Jewish peace activist slams Germany for silencing criticism of Israel

By Anadolu staff

BERLIN (AA) - A leading Jewish peace activist in Berlin has criticized German authorities for suppressing the Palestine solidarity movement in the country.

Udi Raz, a 34-year-old Israeli national, has been at the forefront of the solidarity movement, which has been calling on the German government to suspend weapons sales to Israel.

Anadolu met Raz at a protest march against a proposed regulation that would see students lose their degrees and qualifications if they participate in pro-Palestine rallies and demonstrations.

He said the government is trying to silence them.

"For months, we're witnessing how the German government does everything it can to silence us. Not only to silence us, but also to brutally attack and violate our civic rights, our very democratic rights that were promised to us by the virtue of the so-called Democratic Republic of Germany,” he said.

"Besides that, we also witnessed how universities here in Berlin are restricting academic freedom. For example, we are now waiting here, gathering here, in order to demonstrate against a new proposal for a law that would allow universities to exmatriculate students, for example, for calling for a cease-fire, for calling for the implementation of international law also for Palestinians,” he said.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), German weapons accounted for 47% of all Israeli weapons imports last year, closely behind the US, with 53%. Germany has been Israel's second-largest weapons supplier for the last 20 years.

Raz belongs to a rising number of anti-Zionist Jews in Germany who have been actively campaigning against Israel's brutality in Gaza since Oct. 7, where it has now killed more than 34,000 Palestinians.

He is also a board member of the Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East, a non-governmental organization which has been branded anti-Semitic and has had its bank accounts frozen by the German state.

The NGO, which has been calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and the suspension of German weapons sales to Israel, had also organized a three-day conference on Palestine which was shut down and banned by Berlin police last weekend.

The conference, which was supposed to kick off last Friday with notable speakers such as former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and leading British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta, was canceled by Berlin police within the first two hours.

Following the cancellation, Raz was briefly arrested by police.

In recent months, several Jewish intellectuals, academics, artists and campaigners have faced backlash in Germany with many losing their jobs.

Recently, a leading Jewish American philosopher, Nancy Fraser, was disinvited from taking up a professorship at the University of Cologne after signing a letter expressing solidarity with Palestinians and condemning the killings in Gaza carried out by Israeli forces.

Responding to the crackdown, Raz said: "Since months, we are witnessing how those who are in power do everything they can to silence us for speaking up for democracy, for everyone who lives between the river to the sea, for speaking up for human rights which should also be applied for Palestinians, for speaking up for the implementation of international law, also in the case of Gaza and the West Bank.”

“Whenever we speak up, those in power point at us and accuse us of being antisemites, Islamists, extremists. To my understanding, six months into an ongoing genocide, those who point at us and accuse us of being Israel haters are nothing less than genocide lovers," he added.

Responding to a question on whether Germany should differentiate between Israel and Jews, he said: "Of course, Germany must differentiate between the state of Israel and Jews in general. Israel cannot speak in the name of Jews. Whoever claims otherwise, to my understanding, this is an antisemitic claim. Jews are diverse. Jews live in diverse and different geopolitical contexts and national contexts. We Jews who live here in Germany, of course we care about other Jews who live elsewhere, but it does not mean that we are ambassadors of a racist state called the state of Israel."