Eoghan Dalton Reports from Berlin

WHILE THE WAR in Gaza has been an important issue to many in Ireland, leading the Irish government to recognising Palestine as a state, the issue has been “flipped on its head” in Germany according to campaigners in the country.

One university lecturer described it as a “parallel reality” which has seen a “slide into repression” due to what she said were regular crackdowns on seminars aimed at discussing the treatment of Palestinians.

Christine Binzel, economics lecturer at Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Bavaria, was among those who recently added their name to an open letter warning against “restrictions on speech and discussion about the war” in Germany.

Talks at universities in Berlin and Munich were cancelled recently when they were set to host the UN’s Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Territories. The Berlin talk eventually went ahead online.

There have been repeated claims of antisemitism and also claims of Islamophobia in recent months in Germany, as the country goes to elect a government amid an increasingly tense climate. One recent incident saw a man arrested for assault involving a sharp object at central Berlin’s Holocaust memorial.

There have also been claims that Irish-language activists in Berlin have been wrongly impeded by authorities, with one demonstration for Palestinian solidarity alleged to have been told to stop speaking and singing in Irish while holding the event last year.

The Irish Bloc Berlin group criticised the police for their actions at the time, alongside saying that the speaking of Arabic had been “significantly repressed” in Berlin, “with certain Arabic words and slogans banned” at protests for Palestine.

Seminars cancelled

In correspondence seen by The Journal, university authorities deemed the seminars a “security risk” as a reason for cancelling.

One lecturer, who has used the pseudonym Jordan Connolly, told The Journal that it has created a “culture of fear” in German academia.

Their name was chosen after the River Jordan and Easter 1916 member James Connolly to guard their identity while paying tribute to Ireland’s efforts on Palestine.

They said that they have been told to avoid a “clash of opinions” on the issue, where Germany seeks to uphold a strict defence of Israel, partly as a form of atonement for its crimes against Jewish people in the Second World War.

“But universities are not business hubs, we’re not the government. We’re supposed to be critics and to at least be able to talk about current events,” the lecturer said.

This has also made it difficult to “even hold events discussing Islamophobia, for fear it will address the war in Gaza”, they added.

Analyst Nimrod Flashenberg, who is a member of the Israelis for Peace group in Berlin, which adopts a Palestine solidarity position on the war, told The Journal that there is “frustration about Germany’s unconditional support for crimes in Gaza” and that a “majority are against weapons delivery”, referencing a poll carried out last year.

The issue of Germany’s government delivering weapons for Israel to use in the Middle East has been contentious at times, with chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected claims last October that Berlin had imposed a de facto stop on arms exports to Israel and said more weapons would be delivered.

“I think the public understands the role of the country in World War Two but did not sign up for endless commitment to the state of Israel no matter who is in power,” Flashenberg said.