Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

'International law' and 'democractic order' ?  A contnious and deliberate denial of history by journalists.

“By reducing the entirety of its brutal history to the singular crime of the Holocaust, Germany has failed to account for its settler-colonial  violence  against other people and, therefore, has not learnt any lesson at all. “The übermenschentum “mentality is still pervasive, though its existence is officially denied, and thus, its roots have gone unexamined. “We see a deeply-rooted settler colonial mindset in Germany's institutions and organisations that have not been confronted in a century.”

A liberal view that reflects liberal anxiety of a phenomenon of their own creation  The author’s profile says it all. Note that there is not a single word about Palestine and Germany’s complicity in a genocidal war.  “While in the Weimar Republic a century ago, demagogues and populists thrived on “othering” German Jews, today this “other” is the migrant - more specifically,  those with Muslim backgrounds .”

One wants to break free of the past: rightly, because nothing at all can live in its shadow, and because there will be no end to the terror as long as guilt and violence are repaid with guilt and violence; wrongly, because the past that one would like to evade is still very much alive.    —Theodor W. Adorno

“ The speech that I could not deliver because German police burst into our Berlin venue to disband our Palestine Congress (1930s style).”

A British-Palestinian surgeon speaks after had refused entry to take part in a conference.

Nancy Fraser

It is not Europe but some of Europe. “In essence, the EU and major member states have thrown their lot in with one of the most brutal and repressive dictatorships in the Middle East, standing firmly against the democratic aspirations of Egyptians. This policy has garnered mass profits for European corporations and states , at the expense of the Egyptian poor and middle classes.” Related A window into Egyptian general’s past

Ever since its founding after World War II the German Federal Republic, to gain acceptance into the family of “western democracies,”  while denouncing Hitler and his most famous henchmen, almost completely restricted condemnation to the horrifying annihilation of the Jewish people while distorting or ignoring the earlier, intense fascist attacks against the Left, especially the Communist left, which so often ended with a noose or a guillotine. Largely forgotten were also Nazi crimes against almost every country in Europe, beginning in Spain in 1936-1939 and climaxing in the killing of an estimated 27 million people of the USSR. In fact, a large number of the perpetrators went unpunished or regained influence and prosperity. Meanwhile, the policy-makers built up connections with any and every Israeli government, including large financial support, often in the form of armaments (like submarines). But since such support served as evidence that Germany had “overcome its past,” tot...

On reading Ghassan Kanafani’s “Letter from Gaza”

Axel Springer

More than a month old article. It is brief but a good summary . Related The betrayal of Gaza

The EU as a vassal of a hegemon. A hegemony that wants to satisfy both Israel’s desires and objectives and the ‘normalisers’ – the reactionary regimes in the region.  The argument ‘ the US’s standing in the Arab world’ is permanently damaged is misplaced. With whom has that decades-long standing taken place? Has it been with the people struggling against authoritarian regimes and the plunder of the resources of the region? Conjuring trick      

How to blow up a pipeline Related Russian navy ships were near the blast

Return of the king

Ukraine: complexity and war

On BBC Radio 4

Italy, France, England – and even Japan – are below OECD average

Situating the Holocaust in a broader context of white racism, colonialism and imperialism 

For the first time in its history, the Austrian Communist Party has unexpectedly won a municipal election in the country’s second-largest city, Graz. According to preliminary results, the KPÖ came out on top on Sunday with 29% of the vote, ahead of the centre-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) on 25.7%. “Their success in Graz is down to their focus on local issues -- especially housing policy -- while scaling back any Marxist ideology.” In Berlin, however ,  Germany’s highest court ruled  in favour of capital in April saying  that a cap the local government imposed on rent prices last year was unconstitutional and void.   The rule froze rents for some 90% of Berlin apartments at June 2019 rates for five years. In many cases, existing rents needed to be reduced to conform to the new threshold. After the court ruling, many tenants faced hefty back payments.