Freedom of expression in Germany lasts only until you criticize Israel

While Turkey is living through very heated days with its domestic and foreign agenda, an incident in Germany that shines a spotlight on the fascistic fault lines behind Germany's discourse of democracy went unnoticed.

In Germany, which tries to sell Turkey a discourse of press and freedom of expression, democracy and human rights at every opportunity, a cartoon criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was published in the liberal Süddeutsche Zeitung under the signature of the cartoonist Dieter Hanitzsch.

In the cartoon, Netanyahu appears in the dress of Netta, who took part in the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of Israel and won first place. Singing his song with great enthusiasm, Netanyahu holds a microphone in one hand and, in the other, a missile bearing the six-pointed star emblem, and tells his audience, "Next year in Jerusalem!"

As is known, the Eurovision Song Contest is held every year in the country that won the previous year. This is one of the reasons for the emphasis on Jerusalem that the cartoonist has Netanyahu make. The other, with the missile in his hand, must be an emphasis on the Jerusalem of the dozens of people massacred in the protests held after the US decision to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

While dozens of people had lost their lives and hundreds had been wounded, the Israeli Prime Minister had received the winner of Eurovision, performed the chicken dance identified with the winner, and spoken of Israel's right to secure its borders. These images, also shared from the Prime Minister's official social media accounts, most likely inspired the cartoonist to draw such a cartoon.

But what comes next is far more thought-provoking than the cartoon itself. After the publication of the cartoon drew serious reaction, especially from Jews in Germany, the newspaper first apologized for publishing the cartoon. The newspaper's editor-in-chief apologized for publishing this cartoon, which is almost nothing next to the real-life counterpart of what Israel does, and said that publishing the cartoon was a mistake.

While apologizing, the editor-in-chief said something that also binds the cartoonist, relaying that Hanitzsch had told him he drew the cartoon to imply that Eurovision would be held in Jerusalem next year. Speaking to another newspaper after this, the cartoonist said his drawings were simple political criticism, that it was the editors' own business to apologize, but that he himself would not apologize for this drawing.

In this process the cartoonist was accused of being anti-Semitic, and when he refused to apologize, his position at the newspaper was terminated. It is not hard to guess that German politicians, who leave the defense of journalists imprisoned in Turkey, not because they practice the profession of journalism but on charges of organized crime, to no one else, showed no reaction whatsoever to these events. Especially if the matter is handled with an emphasis on content built upon the experience of the Holocaust, such as anti-Semitism...

But can the Holocaust, one of the most shameful events in human history, be enough to make all of Israel's foreign policy practices appear reasonable and legitimate? In other words, should there not be a clear difference between criticizing Israel and developing hate speech against Jews simply because they are Jews? When the State of Israel imprisons 4-year-old children as terrorists or kills dozens of them, should the labeling of any criticism of this practice as anti-Semitism and the stoning of the critic not be regarded as a sign and admission not of innocence but of guilt? After what happened in Gaza, Israel also described the UN's decision to send a delegation to Gaza as an "attempt to demonize the Jewish state," claimed that the purpose of the Human Rights Council, which decided to send the delegation, was not to bring the truth to light, and alleged that it was "dealing with the only democratic country in the Middle East instead of dealing with the real human rights violations in the world."

What kind of enforcement power can the UN have against Israel in this atmosphere of trust, when it has been unable to ensure the implementation of decisions such as Resolutions 242 and 338 taken by the Security Council, that is, the organization's most executive organ? If peace is to be achieved in the Middle East, and if it is to be through the UN, it is essential that the UN prove its maturity against Israel.

Only the UN? Of course not; if they truly want peace to be established, the EU countries, Germany first among them, and the US must as well. The case we recounted at the beginning of this article is important in that it also reveals how difficult this is.

The fascistic power of a Zionist official ideology produced by Germany's unending compensation to the Jews.

Since this fascistic power also rules over the media, money and pressure groups, it can be camouflaged as desired and slipped in under other guises and overlooked, but in cases like these it cannot be fitted into any sack.