1. From the unconditional destructiveness of Hamas to the worldwide pogrom mood
On October 7, Hamas, supported by Iran, attacked Israel. The Islamists acted with unimaginable brutality. In addition to soldiers, civilians in particular were sadistically injured, tortured and raped. These included children, the elderly, pregnant women, people with disabilities and ravers at a festival. More than 1,200 people were murdered and more than 240 people were taken hostage and abducted to the Gaza Strip. As a result of the threat and the continued bombardment with countless rockets, 200,000 Israelis became internally displaced persons.
Not since the Shoah have so many Jews been killed in one day. In Israel, the attack is also referred to as the Israeli 9/11. Author Elfriede Jelinek sees the “unconditional destructive rage of a terrorist gang ” [1] at work. Reinhard Schramm, Chairman of the Jewish Community of Thuringia, recognizes a new quality in the attack: “For the first time since the Holocaust, Jews have been murdered – and then in their own state, in such large numbers – simply because they are Jews. This barbaric act was directed against Jewish life, not against the right of the Jewish state of Israel to exist … Babies have been murdered simply because they are Jewish.” [2] Journalist Amir Tibbon (Haaretz) was lucky to survive the massacre himself. Hamas bullets struck right next to him and his one-year-old child for many hours. He states as a consequence for Israel: “First we have to survive. We can’t do that if we are dead.“ [3]
In the aftermath of October 7, there were countless anti-Semitic attacks in many countries, including Germany. Synagogues were attacked with Molotov cocktails, the Jewish hospital in Berlin with stones, and Jewish homes were marked. Many Jews feel great fear. Bini Guttmann from the World Jewish Congress describes this perspective as follows: “For us as Jews from the diaspora, Israel was and is a safe haven. A safe haven from escalating anti-Semitism in our home countries. And it is precisely there that a pogrom has now been committed. This has reopened an old trauma in many Jews. The trauma of being exposed to murder and persecution without protection. … A pogrom atmosphere prevails worldwide…. If there was a Jewish sense of security, it has disappeared“ [4]. Shoah survivors were also retraumatized [5]. Many Jews are hiding their Jewishness even more than before, no longer wear a kippah or Star of David, no longer speak Hebrew in public. “We feel like walking targets”, said Anna Segal from Kahal Adass Yisroel after the arson attack on her community [6].
2 Palestine solidarity between nationalism, ignorance and hatred of Jews
Meanwhile, large crowds repeatedly demonstrate, carrying Palestinian flags. But when does this so-called Palestine solidarity become active? Not in 2019, when the Gaza Youth Movement mobilized young people against Hamas for months until the movement was brutally crushed. Not even when, as recently as August 2023, thousands in Gaza took to the streets against electricity shortages, poverty and the fall of the Hamas regime. Not when Hamas threatens trade unionists or tortures queers. “Palestine Solidarity” is not demonstrating for the opening of the Gaza/Egypt border. Not for the reception of refugees by the surrounding countries, and not when the civilian population is taken hostage by Hamas. And this despite the fact that Hamas is shelling refugees in the south of the Gaza Strip and explicitly states, that the tunnels are only for the terrorists. The “Palestine solidarity” does not even stir when misguided rockets from Hamas or Islamic Jihad kill numerous Palestinians again and again. The only time “Palestine solidarity” demonstrates is when it is against Israel.
In which countries is the so-called Palestine solidarity movement active? The largest demonstrations have been taking place less in the Arab states in recent weeks, but mainly in Europe, for example in London with 300,000 participants. In Berlin, too, tens of thousands have already taken to the streets several times, organized either by left-wing, Palestinian nationalist or Islamist groups. In practice, there is usually a mixture of the different spectrums at the demonstrations, without any effective distancing. The participation of Jewish activists attracts a lot of public attention, but is rather marginal in absolute terms. The intifada is repeatedly celebrated in speeches and on signs. And the Shoah is relativized by talking about a “Holocaust in Gaza” or accusing Israel of genocide. On the fringes of the demonstrations, in attacks on journalists and counter-demonstrators, and of course on social media, slogans about killing Jews, anti-Semitic insults or positive references to Hitler can often be observed. Ultimately, it is this primary hatred of Jews that provides the unconscious or unspoken fuel for Palestine solidarity. Why else do other wars in the region, such as in Yemen, or the current threat of deportation of 1.7 million Afghans from Pakistan, not trigger any perceptible demonstrations? And why else do Palestinian issues that cannot be blamed on Israel not attract any attention?
This is despite the fact that, according to a survey, 70% of people in Gaza do not want to be governed by Hamas [7]. Although Palestinian human rights activists such as Bassem Eid demand: “The Palestinian people of Gaza deserve to be liberated from Hamas. If Israel ends the unjust rule of the terror gang, it will be doing my brothers and sisters in Gaza a great favor. … Palestinians like me and my neighbors want peace; Hamas does not.“ [8] US feminist Seyla Benhabib paints a similar perspective of Palestinian emancipation, aiming first at liberation from Hamas: “October 7, 2023 … must be a turning point for the Palestinian struggle. The Palestinian people must free themselves from the scourge of Hamas. The acts of violence … show that the Islamic jihadist ideology, which revels in the pornography of violence, has taken over the movement. … The Palestinian people must fight against this destructive ideology that is now taking over their movement.“[9]
3 The left between cross-front and death cult
The joint marches by leftists, Palestinian nationalists and Islamists are therefore by no means an emancipatory movement. And “decolonization” promoted by Hamas, which is limited to the murder of babies and peaceful dancers, is not decolonization. On the contrary, such “decolonization” is a deeply violent Islamist land grab.
It’s terrible to see how leftists indulge in pure misanthropy and relativize or even deliberately celebrate the massacre of 7 October. Certainly no leftist would approve of a massacre at the leftist Fusion festival in Germany. However, the humanitarian taboo of indiscriminately murdering civilians no longer applies to some on the left as soon as Jews are involved. These leftists do not improve the lives of Palestinians one iota. Nor do they improve the lives of Palestinian migrants in Germany. For decades, they have been scandalously subjected to work bans and harassment under residence law and kept in poverty [10]. A mass campaign for unconditional naturalization and legal and material equality would certainly help those affected by this racist exclusion more than the symbolic waving of kuffiyahs in left-wing pubs.
The left-wing pact with religious freaks and anti-Jewish nationalists is a betrayal of the idea of a better world. It is another variant of a cross-front between the left and the right, as we have just experienced with the Querdenker movement (Corona-Protests) and around the founding of Sarah Wagenknecht’s party. In view of Hamas’ misogyny and hatred of emancipation, in view of the massacre of Israeli kibbutzniks and peace activists, in view of the mass executions of leftists after the Iranian revolution in 1979, the left’s chumminess with Islamists is also an identification with the aggressor. After all, Hamas would, without batting an eyelid, point their Kalashnikovs at all the Leninists, feminists and anti-racists shouting “from the river to the sea” in Berlin. We see a kind of left-wing death wish here, which we understand as an effect of the numerous crises – pandemic, wars, climate, etc. – of recent years. The ongoing multi-crisis is increasingly making a good life impossible, even in the capitalist metropolises. It makes the end of the world rather than the end of capitalism seem more conceivable. Parallel to the general deterioration in living conditions, the left is also increasingly moving away from the celebration of life, humanity and utopia – in favor of celebrating patriarchal and authoritarian conditions between Stalinism, proximity to Putin and Hamas alliances.
4. For an empathic-materialist left!
We want to oppose such a cult of death. To this end, we would like to see a combination of empathic access to those affected and historical-materialist criticism. In other words, we must not harden ourselves against suffering on an emotional level, we must look at the horror and listen to those affected. Even if the various victim groups are in (warlike) conflict with each other. However, we should not derive any identification from empathy: Jews are not the better people per se, Israel is not “your team” and the IDF is not an antifa sports team
Even looking into the sad eyes of children does not automatically bring insight. Such a basic attitude also means taking historical experiences seriously. Specifically: understanding the Shoah as an unparalleled, unprecedented mass murder that unmistakably reveals the destructive power of anti-Semitism. With all the consequences for German society, and of course for Jews worldwide. But it also means recognizing the interdependence of racism and anti-Semitism. As a rule, racism functions as an ideology of devaluation, of stepping down, and anti-Semitism as a conformist rebellion against “those at the top”, as a delusion of an all-controlling world conspiracy. This symbiosis not only manifested itself in the nationalist war of extermination of National Socialism, but continues to this day. For example, in the conspiratorial whispers of the “Great Exchange”, according to which a global elite would control mass migration.
In relation to Israel, such an empathic-materialistic attitude means taking the experience of the Shoah seriously, that an organized Jewish armament is needed. So that what happened once, namely the mass murder of the defenceless, does not happen again. Israel is this project of self-defense against the renewed attempt of a extermination. And Israel is at the same time a normal state, with all the negative consequences of domination, exploitation and oppression. Whether Israel is the “only democracy in the Middle East”, whether queers have a safe space in Tel Aviv, whether minorities are protected in an exemplary manner – or whether Israel is led by a right-wing government and the liberal-Western consensus is eroding: Anti-Semites are not interested in the actual behavior of Jews. This was drastically demonstrated again on October 7, when the part of Israel that is oriented towards dialog was attacked. The constant emphasis by left-wingers on distancing themselves from the right-wing government or the occupation is therefore misplaced. The state retains its status as a safe haven from anti-Semitism regardless of the government. And it is precisely this protected space that left-wing solidarity should apply to. Without distancing itself in the wrong place.
Adopting a position of equidistance between Israel and its enemies, as advocated by the Interventionist Left (IL), for example, makes just as little sense. It is a clear double standard that Israel is always criticized precisely when it reacts to an attack. Such criticism at the wrong time ultimately signals that Israelis should resign themselves to their fate and sacrifice themselves dutifully, as Jews are expected to do. It is just as double standard when the suffering of the civilian population in Gaza is presented without further contextualization as a consequence of particularly cruel Israeli warfare. The suffering of the civilians is of course real, it is massive and brutal.
However, every state would act similarly as Israel in such a war – or even far more severely. As long as Israel is organized as a state, it will unfortunately commit similar crimes to other comparable states. The seemingly humanistic demand for a ceasefire on “both sides”, which is widespread in the IL spectrum as well as among Christian pacifists, therefore strengthens anti-Israeli resentment because it does not categorize the actions of the IDF materialistically. The warlike violence of the bourgeois state is ultimately perceived as specific to Israel, unconsciously addressing the motif of the cruel or vengeful Jew.
A critique that combines empathy and materialism should also start from a universalist position that understands Islamism not as a cultural or religious phenomenon, but politically: as a right-wing movement for crisis resolution within the framework of capitalism. And as an important faction of a reactionary international that extends from Iran via Yemen and Hamas and Syria to Russia. For this reactionary front, Israel, as the only Jewish state in the world, is a thorn in the flesh. In addition to Islamism, we should also focus on the rejection of Israel and the lack of empathy for the Jewish perspective in the German majority society. The supposedly pro-Israeli reason of state is matched by very little actual support for Israel in everyday life, on the street, in companies and in the media. Especially if we compare this to the so-called welcome culture for refugees in 2015 or the solidarity in Ukraine in the first weeks of the Russian attack, where many Germans spontaneously and “from below” got involved in self-organized grassroots movements. It is the majority silence, looking away and more or less open affirmation of the hatred of Israel by many Germans that makes the left-wing Islamist cross-front so powerful. The relatively few demonstrators across Germany are emboldened and radicalized because they can hope for “secret approval” and hardly experience any social resistance beyond police repression.
Right-wing misanthropes who want to intensify the alleged “clash of civilizations” do nothing to combat anti-Semitism. They point to the “anti-Semitism of others” in order to exonerate themselves – personified in the figure of Aiwanger, who actually had no qualms about externalizing hatred of Jews towards refugees. The right-wingers even reinforce the Israeli threat situation when they call for Islamists to be deported to Israel’s neighboring countries. Instead of pandering to such conservative positions, as some former leftists did in the 00s, we should seek alliances with parts of the Kurdish and Iranian left and with all those who have fled from Islamists. Here is an understanding of why the terror of Hamas as the extended arm of Iran is a threat to any emancipatory aspirations. The very Iran that continues to be an important trading partner of the officially oh-so-Israel-solidary Germany.
In this sense, we would like to see a left that …
… fights domination, but does not glorify every atrocity committed by the supposedly or actually oppressed
… criticizes the state, but does not confuse an Islamist-apocalyptic state of emergency with revolutionary rioting
… strives for liberation, but does not celebrate nationalism as a means of overcoming capitalism
… not only locates anti-Semitism on the right, but also recognizes unreflected anti-Zionism and perfidious hatred of Jews in its own environment
… preserves humanity, even if real existing humans gives little reason to do so
… does not allow itself to be made stupid by the power of others or by its own powerlessness.
Such a cosmopolitan left is urgently needed in the fight against the global rise of fascism.
5 What can we do?
Of course, it is advisable to repeatedly educate people with facts, facts, facts in the daily news business, in the social media and at demonstrations: against inflammatory fake news (“child murderer Israel”) and against the current delegitimization of the Jewish state. In the long term, however, it would be more sustainable to popularize the described, fundamentally supportive attitude towards the dual character of Israeli statehood. And thus also shift the focus away from an ongoing military-strategic discussion about acts of war X or Y in the Middle East – towards a critique of anti-Zionism in Germany. A difficult task. The scattered, intelligent forces on the left have allowed themselves to be pushed far too far onto the defensive in the last decade. Now, however, we again need the well-known criticism in the melee, which can provide enlightenment beyond dogmas.
With this in mind, we would like to call on people to network, to join forces and to go on the offensive. As the relevant forces are currently weak, we should also use guerrilla tactics: be confrontational in order to cause a stir. Use established media for our own purposes. Make small pinpricks that can promote awareness. Be it educational agitation on social media, our own rallies, slogans in public spaces or targeted, critical provocations at the Palestine demos. But also engaging in discussions, providing facts and explaining the background where people are not completely blinded. Solidarity actions for the hostages in the Gaza Strip, rallies in front of synagogues (where desired) and creative attacks on anti-Semites of all stripes are further options for action.
So that one day we can “lie on the water of the Dead Sea and do nothing” with our comrades! Until then, unfortunately, a lot of water will have to flow down the Jordan.
gruppe 8. mai [neukölln]
achtermai.blackblogs.org
gruppe8.mai@systemli.org
Footnotes:
1 https://www.elfriedejelinek.com/israel-hamas/
2 https://www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1177365.reinhard-schramm-mache-mir-grosse-sorgen-um-die-sicherheit-des-juedischen-lebens.html
3 https://twitter.com/amirtibon/status/1721764689053467110
4 https://noodnik.at/2023/11/12/wenn-es-ein-judisches-sicherheitsgefuhl-gab-dann-ist-es-nun-verschwunden/
5 https://www.juedische-allgemeine.de/unsere-woche/amcha-krieg-gegen-israel-fuehrt-zu-neuer-traumatisierung/
6 https://taz.de/Versuchter-Anschlag-auf-Synagoge/!5963814/
7 https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/polls-show-majority-gazans-were-against-breaking-ceasefire-hamas-and-hezbollah
8 https://www.newsweek.com/im-palestinian-west-bank-hamas-alone-responsible-any-bloodshed-gaza-opinion-1835360
9 https://medium.com/amor-mundi/an-open-letter-to-my-friends-who-signed-philosophy-for-palestine-0440ebd665d8
10 https://taz.de/Debatte-um-Berliner-Sonnenallee/!5965454/