Germany's Gaza border in democracy

Aachen

Just as the Al-Aqsa Flood has shaken all of Israel's balances, it is also shaking the so-called values and political order of Europe, which protects Israel, looks after it, absolves it of every crime, and watches its back. Europe has long been grappling with economic and socio-political crises that have led to the rise of the far right. The recent electoral triumph of Wilders's far-right party in the Netherlands is merely a simple indicator that the value of these European values themselves is running thoroughly out.

In Germany too, the rise of the far-right party AfD to the level of second party, if the economic crisis it has been caught in for quite some time continues in this state, turns its becoming the first party into an increasingly approaching threat. There is no need to say that the measures Germany applies against this "democratic" threat are not democratic at all by the criteria it has itself set and constantly reminds Turkey of when the occasion arises. Even if it is fascist, racist, far-right, its treatment of the AfD cannot even be compared with the reactions the ruling party put forth in Turkey against, for example, the HDP. The party in question has no act of violence or terrorist organization; nevertheless, the isolation it is subjected to within parliament, and its deprivation of rights such as those in committees and deputy speakerships, is in the end an interesting example of how far the limits can be widened or narrowed within an experience of democracy.

Today Germany faces an economic crisis of a kind it has not experienced for a long time. Budget balances cannot be met. On the occasion of a visit that has brought us to Germany these days, we can immediately see that strikes in many fields are disrupting daily life. In the legendary health sector, serious disruptions are being experienced in hospital health services because of strikes begun by staff who do not find the planned pay raise sufficient.

The fact that, although inflation has perhaps climbed to levels Germany has not seen for years, no proportionate pay increase is being made, and that for the first time a budget deficit is being experienced in this regard, is also leading, in the same days, to greater questioning of the unconditional material and moral support Germany has declared for Israel.

In Germany the state is in fact as sensitive as possible to every development, attitude and shift in public opinion that would be against Israel. Rallies in support of Gaza, where thousands of children are being massacred by bombing before everyone's eyes, are being obstructed on various pretexts on the grounds that they display hostility to Israel. In the end, even for the demonstrations that are permitted, it stipulates that no slogans or banners accusing Israel of genocide or instilling hatred for Israel be carried.

The sensitivity displayed on this matter has increasingly turned into a paranoid being-more-Israeli-than-Israel. Indeed, those in Israel who criticize the state and hold the Netanyahu government responsible for this entire process can carry out their demonstrations and protests more freely than citizens in Germany.

In Germany, which regards the freedom of protest and demonstration as the most natural acts of democracy, even a complete ban on demonstrations in support of Gaza can come onto the agenda, and in practice the obstruction of such actions can be contemplated with ease. And this while an outright genocide is being openly carried out in Gaza. While unborn children, children in their mothers' wombs or born prematurely or in their cradles are being torn apart under Israeli bombardments. All these images reach every corner of the world and rouse consciences, but they do not reach German government officials.

In Germany the state decided from the outset what will and will not reach itself and its citizens. An instruction that the German state television ARD sent to all German journalists on October 11, at the start of the events, containing a detailed "language regulation" on how the news is to be handled, is actually a complete scandal in terms of the level of journalism and press freedom in Germany. Such an instruction might be regarded as quite ordinary business for a Middle Eastern country, but for Germany, which leaves no stone unturned in journalism, the press, and freedom of thought and expression, it is beyond a scandal, a complete disgrace.

The instruction explains in all detail how words such as Hamas, Gaza, Israel, war, attack, civilian, military targets and terror should be used. It reminds that there must be no departure from the narrative that this event unquestionably began with Hamas's terror attacks aimed at civilian targets and that Israel has to respond to it within the framework of its "right of self-defense."

ARD's "language regulations" in this direction teach presenting Israel as the sole victim and hiding the other victim, that is, Gaza and the civilian population there, in the headlines. The matter has been exposed, and in fact in the present economic crisis in Germany, amid bad governance, and above all concerning the democratic freedom of expression it takes most pride in, the material support accompanying this unconditional media support given to Israel is warning citizens against Israel more than ever before. Perhaps that is why in the Gaza demonstrations in Germany Germans take part as much as Muslims. The Germans who take part in these actions are, through Israel, protesting their own rulers.

Dissenting voices claim that in Germany it is almost no longer a Constitution but Israel's interpretation of martial law that is in force. In recent days the Minister for Integration of the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Marjam Samadzade, had to resign because she liked an article expressing solidarity with Palestinian civilians. The article Samadzade shared speaks of Israel violating international law and of Israel being accused of genocide. Those who do not see that what Israel is actually doing today is a genocide might perhaps be accused of blindness, but a minister's being forced to resign merely because she saw it, or even because she agreed with the one who saw it, can be explained not by Germany's indebtedness but at most by its being held hostage.

The weight of realizing what naivety it is to ask why German politicians, who raise an uproar that "journalists are being arrested" in Turkey over organization members arrested or detained not for their journalistic activities but for their links to terrorism, are silent about at least 60 journalists bombed and killed by Israel within a month directly at their posts in Gaza... Or should it not be asked now where are the Claudia Roths, the Cem Özdemirs and the others who officiously came running to teach Turkey the limits of freedom of expression and of the freedom of democratic demonstration and protest during the Gezi events or in all the pro-PKK actions and events?

Does the German people not deserve democracy enough? Or is it something that is exhausted by being taught to others, these European values?

We cannot know whether the waves of the Al-Aqsa Flood will bring a truer democracy to Europe, but it will certainly open people's eyes to the facts.