Linke (The Left) party expelled with immediate effect Palestinian-German member and activist Ramsis Kilani for his vocal opposition to “Israel’s” ongoing genocide in Gaza. In doing so, it followed in the footsteps of the only other mainstream leftist party in the country, the Greens, in exhibiting the infamous Palestine exception to progressive politics.
Kilani, a self-described Marxist, called his expulsion “a sad commentary on a leftist, internationalist party”, left-wing daily junge Welt (jw) reported. The decision made by the Landesschiedskommission, the party’s state-level arbitration body was damaging “to all of us who fight for universal human rights”, the activist wrote on Instagram.
Katina Schubert, one of two members from the party’s right-wing who had brought forward the motion to expel Kilani denied that his Palestine solidarity activism had anything to do with the decision, saying that it was based on his “relativisation of Hamas terror, selective criticism of violence against women as a weapon of war and denial of “Israel’s” right to exist”, the jw report went on to say.
It’s easy for France to condemn Israel because they do not carry such a certain heavy historical baggage unlike Germany.
It’s very obvious why Germany won’t do the same as France.
Yes and no. On the one hand, France actively helped the Nazis hunt French Jews during the occupation. Moreover, Germany should understand that you don’t get the absolution for one genocide by enabeling another.
It is more complicated than that. I have already mentioned this to someone: https://lemmy.world/comment/14167949
Even on Hannah Arendt’s book, they mentioned that Vichy France even somehow half assed their attempts. Not because Vichy France wasn’t anti-semite, they are just less bloodthirsty than the Nazis about.
Sure enough, France was not as determined to hunt Jews, and some French were determined to save them, with the Resistance, the Justes and the Communists. Nevertheless, France does carry part of the guilt, which partially explains its stance toward Israel and its unconditional “right to defend itself”.
It’s important to separate Hamas as an organisation and the Palestinian people. The October 7 attack is completely unjustified, and so is Israel’s indiscriminate massacre of Palestinian people as a whole.
It sure is, but probably not for the reason you’re thinking
Obviously no one carries the same weight as Germany, but France did have Vichy with Petain, which is probably somewhere on that podium.
Either way, condemning Israel is a matter of not letting influence, money, and smear campaigns censor you, other countries that don’t have the stigma of Germany or France still stay away from accusations of anti-Semitism.
Spoiler: it’s also because the far-right likes Israel.
Not trying to downplay the Holocaust that happened in France, but over 75% of Jews in France survived. Unlike the Germans at the time, the French in comparison had been more tolerant and less anti-semitic. https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220127-how-three-quarters-of-french-jews-survived-the-holocaust-despite-the-vichy-regime