Defending Israel’s security is considered a ‘reason of state’ in the country, where there is practically no public criticism of Netanyahu’s government. Meanwhile, statements in favor of Palestinian human rights are censored
Defending Israel’s security is considered a ‘reason of state’ in the country, where there is practically no public criticism of Netanyahu’s government. Meanwhile, statements in favor of Palestinian human rights are censored
Thats the problem with both sides, though, isn’t it? Its always the other sides fault. And “our” side shouldn’t need to fix anything until “your” side fixes their problem.
Its an easy way to sit on your ass and do nothing, because clearly the “other side” is worse.
I’m really not seeing any protesters with “from the river to the sea Israel will be free” posters in Germany, quite the opposite I’ve heard Jewish voices expressing support for humanitarian aid to Palestine and criticism of Israel’s government and the violence committed by settlers. On the other hand a liberal mosque is closing because of the threat of attacks and police have to be posted in front of synagogues around the clock. Who is being silenced here and who is sitting on their asses?
Correct, not anymore since they banned that slogan from protests. That’s the censoring we are talking about.I wrote “Israel will be free” not “Palestine will be free”, the latter has been (rightfully imo) banned, I haven’t seen or heard of anyone using the former (in Germany).
One side, the German government, was loudly criticised for their one-sided support comments. And later for their harsh reaction of banning protests when those protests included terrorists and anti-semites.
They are trying to fix the former, by also speaking up about the Israeli side of illegal settlements on one hand and Israel’s responsibility to think about collateral civilian damages. Is this perfect? Of course not, but they are doing something. There is no need to “fix” the latter as we don’t need people advocating for Israel’s destruction (or Germany’s destruction to create a new caliphate here - yes, that also happened in some of these protests) on our streets.
And then on other side we have people who still try to sell the banning of anti-semitism in protests as censoring Arab and Palestinian voices. And who have often done shit fixing anything.
Sorry, if you don’t understand the concept of freedom of expression and opinion in comparison to absolute free speech. But that’s how it is in Germany. Your freedom to say something publically definitely ends long before public calls for violence. We won’t and we don’t want to change that.
The sane ones advocating for Palestina without calling for the destruction of Israel themselves or associating with people that do… I can read about their opinions daily in the media. I guess they are doing a very bad job at censoring these voices. Or they never actually tried and it’s not people being censored but certain opinions for specific reason that questions their status of “legitimate opinion”.