I speak as a Jewish Refugee from Nazi Germany as well as a citizen of the US. I speak as a grandmother, a poet, a lover of soft air, sunlight and freedom. I speak of truth, hope and love as it combines with a respect for all human rights.
Of course, there is a dark side of Jewish consciousness. Jewish Identity, threatened with annihilation attempts to find methods of survival. This is the sickness from which recovery is difficult while holding on to victimization and fear. Trust no one and build a wall to keep out the enemy. The question is: do Jews who have been victimized have the moral right to occupy and disenfranchise another people? Zionism has replaced Jewish Identity with secular nationalism. We must not confuse Judaism and Zionism.The Zionist regime has totally imposed itself in an illegal and immoral way. The difference between Anti-Semitism and anti- Zionism is the difference between dehumanizing Jews because of their religion and reminding Jews that they share the same humanity as Palestinians.
Zionism has always equated any criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. This serves as propaganda for it relates to victimhood and puts opponents on the defensive. That Zionism and Judaism are the same must constantly be questioned for it is, I believe an abuse of reality that has contributed greatly to the rise of anti-Semitism today. Zionists twist and distort in such a way that leaves out humanity, frozen out to create a monster of apartheid and lies. We must remember that Zionism and Judaism are completely different for Zionism, not a religion is a racist, nationalistic ideology and the Zionist Ministry of Propaganda has very successfully blurred the distinction between anti-Zionist and anti-Semitism. With clever adeptness they have spread domestic terrorism in Europe and the US using the Holocaust to invite hysteria. “Never Again” is used as a powerful and highly charged statement that belies and seeks to suppress the horrors of Zionism as it delegitimizes Palestinians through racist subjugation, apartheid, stolen land and murder. It is apparent that the “chosen people”is pushed through an agenda of a " Jewish State for Jews only" with disregard to human rights or true democratic values. Now Europe and the US begin to wake up and have the courage to rise up and say “No.” Zionist propaganda works hard to label resistance to apartheid and ethnic cleansing as anti-Semitic. The shroud of denial by those who refuse to stand up against the Zionist agenda are distorting the Holocaust to justify Zionist Israel, a sad dream that can never be.
Zionism as we know it today was created by Theodore Herzel and others at the end of the 19th century, It even goes farther back to the 18th century In Herzel’s time it was commonplace to be colonialist, to be racist, to be super rationalist, to adore the nation state-so the idea of France for the French, Germany for the Germanics and some state for the Jews formed the basis for Zionism.
I was a very small child when I left what was then “ Deutchland Uber Alles.” Jews were unwanted but we were still able to leave, torn from our home and family as well as near penniless. Soon the borders were closed.
Yes we all know that Jews were viewed as contemptible vermin as were other mixed or non whites who did not belong to the Aryan world. Within five years of Hitler’s rise, Communists, socialists and fighters in opposition to Naziism were sent to Kuhberg Concentration Camp. Ulm was the closest city near Kuhberg and had a strong military tradition. Therefore it became a major center of the Nazi movement. (Ulm was my father’s homeland.)
There were eighty guards who watched over 3000 prisoners, kept in dark rooms of stone with thick metal doors and hooks around the walls where bodies hung to die a slow death. My breath heaved as we wandered up and down the gruesome aisles The place echoed torture in the grey darkness where sunlight refused to shine. I was in a place where guards were beasts to men who believed in human rights. The arid smell of decay surrounded us and reminded me of how thin is the line between humanity and the sadistic brutality of paranoid fanatics.
The house of hate is alive and well in Israel. Zionism has blossomed from the ashes of the Holocaust It is now its own monster as the state of Israel perpetrates such violence towards Palestinians that speaks as an unthinkable monstrosity. Steely eyes and heartless monsters have arisen from the Nazi Aryan vermin. Once again man ceases to be human.
How is it that those who were victims became perpetrators while at the same time, seeing themselves as the only Democracy in the Middle East. Our job must be to say “no” to Zionism and apartheid. And like the men in the early 1930’s who opposed Nazi fascism and were sent to brutal camps (early Dachau included), those who oppose the Zionist killings of Palestinian life are either cruelly jailed (Palestinians) in wretched prisons, murdered or labelled haters of Jews.
When it first happened to me in Germany where I spoke as an anti-Zionist Jew who was born in Germany, I could not believe how dehumanizing and false were the lies perpetrated onto me by the German Jews who we were unable to use the word apartheid, nor did they believe it. They enabled the lies of the Zionist government and clearly felt like good German Jews. Germany is still in large part protecting itself from from its Nazi past as Zionism continues its role to demolish and destroy for 75 years.
What is there to understand about the unique German Holocaust trauma that continues to demand so much support for Israel? Claims of anti-Semitism has led to a veritable witch hunt in the US. I say we must decolonize Israel, liberate Palestine, destroy settler and Zionist colonialism towards ONE Democratic state. I believe that the push to create this reality must be driven by countries outside of Israel, the young people and all people in the countries that are devoted to a world of justice. It is we who say "Never Again” and it is a travesty of justice and a manipulation of the memory of the Holocaust that energizes us to stop the Zionist agenda that has created hatred and lies and a true vision of fascism masquerading as democracy. For me, Israel was meant to be a beacon of light that was lost in the paranoia of a false promise propelled by Zionism’s hard and brutal state gone crazy.
Lillian
You can read my blog and articles at : lillianrosengarten.com