Johan Galtung: «ANTI-SEMITISM» AS POLITICAL WEAPON IS NOW BACKFIRING,
producing anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment; in search of anti-Semitism as legitimation also where there is none. I, for instance, am a peace researcher deeply concerned with avoiding genocides like the shoa; realizing Zionist dreams of Israel with a Jewish character; and fighting anti-Semitism. For this academic freedom and freedom of speech are indispensable; no micro-management of writing and speech.
Constructive answers include exploring German-Jewish relations for what went wrong, German economic-cultural uplift, economic boycott of Nazism, abrogating the Versailles Treaty, massive non-violence; a Middle East Community with the Arab neighbors modeled on the 1958 European Community, giving up hard Zionist expansion-occupation-siege in favor of 1967 borders with swaps; and not confirming anti-Jewish prejudices like getting others in debt bondage and controlling media.
All debatable; but not anti-Semitic; violence is rooted in bad relations; peace in good relations. Rejection as anti-Semitic by self-appointed anti-Semitism certifiers will not make me one. Their narratives are based only on «innocent victims and evil perpetrators»; the real world is always more complicated, offering some ways out.
A New Testament professor at Basel university refuses dialogue, uses smear campaigns and pressure to cancel lectures and conferences and to sever ties with me. Result: more invitations than ever.
We are at a turning point in this attack on democracy. Examples: strong reactions in International Herald Tribune (27/28-12-12, 8-1-13) on «self-destructive extremism» by a «minority of zealots»; the German magazine Der Spiegel on how Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center («The 10 Top Anti-Semites of 2012») refuses direct debate; and how the Austrian Rabbi-editor (NU) Peter Manasse in a recent book argues that Jews must abandon the victim role and look forward.
So, please, stop this labeling. Join dialogue democracy instead.