Antinuclear

The good Germans and the good Jews

Right now is supposed to be a great festive time – but it has become a spectacle of consumerism. Yet it’ is still good to spend time with dear friends and family.

But it’s a bit hard to forget what is going on in the world.

And grist to the media’s mill is -all the awful things, and the horrors still being done in Gaza.

A Martian, looking down on this sorry human race (and its media), might conclude that it’s a failed species, with extinction as its best option. But a more thorough examination would reveal so many thousands of people trying to be helpful to each other, and some quite heroically so.

It is a good time to pay tribute to the good people.

First of all, I’m in admiration for all those good people – the doctors, nurses, and humanitarian helpers in Gaza, risking their lives as they try to save the children, women, and men of this persecuted community.

And there are those who risk their jobs, their reputations, even their lives to stand up to the prevailing narrative that the Israeli genocide of Palestinians is OK.

The good Germans.

I bet that there are few people who realise that, back in the 1930s and 40s, there were many Germans who fought, did what they could, to stop the Nazis’ genocide in the holocaust. Catrine Clay has documented this in her book THE GOOD GERMANS:

Many ordinary Germans found the courage to resist, in the full knowledge that they could be sentenced to indefinite incarceration, torture or outright execution. Catrine Clay argues that it was a much greater number than was ever formally recorded: teachers, lawyers, factory and dock workers, housewives, shopkeepers, church members, trade unionists, army officers, aristocrats, Social Democrats, Socialists and Communists.

The Jews were the prime, though not the only, victims of the Nazi atrocities.

The good Jews

It is ironic that now there are Jews, people like the members of Jewish Voice for Peace, who bravely speak up for the best in their religion and culture, and denounce the genocide. They take the risks, and are often the leaders in student and other demonstrations

In Europe Having suffered throughout history, Jewish peace activists told Euronews Jews should identify with the oppressed and defend their rights – “whoever that oppressor may be.”   In Germany there is Jüdische Stimme (Jewish Voice)

In Britain there is Na’amod, a movement of Jews who oppose what they call Israel’s policies of “occupation and apartheid” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. There’s also the Jewish Council of Australia.

These courageous people face opposition from Western governments that align with Netanyahu’s Israeli government. But that’s not all. They risk alienation from family and friends, and condemnation as “traitors” to the community. In Israel itself, perhaps a very few are aware of the Gaza situation: they would be readers of Haaretz the independent newspaper (which will no doubt soon be shut down by Netanyahu).

We need to honour these brave and intelligent people, and to remember that there are many thousands who, in various ways, resist the prevailing culture of greed and war-mongering.

December 24, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized