Language:
German
Year of publication:
2008
Titel der Quelle:
Tribüne; Zeitschrift zum Verständnis des Judentums
Angaben zur Quelle:
186 (2008) 131-142
Keywords:
Antisemitism History 1945-
Abstract:
Traces the development of left-wing anti-Zionism and antisemitism in Europe from 1945 to the present, with an emphasis on Germany. German society, including the Left, ignored the Middle East conflict after the war, but antisemitism did not perish. In the 1950s the attitude toward Jews, Judaism, and Israel marked the dividing line between the communists and the democratic Left. Israel's positive image in West German leftist circles turned negative in 1967, and by 1969 Israel-critique had turned into a frozen, anti-Zionist worldview. With the decline of the leftist student movement, Marxist-Leninist and Maoist groups sprouted, and antisemitic Palestine solidarity groups found a base in German university towns. Anti-Jewish violence, which peaked with the terror actions of 1976, heralded the end of unanimous leftist anti-Zionism. The late 1970s witnessed the absorption of the Left into the Green movement. In 1982 the German Left unanimously condemned Israel for "genocide" in Lebanon and compared it to Nazi Germany. By the late 1980s the immature Middle East engagement of the Left had become increasingly awkward; after 1989, paralyzed by world political events, the Left shrivelled into a subculture. The new millennium is marked by an explosion of consipracy theories, a short step from antisemitism. Israel is boycotted by antiglobalists, trade unions and church circles. The Left ponders its relationship with the Islamist and antisemitic enemies of Israel. Concludes that the European Left, which now struggles for its raison d'etre, may seek a foothold in antisemitism.
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