Should Israel have been carved out of Germany? - Pakistan Observer
THE ongoing slaughter of Israeli citizens is abhorrent, as is the ensuing massacre of the inhabitants of Gaza. We have seen it before. Too many times. It is senseless and inhuman. With each side finding the other a monster, where does the fault lie? It is with the Balfour Declaration and its enablers. Unquestionably, jews […] The Balfour Declaration and its enablers have been blamed for the ongoing slaughter of Israeli citizens and the massacre of the inhabitants of Gaza. The term “Ghetto” originates with the decree of Pope Paul IV in 1555, which declared Jews “slaves because of their deeds” and “sons of maids” (as opposed to Christians, the “son of free women”), revoked their rights to religious freedom, property ownership, and professions other than unskilled or menial occupations, were revoked. The Jewish community in Rome was confined to one of Rome's Ghettos since pre-Christianity, with Jews being called ‘slaves due to their deeds and ‘son of maidens’ who were declared “Slaves.” Long before the Nazis, the Pope required Jewish men to wear pointed yellow hats and women to wear yellow kerchiefs, and forced Jews out of Frankfurt into the Judengasse (Jew alley), a strip that was a strip about a thousand feet long and twelve feet wide. The Jews were banished from their homes and were forbidden to venture out at night, Sundays or Christian holidays. Germany lost all its colonies to the victors and ceded 27,000 square miles of its territory and one-tenth of its population to European countries including France, Poland, Czechoslvakia, Denmark and Belgium following World War-II, and lost land to Poland, USSR and Austria. The land could have been carved out of Germany.
Opublikowany : 2 lata temu za pomocą Shah Naz Hayat Khan w
THE ongoing slaughter of Israeli citizens is abhorrent, as is the ensuing massacre of the inhabitants of Gaza. We have seen it before. Too many times. It is senseless and inhuman. With each side finding the other a monster, where does the fault lie? It is with the Balfour Declaration and its enablers. Unquestionably, jews have been persecuted through millennia. It is not just the Nazi concentration camps, the term “Ghetto” as understood today, originates with the decree of Pope Paul IV in 1555. He confined jews residing in Rome since pre-Christianity to one, walled in with three gates that were locked at night. The dictat, if one reads it, is humiliating to put it mildly. Jews were declared “slaves because of their deeds” and “sons of maids” (as opposed to Christians, the “sons of free women”). All their rights including to religious freedom, property ownership and professions other than unskilled or menial occupations, were revoked. Long before the Nazis stitched the star of David upon their clothes, the Pope required Jewish men to wear pointed yellow hats and the women, yellow kerchiefs. They were subjected to compulsory attendance of catholic sermons on the Jewish Shabbat. This was their fate in papal states well into the late 19th century.
The pope may have been inspired by Frederick III. The latter forced Jews out of the city of Frankfurt into the Judengasse (Jew alley), a strip about a thousand feet long and twelve feet wide. The banished paid rent, tax, were forbidden to venture out at night, Sundays or Christian holidays and, their attire ‘identification tagged’ by yellow sleeves or blue veils. Initially containing 100-200 dwellers, the strip burst at the seams as the population burgeoned to nearly 3000 piled almost on top of each other. They paid the city for permission to build more in that congestion, businesses, schools and dwellings, or when it was repeatedly destroyed by fire. Imagine, the ultimate Ghetto. Permission was required to live there or for marriage (only twelve marriages per year), never mind if you were a Rothschild! Jew alley existed well into the 19th century and the age of photography. Such Ghettos existed across Germany.
Long before the ‘Kristallnacht’ (night of the broken glass), there were repeated ‘judenschlacht’ (slaughter of the jews) at the Frankfurt Ghetto. Russia and eastern Europe had pogroms. While the Nazis perpetrated holocaust, Poland gruesomely slaughtered its Jews during and after WW-II, independent of the Nazis. Countries across Europe including France, collaborated with the Nazis in their design of extermination. After holocaust, six million of the nine and a half million European Jews were dead – Evidence aplenty, of a longstanding anti-Semitism ingrained in the western psyche and running though the fabric of its culture. Consider Shylock, in the ‘Merchant of Venice’ by the great English bard, to take the pulse of his time.
After the World War-I, Germany lost all its colonies to the victors. It also ceded 27,000 square miles of its territory and one-tenth of its population (6-7 million people) to the various affected European countries including France, Poland, Czechoslvakia, Denmark and Belgium. Following World War-II, it lost land to Poland, USSR and Austria. It would appear Europe especially Germany, owed land and reparations to those in Europe most wronged and injured i.e., the Jews. Logically, that land too could have been carved out of Germany. The idea is not far-fetched, for Germany never really was a unified country until the late nineteenth century. Instead, conveniently for Europe, the Jews were dispatched to Palestine. The rest is unfortunate history.
Beyond religious mythology, why Palestine? It was a backwater of the erstwhile ottoman Empire, transferred to the British Empire as spoils of war. Churchill’s cynical imperial designs implemented the Balfour Declaration, creating a western outpost amidst the troublesome, backward Arabs. It is said that Ethiopia was also considered for the Israel project. Would the presence of these capable and highly educated people, in Africa with no land scarcity, made the world better? Africa’s history of white colonialism tells us, not.
Palestinians are paying the price for the wrongs of Europe. They say, abused children make abusive parents. It is confirmed by how Israel has treated Palestinians. All too familiar with loss of citizenship, property, Ghettos, persecution, exile and massacre, Israel visits the same upon the displaced, hapless Palestinians. They wrest retribution from the natives that they cannot from Europe.
Perhaps, there was an old, unsettled score with the East? The ‘Golden age of Judaism’ in Europe was under Muslim Arabs. When Grenada fell, it was Isabella I of Castille and Ferdinand II who compelled Jews to convert to Catholicism or be banished. Jews suffered mass expulsion from various European countries too often to count on fingers. The offending countries include England, France, Spain, and Germany, amongst others. Abrahamic religions largely coexisted in the east which brings us to today when Israel is ascendent. Now Israel inflicts vengeance upon the weak and then protests the outcome. Deprived of land, rights, dignity, hope and staring at extermination, the Palestinians desperately strike out howsoever. Holding keys to homes long destroyed, after they were compelled to flee en masse under British watch, they see no alternative. The British empire was well versed in overseeing such debacles eg, the genocidal migration at the partition of India. Bystanders with a guilty past, the West is hesitant to call a spade a spade.
Platitudes and recriminations aside, how can this vicious cycle be interrupted? The remedy may be, a just reparation. Following precedent, how about carving a country out of Germany? Israelis may be unwilling to move yet again. In which case, the stateless Palestinians may be given the option of emigrating to their new home, granted as reparation for what they lost 75 years ago. Maybe there are both Israelis and Palestinians who may choose to emigrate, leaving behind the land that has become a powder Keg. It’s a thought.
—The writer is a neurosurgeon based in Michigan, US.
Tematy: Germany, Israel, Pakistan