An army of antisemitism commissioners was supposed to help Germany atone for its past. Critics say it is evidence of a memory effort gone haywire.

  • tryptaminev@feddit.deOP
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    1 year ago

    Not really.

    The key points of the article are:

    • The office is rarely held by people with formal education/interest in the issue of antisemitism, such as having had researched for the topic
    • These officers are eager to claim antisemitism to criticise voices from Arab nations, Africa or Jews
    • They are reluctant to condemn antisemtism by ethnical Germans, even defending dog whistling for classic Nazi style antisemitic conspiracies
    • They are criticising jewish voices, which criticise Israel, claiming these critics to be insensitive to Germanys memory culture around the Holocaust and its relation to Israel
    • They are dismissing jewish concerns over antisemitism by right wing extremists and focus on “imported antisemitism”
    • They are mostly consulting Israeli lobby groups for which things to consider antisemitism and which not, ignoring the diversity of jewish positions on Israel
    • German politics designate Jews as the model victims of Holocaust, denying memory to Sinti and Roma, LGBT, Communist and other victims of the Holocaust.

    All in all the author concludes that these offices are less there to genuinely tackle antisemitism in the German society (of which there is plenty) and more to coin the term in the way that fits the political strategy for how to deal with the German responsibility stemming from the Nazi crimes. They are also diverting from classical antisemitism by ethnic Germans, in favor of supporting anti-immigrant politics with overreaching claims of antisemitism.

    • Ooops@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      With the second to last point mostly explaining the others. As that’s exactly how Israel tries to wield antisemitism and every mention of the holocaust as a political tool.