forced. Forced to defend itself and to make itself guilty by destroying the infrastructure with all the civilian victims. And it is precisely this inevitability that Hamas wanted and is exploiting. Since then, it has been directing the news that goes out to the world. The sight of suffering disturbs us daily. But no war reporter can work independently in Gaza. Hamas controls the selection of images and orchestrates our feelings. Our feelings are their strongest weapon against Israel. And by selecting the images, it even manages to present itself as the sole defender of the Palestinians. This cynical calculation has paid off.
„Ganz normale Männer“
Since October 7, I have been thinking again and again about a book about the Nazi era, the book “Ganz normale Männer” by Christopher R. Browning. He describes the annihilation of Jewish villages in Poland by the Reserve Police Battalion 110, when the large gas chambers and crematoria in Auschwitz did not yet exist. It was like the bloodlust of the Hamas terrorists at the music festival and in the kibbutzim. In just one day in July 1942, the 1,500 Jewish inhabitants of the village of Józefów were slaughtered. Children and infants were shot in the street in front of their houses, the old and sick in their beds. All the others were driven into the forest, where they had to strip naked and crawl on the ground. They were mocked and tortured, then shot and left lying in a bloody forest. The murder became perverse.
The book is called “Ganz normale Männer” (Quite Normal Men) because this reserve police battalion did not consist of SS men or Wehrmacht soldiers, but of civilians who were no longer considered suitable for military service because they were too old. They came from completely normal professions and turned into monsters. It was not until 1962 that a trial began in this case of war crimes. The trial records show that some of the men “got a huge kick out of the whole thing”. The sadism went so far that a newly married captain brought his wife to the massacres to celebrate their honeymoon. Because the bloodlust continued in other villages. And the woman strolled around in the white wedding dress she had brought with her, among the Jews who had been herded together in the market square. She was not the only wife who was allowed to visit. In the trial documents, the wife of a lieutenant says: “One morning, I was sitting with my husband in the garden of his accommodation, having breakfast, when a simple man from his platoon approached us, took up a stiff posture and declared: ‘Mr. Lieutenant, I have not yet had breakfast! When my husband looked at him questioningly, he explained further: ’I have not yet killed a Jew.
No longer realizing their freedom
Is it right to think of the Nazi massacres on October 7? I think it is right to do so, because Hamas itself wanted to evoke the memory of the Shoah. And it wanted to demonstrate that the State of Israel is no longer a guarantee for the survival of the Jews. That their state is a mirage, that it will not save them. Logic forbids us to be close to the word Shoah. But why does it have to forbid it? Because the feeling that you have cannot avoid this pulsating proximity.
And then there’s something else that occurs to me and reminds me of the Nazis: the red triangle from the Palestinian flag. In the concentration camps, it was the symbol for communist prisoners. And today? Today, it can be seen again in Hamas videos and on the facades of buildings in Berlin. In the videos, it is used as a call to kill. On the facades, it marks targets that are to be attacked. A large red triangle looms over the entrance to the techno club “About Blank”. For years, Syrian refugees and gay Israelis danced here as a matter of course. But now nothing is a matter of course anymore. Now the red triangle screams over the entrance. A raver whose Jewish family comes from Libya and Morocco says today: “The political climate awakens all demons. For the right, we Jews are not white enough; for the left, we are too white.” The hatred of Jews has taken root in Berlin’s nightlife. After October 7, the Berlin club scene literally cowered. Although 364 young people, ravers like them, were slaughtered at a techno festival, the club association did not comment on it until days later. And even that was only a perfunctory exercise, because anti-Semitism and Hamas were not even mentioned.
I lived in a dictatorship for over thirty years. And when I came to Western Europe, I could not imagine that democracy could ever be called into question in such a way. I thought that in a dictatorship, people are systematically brainwashed. And that in democracies, people learn to think for themselves because the individual counts. Unlike in a dictatorship, where independent thought is forbidden and the forced collective trains people. And where the individual is not a part of the collective, but an enemy. I am appalled that young people, students in the West, are so confused that they are no longer aware of their freedom. That they have apparently lost the ability to distinguish between democracy and dictatorship.
It is absurd that homosexuals and queer people, for example, demonstrate for Hamas – as they did in Berlin on November 4. It is no secret that not only Hamas, but the entire Palestinian culture, despises and punishes LGBTQ people. Just a rainbow flag in the Gaza Strip is unimaginable. Hamas’s sanctions for gays range from at least a hundred lashes to the death sentence. In a 2014 survey in the Palestinian territories, 99 percent of respondents said that homosexuality was morally unacceptable. You can also take a satirical approach, as blogger David Leatherwood does on “X”: demonstrating for Palestine as a queer person is like demonstrating for Kentucky Fried Chicken as a chicken.
I also wonder whether the students at many American universities know what they are doing when they chant at the demonstrations: “We are Hamas” or even “Beloved Hamas, bomb Tel Aviv!” or “Back to 1948”. Is that still innocent or already moronic? Although the massacre of October 7 is no longer mentioned at these demonstrations. And it is outrageous when October 7 is even interpreted as a staged event by Israel. Or when not a single word is said about demanding the release of the hostages. When, instead, Israel’s war in Gaza is portrayed as an arbitrary war of conquest and annihilation by a colonial power.
Do young people only ever watch clips on Tiktok? Meanwhile, the terms follower, influencer, activist no longer seem harmless to me. These sleek internet words are serious. They all existed before the internet. I translate them back to the time. And suddenly they become rigid as sheet metal and overly clear. Because outside the internet they mean followers, influence agents, activists. As if they had been taken over from the training ground of a fascist or communist dictatorship. Their suppleness is an illusion anyway. Because I know that the words do what they say. They promote opportunism and obedience in the collective and spare people from taking responsibility for what the group does.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the demonstrators were students who, just a few months ago, were protesting against the oppression in Iran with the slogan “Women, Life, Freedom”. It appals me when the same demonstrators today show solidarity with Hamas. It seems to me that they no longer understand the abysmal contradiction of the content. And I wonder why they don’t care that Hamas would not even allow the smallest demonstration for any women’s rights. And that on October 7th, women who had been violated were paraded as spoils of war.
On the campus of the University of Washington, protesters play the group game “People’s Tribunal” for entertainment. Representatives of the university are put on trial for fun. And then the verdicts follow, and everyone roars in chorus: “Off to the gallows” or “guillotine”. There is clapping and laughter, and they baptize their campsite “Martyr’s Place”. In the form of happenings, they celebrate their own collective stupidity with a clear conscience. One wonders what is being taught at universities today.
It seems to me that since October 7, anti-Semitism has spread like a collective finger snap, as if Hamas were the influencer and the students the followers. In the media world of influencers and their followers, only the quick clicks of the videos count. The flutter of the eyelashes, the tapping of lively emotions. The same trick works here as in advertising.
Is the susceptibility of the masses, the reason for the disaster of the twentieth century, taking a new turn? Complicated content, nuances, contexts and contradictions, compromises are foreign to the media world.
This is also evident in a stupid call from internet activists against the Oberhausen Short Film Festival. It is the oldest short film festival in the world and is celebrating its seventieth anniversary this year. Many great filmmakers started their careers here with early works. Miloš Forman, Roman Polański, Martin Scorsese, István Szabó and Agnès Varda. Two weeks after the Hamas celebrations on the streets of Berlin, the festival director Lars Henrik Gass wrote: “Half a million people took to the streets in March 2022 to protest against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That was important. Please let us now send an equally strong signal. Show the world that the Neukölln Hamas friends and Jew haters are in the minority. Come all! Please!”
This prompted a hostile response on the internet. An anonymous group accused him of demonizing solidarity with the Palestinian liberation. The group assured him that it would “encourage” the international film community to reconsider its participation in the festival. A veiled call for a boycott, which many filmmakers followed and canceled their commitments. Lars Henrik Gass rightly says that we are currently experiencing a regression in political debate. Instead of political thinking, an esoteric understanding of politics prevails. Behind this is the desire for consistency and the pressure to conform. In the art scene, too, it has become impossible to differentiate between standing up for Israel’s right to exist and criticizing its government at the same time.
That is why it is not even considered whether the worldwide outrage over the many dead and the suffering in Gaza might not be part of Hamas’ strategy. It is deaf and blind to the suffering of its people. Why else would it fire on the Kerem Shalom border crossing, where most aid supplies arrive? Or why else would it fire on the construction site of a temporary harbor, where aid supplies are soon to arrive? We have not heard a single word of sympathy for the people of Gaza from Mr. Sinwar and Mr. Haniye. And instead of a desire for peace, only maximum demands that they know Israel cannot fulfill. Hamas is betting on a permanent war with Israel. It would be the best guarantee of its continued existence. Hamas also hopes to isolate Israel internationally, at any cost.
In Thomas Mann’s novel “Doktor Faustus”, National Socialism is said to have “made everything German unbearable to the world”. I have the impression that the strategy of Hamas and its supporters is to make everything Israeli, and therefore everything Jewish, unbearable to the world. Hamas wants to maintain anti-Semitism as a permanent global mood. That is why it also wants to reinterpret the Shoah. The Nazi persecution and the rescue flight to Palestine are also to be called into question. And ultimately, the right of Israel to exist. This manipulation goes as far as to claim that German Holocaust remembrance only serves as a cultural weapon to legitimize the Western-white “settlement project” of Israel. Such ahistorical and cynical reversals of the perpetrator-victim relationship are intended to prevent any differentiation between the Shoah and colonialism. With all these stacked constructs, Israel is no longer seen as the only democracy in the Middle East, but as a colonialist model state. And as an eternal aggressor, against whom blind hatred is justified. And even the desire for its destruction.
The Jewish poet Yehuda Amichai says that a love poem in Hebrew is always a poem about war. Often it is a poem about war in the middle of a war. His poem “Jerusalem 1973” is reminiscent of the Yom Kippur War:
“Sad men carry the memory of
their loved ones in their backpack, in their side pockets
on their ammunition belts, in the bags of their souls,
in heavy dream bubbles under their eyes.”
When Paul Celan visited Israel in 1969, Amichai translated Celan’s poems and read them out in Hebrew. This was where two survivors of the Shoah met. Jehuda Amichai was called Ludwig Pfeuffer when his parents fled from Würzburg.
The visit to Israel stirred Celan. He met school friends from Czernowitz in Romania who, unlike his murdered parents, had been able to escape to Palestine. Paul Celan wrote to Jehuda Amichai after his visit and shortly before his death in the Seine: “Dear Jehuda Amichai, let me repeat the word that came spontaneously to my lips during our conversation: I cannot imagine the world without Israel; nor do I want to imagine it without Israel.”