German Jews – Taking a Stance on the Middle East

Uriel Kashi is a German Jew. He lives in Berlin and studies educational science and Judaism at the Freie Universität Berlin (Berlin's Free University).

The 26-year-old was born in Israel but wasn't brought up there. During the late 1990s, he returned to the country of his birth for three years. There he experienced first hand what it's like to live in constant threat of terrorist attacks. He remembers constantly worrying about suicide bombers or explosives left behind in unaccompanied bags in public areas.

But Uri says the threat of terrorism is also present in his daily life as a Jew in Germany. Jewish organizations and synagogues are guarded by German police around the clock for fear of attacks. And as the violence in the Middle East has escalated, German police have also stepped up security for Jewish institutions here.

Germany and the Middle East

Uri plans to return to Israel after graduation. He feels connected to Israel through his religion, family ties and friends. Many of these friends were active members of the Israeli peace movement in recent years and supported the idea of a Palestinian state.

When Uri meets with German friends in Berlin these days, the Middle East conflict is often the main topic of conversation. Uri despises war. But he says he understands the Israeli government's actions.

"I don't know whether any state leader at this time would really have an alternative other than to go after these terrorists in some form or other," he says. "No head of government can afford to do nothing when bombs are going off every day in cafés, and discotheques and synagogues."

Uri says he's annoyed by growing anti-Semitism in Germany, which he says is increasingly disguised as intellectual criticism of Israeli policy. The thing that angers him most are the Germans who compare the Israeli treatment of Palestinians with Auschwitz.

"As far as I'm concerned that's an attempt to dispose of their own German past," he says. "Of course it's very easy to present the Jews, the victims of the Nazis, as perpetrators now and to say they're doing exactly the same as we did back then. And of course that kind of black and white portrayal isn't acceptable."

Peace in Israel, peace for the Middle East

Uri is a member of the Jewish students association in Berlin. The group is busy preparing a youth congress dealing with the Middle East conflict. It will be attended by young Muslims, Jews and Christians who want to try to overcome prejudice and religious barriers.

Some of the Christian representatives find it difficult to voice criticism of Israel. They are worried German Jews and Muslims might come to feel alienated in their own country. "I think there's a lot of violence on both sides, and each side blames the other," says Holger Witting of the Catholic Youth Association. "I don't think violence is a good way to solve a conflict. But it's not up to me or to Germany to judge from here what the solution should be."

Posters against anti-Semitism

Uri and his friend Arne Behrensen think it's important that people understand the war in the Middle East as a political conflict, not a religious one. Arne is a member of the 'Campaign Against Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism'. He studies Political Science and sees himself on the left of the political spectrum. Like Uri, he feels an obligation to show solidarity with Israel - a position also shared by the majority of German politicians and the German media.

Uri and Arne are very sensitive to criticism of Israel. They consider the Middle East conflict to be, in part, a media war. "There's a complete distortion in the way Israeli military activity is represented," Arne says. "It is never portrayed as a reaction to the horrifying suicide attacks."

Uri agrees: "The news magazine 'Spiegel', for example had a cover story last week with the title 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth - the Biblical War.' That suggests that there's a religious war going on in the Middle East, not a political one."

Politics and Religion

Religion and politics has always been an explosive mix, not just in the Middle East. Separating the two issues and remaining objective seems to be more and more difficult in the present conflict.

This is especially true in a country like Germany, which is home to large Jewish and Muslim communities and bears the historic responsibility for the Holocaust.