I know a lot of German students. I think people arrange themselves pretty quickly with the political environment. In Germany it looks good being on the side of Israel but if you are in favor of Palestine you are looked down at.
I went to a Palestine demo with two pro-Palestine friends. They also wear kufiyaas and told me that people are sort of passive-aggressive against them for it. My therapist sort of called me out for attending a pro-Palestine demo. She asked a very weird question how I feel that a certain city honors a former NSDAP (Hitler's party) member. I was confused and asked her which purpose it has to make this connection. She refused to answer that and insisted that I answer her question.
At my college I get the feeling many are careerists. I was in a college tutorial. It has the goal to complement the lecture (It was international relations) and a more advanced student holds this course. I can very well remember a dude I knew (not a German but Italian) wore a kufiyaa. And this German tutor shouted so loudly at him and called him out for wearing a kufiyaa. He said either you take it down, leave the room or I leave the room. He was so fucking pissed about the kufiyaa. My honest opinion the tutor was a careerist and thought this opinion was the most acceptable if he wants to be in a higher position sooner or later. I am also friends with someone in a pro-Palestine college group and the university threatens them if they cause damage to the reputation of the university this group will be disabanded.
I don't deny there are antisemites. Personally, I don't want to be associated with antisemites. A friend of mine who wore a kufiyaa walked through the city. An old woman complimented him for the kufiyaa and then said something antisemitic which annoyed my friend. Another one received the comment if you like Palestine so much why don't you go fight for it? The people are so cynical.
I think Slavoj Zizek is right. The German politics on Israel is a little bit of genocide and war crimes must be okay because of Israel's past. We should look from it away and condone it by doing that. That's the lesson of history. At least the official German one. But the truth is all genocides are bad. And war crimes must be called war no matter who commits them.
I know the position of some German intellectuals like Jürgen Habermas or I read German journals on that topic. And one of the key arguments is: the Israeli people are traumatized we need to have empathy with them if they commit these crimes. But there are also jourrnalists that claim these war crimes are not verified by courts we need to wait for a trial to make that judgement.
Everytime in the news they have to emphasize the official Israeli position no matter whether it is factual or not. There are also German outlets from Springer (Springer bought Politico and I think they staff had to make a pledge lol). They very aggressively call out everyone who is critical of Israel. I am not sure how many US outlets exist who do such aggressive propaganda.
And there is a chilling effect. I think in some aspects the German media system is way better than the US. For example, strong public broadcasting instead of giving all power to libertarian billionaires owning major news corporations or social media who determine the rules and the so called free speech.
But politicians sued citizens systematically for being "offensive" towards them. Sometimes the word jerk or idiot is enough. And on Israel you can get sued too. I gave an AI a thread on Israel of mine and asked whether I could be hold accountable for posting such a thread. And it says it is rather unlikely but not impossible to hold me accountable in front of a German court. Personally, I prefer to post my opinion on SaSu. I also was censored on a different platform for calling out a German billionaire and my friends also said that was an utterly ridiculous judgement. I won't go into details.
I went to a Palestine demo with two pro-Palestine friends. They also wear kufiyaas and told me that people are sort of passive-aggressive against them for it. My therapist sort of called me out for attending a pro-Palestine demo. She asked a very weird question how I feel that a certain city honors a former NSDAP (Hitler's party) member. I was confused and asked her which purpose it has to make this connection. She refused to answer that and insisted that I answer her question.
At my college I get the feeling many are careerists. I was in a college tutorial. It has the goal to complement the lecture (It was international relations) and a more advanced student holds this course. I can very well remember a dude I knew (not a German but Italian) wore a kufiyaa. And this German tutor shouted so loudly at him and called him out for wearing a kufiyaa. He said either you take it down, leave the room or I leave the room. He was so fucking pissed about the kufiyaa. My honest opinion the tutor was a careerist and thought this opinion was the most acceptable if he wants to be in a higher position sooner or later. I am also friends with someone in a pro-Palestine college group and the university threatens them if they cause damage to the reputation of the university this group will be disabanded.
I don't deny there are antisemites. Personally, I don't want to be associated with antisemites. A friend of mine who wore a kufiyaa walked through the city. An old woman complimented him for the kufiyaa and then said something antisemitic which annoyed my friend. Another one received the comment if you like Palestine so much why don't you go fight for it? The people are so cynical.
I think Slavoj Zizek is right. The German politics on Israel is a little bit of genocide and war crimes must be okay because of Israel's past. We should look from it away and condone it by doing that. That's the lesson of history. At least the official German one. But the truth is all genocides are bad. And war crimes must be called war no matter who commits them.
I know the position of some German intellectuals like Jürgen Habermas or I read German journals on that topic. And one of the key arguments is: the Israeli people are traumatized we need to have empathy with them if they commit these crimes. But there are also jourrnalists that claim these war crimes are not verified by courts we need to wait for a trial to make that judgement.
Everytime in the news they have to emphasize the official Israeli position no matter whether it is factual or not. There are also German outlets from Springer (Springer bought Politico and I think they staff had to make a pledge lol). They very aggressively call out everyone who is critical of Israel. I am not sure how many US outlets exist who do such aggressive propaganda.
And there is a chilling effect. I think in some aspects the German media system is way better than the US. For example, strong public broadcasting instead of giving all power to libertarian billionaires owning major news corporations or social media who determine the rules and the so called free speech.
But politicians sued citizens systematically for being "offensive" towards them. Sometimes the word jerk or idiot is enough. And on Israel you can get sued too. I gave an AI a thread on Israel of mine and asked whether I could be hold accountable for posting such a thread. And it says it is rather unlikely but not impossible to hold me accountable in front of a German court. Personally, I prefer to post my opinion on SaSu. I also was censored on a different platform for calling out a German billionaire and my friends also said that was an utterly ridiculous judgement. I won't go into details.
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