Germany has been accused of silencing voices critical of Israel.
The government views any criticism of Israel as “anti-Semitic”, with any action, slogan or symbol deemed critical at risk of being met with opposition from authorities
https://tinyurl.com/yzer2tbu
The government views any criticism of Israel as “anti-Semitic”, with any action, slogan or symbol deemed critical at risk of being met with opposition from authorities
https://tinyurl.com/yzer2tbu
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NewsTranscript
00:00Oyun is a migrant-led cultural center in Berlin focused on marginalized communities,
00:06but last year the city cut off the center's funding for what Oyun says was an event they
00:11held last November. So we were defunded in December 2023 for hosting an event with
00:20Jewish voices that might not be the ones that the government wants to highlight.
00:26The Jewish Voice for Peace is an anti-Zionist group who are critical of Israel's occupation
00:31of the Palestinian territories. Many other artists who have shown similar opinions have
00:36also had their events cancelled. Videos of police violence against pro-Palestinians are circulating
00:42on social media, while the leading press in the country are being accused of bias.
00:49International criminal lawyer Nadia Samour defends many of those who've been arrested
00:53for their support of Palestine. It goes through the entire societal spectrum. I would say
01:00artists, journalists, students, certain activities considered anti-Semitic. There's like very
01:10concrete repression. Germany's profound sense of guilt for the Holocaust more than eight decades
01:16ago underpins a perceived moral obligation to protect the Jewish people and their homeland,
01:23but now many questions are being raised as to whether or not this is leading Berlin to
01:28undermine the human rights of others. The German government supports a ceasefire in the Middle East
01:34but has warned against any acts of anti-Semitism at home. Yet Berlin's chief rabbi feels more can
01:41be done. Much has been done but it's far from enough. The federal government, particularly
01:47the state government, are really trying to strengthen Jewish life. However, it is not
01:54enough when an anti-Semitic attack occurs. There has to be a clear message that those
02:02that will not be tolerant have no place here in society. According to police, over 3,200
02:09anti-Semitic crimes nationwide have been recorded since the beginning of the year,
02:14including an attack on the Israeli consulate general in Munich in September. Yet many argue
02:20that the government's definition of anti-Semitism, which they adopted from the International
02:25Holocaust Remembrance Alliance or IHRA, is flawed. The IHRA definition of anti-Semitism
02:32is basically a definition that conflates the criticism of Israel or anti-Zionism with
02:42anti-Semitism. When you criticize Israel, that's an anti-Semitic act. When Palestinian people here,
02:48Lebanese people here, are phoning every day for dead cousins, dead sisters, dead mothers,
02:53these people are grieving but also have a right to adjust to anger against German's complicity in
02:59this genocide. Last year, Germany approved over 360 million U.S. dollars worth of arm exports to
03:06Israel, a tenfold increase from 2022. However, that support has slowed down in light of international
03:13legal challenges. The shock waves from the escalating conflict in the Middle East are
03:18clearly being felt on the streets of Germany, making it difficult for the country to detangle
03:24its past from a very different present. Natalie Carney, CGTN, Berlin.