Blood and Dust

Suppression of public opinion and signs of fascism in Germany

The world watches. This is worse than before. Casualties on both sides. Not equal. Never equal. Screaming then silence.

Morning news of more devastation in Palestine. Entire communities turned to rubble, missing loved ones debris among powdery concrete. In Israel, mourning too. Through gritted anger and pain, hope that hostages will return to loving arms.

On the wet streets of Berlin there’s little reminder of yesterday’s demonstrations. There couldn’t be. It was shut down so quickly by the police. Palestinian flags held in solidarity, ripped from people’s hands before their tense bodies were aggressively dragged into police vans.

The justification: this could lead to anti-semitism. Welcome to the police state where you can be detained for crimes you might commit.

On Saturday, following the terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas militants, the Brandenburg Tor was illuminated with the Israeli flag. A show of solidarity for those lost. Is it okay, in a city like Berlin, with its history of brown shirts and watchtowers, to fly the flag of an oppressive, apartheid state? Is it okay anywhere?

The Berlin Senate clearly thinks it is. In a city rebuilt by Gastarbeiters, migrant workers from Turkey, Italy, Morocco and other countries who came to the aid of Berlin in the 1950s; a city that speaks a thousand languages, and a place for true multiculturalism, you would expect rational parity.

You would expect that after the latest killings, Palestinans be granted space to mourn. Time to come together and show unity. Not so in Neukölln, an area to the south east of Brandenburg Tor with a significant Palestinian community. 

A show of solidarity with those back home. Holding flags and a public display of hurt and grieving for those lost today, yesterday and over the months, years and decades of occupation.

The police response was quick and violent. Demonstrators punched and put in headlocks. Flags ripped from the arms of children, before they too were led away by veiny, roid-raged, heroes in dark blue. 

The ghosts of Germany’s past haunt reason and objectivity. They suppress debate and as a consequence create division. The irony of course is that this rhetoric is frighteningly similar to that which saw Hitler’s ascension to unabated power.

This says much about where Germany is. However, the place it, and the rest of Europe is headed, is much darker.

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At the Bavaria and Hesse state elections last week the CDU/CSU (center-right incumbents) increased their collective vote share. The AfD and Free Voters (both far-right) increased their collective vote share by 14.4% across both states.

Political commentators often remark that there is a resurgence of right-wing politics in Europe. This needs to be called out for what it is; fascism. Fascism is back in Europe.

The tactics of fascism are clear. Create an enemy. Blame them for the failures of the state. Exaggerate the problem, suppress the counterpoint and coalesce. In magic this would be smoke in mirrors; pictures from Gaza tell us that in real life it is blood and dust. 

Despite an ongoing corruption trial, Israel’s right-wing leader, Netanyahu, has clung onto power for 16 years. A key tenet of his political identity is the mis-characterization of Palestinians in an attempt to create fear and solidify his strong-man status in government.

The AfD, now Germany’s second most popular party (behind the CDU/CSU), talks of “renewing our country in the spirit of freedom and democracy… we want [to] remain German… to permanently preserve the dignity of man, the family with children, our Western Christian culture, our language and tradition in a peaceful, democratic and sovereign nation state of the German people.”

Translated, this means white Germans — good, everyone else — bad. Fascism. A war on people, ideas and identity.

To paraphrase Hiram Johnson, truth is the first casualty in war. On the streets of Berlin demonstrations are shut down, freedom of speech silenced, citizens stripped of their rights. How and why lies in Germany’s past but also in the conveniently false belief that to be anti-Israel is to be anti-semitic. 

Racism, of any form, has no place in society. Discrimination, of any form, has no place in society, but it cannot be illegal to hold the flag of your nation. It cannot be illegal to dissent against the state view. 

Criticizing a country which continually annexes part of another country, stealing land and displacing families is not anti-semitic.

Being disgusted by a conscripted military that kills innocent children is not anti-semetic.

Being anti-apartheid is not anti-semitic.

Not supporting the views and policies of a right-wing Israeli government is not anti-semtitic. 

There are many Israeli citizens that regularly protest against the Israeli government. Israelis that deplore the actions their government takes against Palestinian people. Why should citizens of other countries not share that right to protest?

The words spoken and actions taken by those in power have reverberations big and small. There will be innocent eyes who this morning saw the sun rise from a squalid jail cell, there will be others, innocent, whose eyes see nothing anymore. Their eye color, name, height, age — statistics. Next of kin informed.