Israel/Palestine post 10/7 - follow-on events/thoughts as relate to other countries

from ArtNews:

Laurie Anderson Withdraws from Visiting Professor Post at German University After Pro-Palestine Letter Resurfaces
Alex Greenberger

BY ALEX GREENBERGER

January 29, 2024 10:11am

The New York–based artist and musician Laurie Anderson said she would not take up a visiting professor position at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany, amid scrutiny over her views on Palestine.

Earlier this month, the school announced that Anderson, who has produced such works as the hit 1981 song “O Superman,” had been appointed its Pina Bausch Professor, a position named after a famed dancer. But since that announcement, the school appears to have reneged on its decision, citing the fact that Anderson signed a 2021 open letter that urges support for Palestine.

“To frame this as a war between two equal sides is false and misleading,” the letter reads. “Israel is the colonizing power. Palestine is colonized. This is not a conflict: this is apartheid.”

Moreover, the letter continues, “We have seen how governments in Europe and beyond recently have instated policies of open censorship, and fostered a culture of self-censorship, towards Palestinian solidarity. Conflating legitimate criticism of the State of Israel and its policies towards Palestinians with antisemitism is cynical. Racism, including antisemitism, and all forms of hate, are heinous and not welcome in the Palestinian struggle. It is time to stand up to these tactics of silencing and overcome them.”

She was one of thousands to sign the letter, whose signatories also included artists such as Nan Goldin, Kara Walker, Simone Leigh, and many more.

On Friday, the Folkwang University of the Arts issued a press release saying that Anderson would no longer be taking up the position at the school on April 1. Specifically, the release claimed that the letter “takes up boycott demands from the anti-Israel BDS movement,” even though neither the movement itself nor a boycott of Israel are ever mentioned in the text. (In Germany, BDS has been particularly controversial, with some political figures attempting to render it illegal.)

“For me the question isn’t whether my political opinions have shifted,” Anderson said in a statement. “The real question is this: Why is this question being asked in the first place? Based on this situation I withdraw from the project. My colleagues at the University and the Pina Bausch Foundation have discussed this with me at great length and we have jointly decided this is the best way forward.”

In its release, the university said the decision came amid “the context of the current discourse about freedom of art and freedom of expression.”

It was the latest such development in a country whose art scene has been roiled by the October 7 Hamas attack, with many artists who voice pro-Palestine views facing the prospect of canceled exhibitions and withdrawn opportunities.

Earlier this month, Berlin attempted to implement a funding clause reliant upon a definition of antisemitism that many said would be used to keep pro-Palestine artists from receiving money. After mass protests, the funding clause was ultimately repealed.

Folkwang

Can be abbreviated to "FU"

As an aside, I mentioned to xyzzz the last time I saw him in person that he might like Kara Walker's work.

Volkwank

I mentioned the main omission in the postwar denazification process several times already on this thread, as did others

But you did not explain how removing the entire managerial class from their positions and replacing every last one of them with people having no training or experience in running the basic components of the economy would have been an improvement in post-war Germany, other than the unspoken presumption that this action was highly desirable or even possible in a nation where most of the infrastructure was destroyed or damaged.

The question of what would result from totally removing all nazis from their positions of responsibility was certainly discussed by the people who were tasked with planning the occupation of Germany. I don't think their choice to avoid this approach was motivated by some desire to see nazis rewarded with money and power, but came from the simple realization that it couldn't be done without vastly complicating the process of delivering goods and services to the civilian population. iow, there were very real, obvious, painful and expensive drawbacks to kicking every nazi out of their position in the existing heirarchy.

Other than that, it was a great idea.

As an aside, I mentioned to xyzzz the last time I saw him in person that he might like Kara Walker's work.

― felicity, Saturday, 3 February 2024 bookmarkflaglink

Good times

Aimless, I think it is naive at best to assume they would be replaced by "people having no training or experience", as if these ppl were the only people in Germany capsble, and it is also reductive to think that the only way to curtail this power would be to fire individuals.

The fact that it wasn't done has nothing to do with either wanting to reward nazis or logistic problems fir the population but rather that these ppl would be valuable to have on your side in the coming fight against communism - c.f. the economic and political elites of Korea under Japanese occupation being given cushy positions in South Korea after the separation.

Nothing to do with logistical problems? And you call me naive.

if you can do this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Purge

you can do the other thing

not doing so was a political choice

this is a relatively uncontroversial claim, or at least I assumed it was

Occupied Japan and the Red Purge would provide an excellent analogy to occupied Germany, if during WWII Japan had been a one-party totalitarian state under the Communist Party.

This is obviously not a good thread for thrashing this out, but if you all would like to thrash out the different levels of complexity surrounding denazification and the transition from WWII to the Cold War in another thread, I'd be game to explain my perspective in greater detail without continuing to clutter up this thread with this digression.

man purging is hard, what to leave in, what to take out. nazis you take out

Only if they cute

classic wsj!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GFbiJF-WgAA-eAu?format=jpg&name=small

Steven Stalinksy, executive director of MEMRI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_Media_Research_Institute

it's not part of the narrative that Germany exported outside its borders.

I'm someone thats largely bought into this narrative, subconsciously at least and probably mostly via received wisdom about Germany being accepted by its neighbours in the postwar period in a way that wasn't true of Japan. So this is first time I've had that challenged (or, to be frank, really thought about it).

I'm a blank slate on it now, if there's anything you can recommend to read (or watch on YouTube), on the 1950-1973ish period

The term denazification was first coined as a legal term in 1943 by the U.S. Pentagon, intended to be applied in a narrow sense with reference to the post-war German legal system. However, it later took on a broader meaning.[1]

In late 1945 and early 1946, the emergence of the Cold War and the economic importance of Germany caused the United States in particular to lose interest in the program, somewhat mirroring the Reverse Course in American-occupied Japan. The British handed over denazification panels to the Germans in January 1946, while the Americans did likewise in March 1946. The French ran the mildest denazification effort. Denazification was carried out in an increasingly lenient and lukewarm way until being officially abolished in 1951. Additionally, the program was hugely unpopular in West Germany, where many Nazis maintained positions of power. Denazification was opposed by the new West German government of Konrad Adenauer,[2] who declared that ending the process was necessary for West German rearmament.

Quite the case.

So, #DavidMiller has won a landmark case, that says anti-zionist ideas are protected speech in the UK. This is a BIG WIN for those of us who teach on Palestine and Israel but make no mistake the Left should not support his very problematic take on
1/

— Dr. Michal Nahman (@michalnahman) February 6, 2024

"1/"

lol thanks captain 2018

On the danger of the Super Bowl ad:

https://therealnews.com/patriots-owner-robert-kraft-buys-7-million-pro-israel-super-bowl-ad-during-gaza-genocide

There’s also the propaganda ad from the state of Israel itself, all while they’re bombing the shit out of a captive civilian population in Rafah.

The depths of the cynicism and barbarity know no
bounds.

A serious/news podcaster got in touch with me a few years ago to say he liked my Centuries of Sound project, we had a chat over zoom and it turned out we had some other interests in common, so made some vague plans to collaborate which came to nothing, but we kept in touch anyway. Seemed to be a good guy basically.

Then from October he began posting rabidly pro-Israel stuff on Twitter, after a few weeks I reluctantly went to mute him and it turned out he'd already unfollowed me - my twitter account is 95% music stuff, so must have been something I liked? Dunno. So I unfollowed him too.

Yesterday I went to check out his feed to see if he was still at it. Not only was he not, he'd also deleted every single tweet or reply (or like!) where he'd expressed any sort of opinion on Israel, Palestine or Hamas, and there were a lot of these, over several months. No apology or explanation, just all as if he'd never had a thought about it.

So is this cowardice? Has he actually changed his mind? And how many more news media people have done the same?

BREAKING: A Dutch court has ordered the Netherlands to halt the delivery of parts for F-35 fighter jets used by Israel in its bombardment of the Gaza Strip https://t.co/oh4sDLMjps pic.twitter.com/SmqH8CpZgW

— Al Jazeera Breaking News (@AJENews) February 12, 2024

Yesterday I went to check out his feed to see if he was still at it. Not only was he not, he'd also deleted every single tweet or reply (or like!) where he'd expressed any sort of opinion on Israel, Palestine or Hamas, and there were a lot of these, over several months. No apology or explanation, just all as if he'd never had a thought about it.

So is this cowardice? Has he actually changed his mind? And how many more news media people have done the same?

I think people should be allowed to be wrong about something, change their minds, and pivot to a new stance without having to apologize for being wrong— this goes for commentators, not policy-makers, obv

Some people don’t have the ability to apologize and you just kinda have to settle for “an aroma of remorse”

IDK, I don't want to give him a pass on this, he said some really fucked up things.

Short of asking the dude - which I understand you wouldn't want to - I think this'll just have to stay a mystery.

Friends who angrily told me I was being "alarmist" and "delusional" back in October when I said "I don't think Netanyahu actually cares about rescuing any hostages" and "I think his intention is to create conditions which predicate the permanent evacuation of the population of Gaza, and its annexation by Israel", I don't bear them any ill will or feel like they should apologise, like whatever, I thought it seemed obvious pretty early on but maybe it was not so obvious

Former friends who were saying things to me like "how can you call this a genocide when the Palestinians breed like [insert a pest animal here]", there's no apology that would suffice, those former friends are unwelcome

Friends in Israel think the abductees are hostages to Netanyahu (who will be hurled out of office when this is over/hostages are returned) as much as to Hamas.

Yes, that’s been my impression also

he asked an Israeli audience member to leave because he objected that the comedian was displaying a Palestinian flag, but you’d never guess that from the headline https://t.co/BFSW6OWk5L

— Nihal | نهال (@nihalist___) February 14, 2024

I mean, you also wouldn't guess it from the article, since that's not what happened.

In fairness, that's the shorter version of the article she's linked to there: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/feb/12/soho-theatre-apologises-after-comedian-abused-jewish-audience-member

Honestly I don’t see the problem.

The problem with the tweet or the underlying incident?

the tweet

I guess just general handwringing about how Twitter is a place with a lousy relation to the truth, where most people never click through to links, so it's not great if a correction is further from the underlying facts than the headline it's 'correcting'?

The problem with the tweet is that there isn’t actually a problem with the headline

Maybe "the stand-up routine is terrible" should be the main takeaway from this.

Currie’s show was described on the theatre website as a “unique, surrealist, dada punk-clown, non-verbal experience”. He does not speak in the hour-long show until the end and relies on mime, music and audience participation.

Sounds like hell on Earth.

^ not stand up, as that description shows

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPQHHP7dfjU

Currie then sits down and mimes someone doing just that - sitting in silence - then sitting apathetically in front of the TV. He then mobes (sic) to another skit, miming to Kermit singing Rainbow Connection.

That's entertainment!

It doesn’t sound great, and I have never heard of Currie before yesterday, but I question what function the article serves except to elevate the importance of the uncomfortability of an Israeli person over the literal genocide being perpetrated by the Israeli government against a captive civilian population.

Honestly, I believe proud Israeli citizens should be shamed. They should be ashamed of what their government is doing, and if they are not, they can go to hell.

They couldn’t fit that into the headline probably

They should be ashamed of what their government is doing, and if they are not, they can go to hell.

― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Thursday, February 15, 2024 5:29 AM bookmarkflaglink

No they can't. Hell is a Paul Currie comedy show.

OTM

lol fair

Terrible.

Refugee who wore paraglider image at protest to have asylum status reviewedhttps://t.co/V2u9NZ10ra

— Benny Hunter (@BennnyH) February 16, 2024

As the person who posted the tweet says below, they will not be removed from the UK, but using the immigration system as punishment is something many of us should be afraid of.

Lots of cool war crime fantasies from our Democratic leaders

NY Gov Hochul last night on local opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza:

“If Canada someday ever attacked Buffalo, I'm sorry my friends, there would be no Canada the next day.

“That’s a natural reaction. You have a right to defend yourself and to make sure it never happens again.” pic.twitter.com/UCHUBmU6ka

— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) February 16, 2024

BREAKING: UC Davis has divested from apartheid Israel. The bill prevents the ASUCD’s $20 mill budget from being spent “on companies complicit in the occupation and genocide.”

This is huge. University divestment efforts played a massive role in ending South African apartheid. pic.twitter.com/MdddeXLFCl

— Cocktails & Capitalism - an anticapitalist podcast (@CocktCapitalism) February 16, 2024