“Deutsche Intifada”
by contested-terrain, 10 May 2008
Self-explanatory? Maybe, if you’re familiar with the German scene. If not, by way of a confusing introduction, the photo was taken on Mayday in Hamburg, which I reported on in a previous post. But, these black-block looking youth are not from the radical Left, but rather from the radical Right. “Autonomist nationalists” or some other faction of the neo-Nazi scene.
“Deutsche Intifada”? This says a lot about the self-understanding of some of the radical right in Germany. Not conservative but rebellious and militant; not parliamentary (though they do have their party, the NPD, holding seats in office) but combative; anti-imperialist with a constant focus on their supposed victimhood.
And who do they appeal to? The radical Left, rebellious youth, and older generations whose guilt-defensive antisemitism (or “secondary antisemitism”) can be projected onto Israel.
The photo comes from the website of the Anti-Defamation Forum.
Sunday 11 May 2008 at 4:33
Ahh, bless ‘em. Right wing or left wing, it always boils down to ‘blame the Jews’.
Sunday 11 May 2008 at 9:43
I’m never sure if it makes sense to respond to such baseless provocations, but it reminds me of the comments I found amongst Germans on You Tube, in response to the antifas obstruction of the neo-Nazi demo in Hamburg.
There was a similar relativization in their comments, in which they treated the demos as something not to be concerned about. “The Left is just as bad as the Right” and other such nonsense. Reductions of the whole Left to Stalinism, and so forth. And the kind of indifferent attitude. This helped them feel above and outside the situation. It’s striking to see Germans expressing an utter lack of concern about the increasing power and violence of an explicitly antisemitic and racist movement in their country.
With police protection, the neo-Nazis were allowed to march through the streets of Hamburg, and it was only Leftists who sought to prevent it. The “good center” sees no need to be involved. Sees themselves unaffected, or blames the Left for making a fuss, for disturbing their peace.
Additionally, if you still think neo-Nazi gatherings are nothing to be concerned about, Der Spiegel reported that:
Of course there is antisemitism on the Left, but to be unable to see the difference between the Left and the Right is to be delusional, and also blind to the the different sections of the Left, which in Germany is huge - some splits due exactly to this question of antisemitism.
Sunday 11 May 2008 at 18:38
Whatever. Extremist right-wing Germans hate Jews. Extremist left-wing Germans…..hate Jews (but of course they call it ‘hating Israel’).
If you were an Israeli civillian being singled out for special treatement by German ‘left-wing revelutionaries’ at Entebbe airport on the 1970’s (as guests of a cannabalistic maniac dictator who thought he was King of Scotland) I don’t know if the difference would have been all that obvious.
Sunday 11 May 2008 at 21:04
What does this have to do with the posting?
Neo-nazis were militantly confronted by Leftists, and no one else. The neo-Nazis ability to organize public demonstrations is regularly disrupted by Leftists, and often Leftists alone.
Of course this does not mean that some German Leftists don’t express antisemitic resentments. Of course they do, usually through anti-Zionism. But any observation of the German Left must give it credit where it deserves. Some sections of the German Left make combating antisemitism their absolute number 1 priority, and these efforts have shaped the entire German Left. Any simple generalization such as you’re making simply doesn’t correspond to the reality on the ground.
Wednesday 14 May 2008 at 16:34
Jez, you obviously aren’t at all familiar with German leftists. They (unsurprisingly) have the deepest-thought out positions on Israel/Palestine that I’ve come across. Some, the “Anti-Deutsch” take their anti-antisemitism so far as to be regard any criticism of the Israeli government as to be unwelcome.
More sensible is their attitude to conspiracy theories and critiques of capitalism which regard it as due to the actions of a small elite group. “Structurally anti-semitic” is what they call it. The general level of analysis is a lot better than in this country.
Friday 16 May 2008 at 14:50
Yet, still I can’t say that this antideutsch approach is really the typical feature of German leftism. It’s there, it’s present at surprising spots right within the Green Party for example; still it’s marginal compared to the widespread traditionalist anti-imperialism still shaping what leftists and many other Germans think about Israel.