[Peace-discuss] German Greens, Die Linke embarrass themselves

Fri Mar 5 22:05:51 CST 2010

Ach!

--mkb

On Mar 5, 2010, at 9:22 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

> 	Germany: Left Party, Greens cancel appearances
> 	by historian Norman Finkelstein
> 	By Stefan Steinberg
> 	27 February 2010
> 
> On short notice, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (RLS), which has
> close links to the German Left Party, has canceled a meeting that
> was to feature the American academic and expert on Israeli
> politics and history, Norman Finkelstein. The meeting was due to
> take place February 26th at the Berlin headquarters of the foundation.
> 
> Professor Finkelstein, an American Jewish scholar, is known for
> his trenchant criticism of Israeli policy. The son of Holocaust
> survivors, Finkelstein is one of a growing number of Jewish
> scholars who have made valuable contributions to the study of
> Israeli history. He has been the target of relentless opposition
> from right-wing and pro-Israeli forces.
> 
> In particular, Finkelstein has been singled out for his opposition
> to using the charge of antisemitism as a means of suppressing
> criticism of Israel’s violations of human rights and international
> law.
> 
> The 55-year-old political science professor is best known for his
> 2000 book, The Holocaust Industry, which argues that the Holocaust
> has been exploited for ends—support for the Israeli state and
> calls for reparations—that have nothing to do with historical
> truth or the exposure of the Nazis’ genocidal policies.
> 
> Finkelstein has also written critically of Daniel Goldhagen’s
> book, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, which argued that the
> Holocaust was the outcome of the inherent antisemitism of the
> German people as a whole.
> 
> In 2007, Finkelstein was denied tenure at Chicago’s DePaul
> University, where he had been lecturing for six years, despite
> support from his department, his students and the faculty of the
> university, following pressure from opponents of his views, first
> and foremost, prominent Zionists.
> 
> One year later, in 2008, Finkelstein was denied entry when he
> attempted to visit Israel. He was banned from entering Israel for
> a period of year 10 years, allegedly for “security reasons.”
> 
> Finkelstein was due to speak at two meetings in Berlin on the
> current situation in the Middle East. The title of both meetings,
> which were advertised at the end of January, was "Israel,
> Palestine and the Goldstone Report on the Gaza War" (The Goldstone
> report was commissioned by the United Nations and concluded that
> Israel was guilty of war crimes in its assault on Gaza during the
> winter of 2008-2009).
> 
> The first meeting was planned at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation on
> the afternoon of February 26, the second on the evening of the
> same day at the Trinitatis Church in Berlin.
> 
> Finkelstein had been invited to speak at the second meeting by the
> Heinrich Böll Foundation, a think tank of the German Green Party
> named after the famous German author, who was a founding member of
> the Green Party. One of the co-sponsors of the meetings in Berlin
> was the group Jewish Voices for a Just Settlement in the Middle East.
> 
> The first organization to announce that it had canceled
> Finkelstein’s appearance was the Heinrich Böll Foundation. Just a
> few days ago, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation also announced it was
> withdrawing its offer of facilities for Finkelstein to speak.
> 
> One member of the RLS executive, Heinz Vietze, justified his
> organization's cancellation of the meeting by arguing that the
> foundation "had underestimated the political explosiveness" of a
> lecture by Finkelstein.
> 
> Another representative of the RLS, Erhard Crome, was more
> explicit. Crome had supported Finkelstein's right to speak in
> Berlin. In a contribution published in the newspaper Junge Welt,
> Crome explained that the meeting was canceled after the organizers
> learned that pro-Israel Left Party supporters were planning to
> lobby the meeting in protest. In the face of this internal
> opposition, the RLS immediately canceled the meeting.
> 
> These actions by organizations affiliated with the Greens and the
> Left Party represent blatant and cowardly acts of political
> censorship. By canceling the meetings, both the Green Party and
> the Left Party have made clear their opposition to any discussion
> of the policies of the Israeli government and the consequences of
> its invasion of Gaza.
> 
> There is a long record of political support for the Israeli state
> by the Greens, particularly from the period when it shared power
> at the federal level in a coalition with the Social Democratic Party.
> 
> Left Party support for the Israeli state is more recent, but
> leading members of the party have made clear their determination
> to back Israel and provide apologetics for its crimes.
> 
> In January 2009, the chairman of the Left Party in Berlin, Klaus
> Lederer, spoke at a demonstration in support of the Israeli
> assault on Gaza. Echoing Israel’s propaganda in support of an
> indiscriminate attack on defenseless Palestinian civilians,
> Lederer declared at the time, "Nothing, absolutely nothing
> justifies the firing of shells and rockets on populated areas of
> the [Israeli] civilian population… For me, that is the starting
> point of any discussion in our country…." He was referring to
> scattered shelling attacks carried out by the Palestinian Hamas
> organisation.
> 
> Lederer made no mention in his speech of the destruction of
> densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip by Israeli troops,
> planes and armor.
> 
> The pro-Israel course of the Left party is sanctioned by its top
> leadership. It was the chairman of the Left Party parliamentary
> faction, Gregor Gysi, who set in motion the party's new course in
> the spring of 2008, when he made a speech calling for a
> reorientation of the party's political line with regard to Israel.
> Gysi rejected the term "imperialistic" in characterizing Israeli
> policy, and called upon the “left” to acknowledge the right of
> existence of the state of Israel.
> 
> Now the principal think tank of the Left Party has acted to censor
> a leading critic of Israeli policy.
> 
> Unconditional support for Israeli policy is a cornerstone of
> German foreign policy. The Left Party's "reorientation of
> political line" with regard to Israel, including its censoring of
> Professor Finkelstein, is a clear signal by the party leadership
> that it is prepared to accept and defend all of the military and
> security priorities of the German Foreign Ministry.
> 
> http://wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/left-f27.shtml
> 
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