German state: Citizenship applicants must support Israel
German state: Citizenship applicants must support Israel
The state of Saxony-Anhalt has said people who do not recognize Israel's right to exist cannot become naturalized citizens. The eastern state's interior minister said Germany's other 15 states should take similar steps.
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Misleading title. There's a big difference between recognizing the right to exist of a country vs "supporting" a country.
That said, I also think there's a big difference between recognizing the right to exist of a country and the right to exist of a people. Human rights is one thing, but I don't think requiring agreement on international politics should be required for citizenship. I don't support a lot of things the US does, so I don't think that should be a requirement for citizenship.
The thing with Germany is, after the whole thing with that toothbrush mustache guy they really kind of swung the pendulum really far the other way. Germany takes antisemitism very seriously. And also anything that could be construed in any way to even hint at it.
So anybody who even looks a little bit goose-steppy is not getting in.
Partly jewish, german citizen here. Germany takes antisemitism so seriously that they can't even see beyound it anymore. 86% of antisemitic attacks in Germany come from the homegrown, far right extremists, yet the public narrative is that "Germany is importing antisemitism from abroad". German authorities are littered with all these far-right extremists and antisemitic theories about jews controlling the world are still common place. Antisemitic conspiracy theories about Soros and the Rothschilds are still fairly common. Neo-nazis running around spraying swastikas on walls and venerating the fascist dictatorship that killed a part of my family are still okay. Cops sharing Hitler memes and commemorating his birthday is fine with this state. The state conveniently doesn't care enough about those to take action. After WW2 most nazis got away scot free. The top leadership positions in government agencies and the biggest companies were filled with nazis. No one dared touch them. Hell, to twist the knife even more, in an almost comedic fashion the Minister for displaced persons under the first german chancellor Konrad Adenauer AFTER THE WAR was a full on nazi. He was a top guy in the SA. He was responsible for the occupation of Ukraine and the killing of countless jews there. The over 60 THOUSAND officers that were directly involved in well documented executions of jewish citizens also walked away scot free. The catholic church in Germany helped countless nazis escape prosecution by trying to get them out of the country. Hell, they even went as far as to help them get counterfeit documents.
But now suddenly Germany has somehow found this great urge to fight against what THEY say is antisemitism (No, criticising Israel isn't antisemitic). Suddenly, NOW antisemitism is sooooo problematic to Germany. Now all of a sudden Germany is this beacon of hope in the fight against antisemitism.
I am highly interested in jewish history (mostly because it's the history of my great grandparents that died in the holocaust). I do not care one ounce about Israel. Neither did my great grandparents. They were ROMANIAN jews. Not Israeli jews. If Germany wants to do a good thing, then they should help JEWS first and foremost including the ones that disagree with Israel, and stop labeling everyone as antisemitic because they oppose the massacre in Gaza. If Germany was even as charitable in the slightest as some people claim it to be, then they'd invest at least half as much energy into fighting for justice for THE OTHER people that were oppressed by the nazis: gay people, trans people, romas and sintis (hundreds of thousands of which died during the holocaust), disabled people, and so on. Yet the state barely seems to give two craps about these other groups. I guess they aren't loud enough for Germany to even care about them. Hell, they barely even started commemorating the LGBT people killed by the nazi regime just a few years ago. All of this is a farce. This is just a knee jerk reaction Germany has to try to paint itself as the good guy again. They never cared about actually changing something and working out their history.
This entire narrative that Germany is so highly interested in fighting against fascism is nothing but a farce. Almost nothing even worth mentioning has been done in Germany in regards to far right, nazi inspired extremism after WW2.
All this circus is just German guilt at play. They're trying to "make things right" by unconditionally supporting Israel, and thus they are equating Israel with jewishness (which is intself antisemitic, since there are many jews that aren't citizens of Israel). They do not have a responsibility towards Israel. They have a responsibility towards jews and towards ALL the people that are getting massacred by brutal regimes, just like Germany 80 years ago. Germany has the responsibility to stand for ALL the discriminated and oppressed people, and they are failing magnificently at that. The current situation is just a convenient way for Germany to find a way out of being the bad guys from 80 years ago without actually having to work on their history as they should.
I'm so done with this narrative. It isn't protecting jewish people. It isn't protecting the oppressed. It's just protecting this twisted german narrative because they refuse to actually take a hard look in the mirror.
This is a lot of interesting insight, and definitely goes beyond my admittedly limited understanding of things. Which is, as an outsider, mostly just gleaned in bits and pieces from German people on the internet, usually in the context of topics I'm looking at any way like overreactionary video game and media censorship, and various other insane aspects of modern German law. (Seriously. The knife laws you guys have over there are fucking weird.)
Thank you for sharing those insights! It feels like anti Zionist Jews are deliberately ignored by the media and slandered as self-hating or whatever. Zionism is completely monopolising the discourse and censoring alternative viewpoints.
Do Germans have to recognize every state's right to exist?
What makes Israel so special?
This feels like a strategy straight out of Russia's playbook. Now Germans will have 'data' that says X amount of their population stands with Israel.
but I don’t think requiring agreement on international politics should be required for citizenship
It's almost like you didn't actually read what I said.