Thursday, November 16, 2006

German academics against Israel

From Ynet News, 16/11/06, by Eldad Beck ...

Twenty five influential academics post petition calling on government to stop embracing Israel because of Holocaust, start embracing Palestinians as well

BERLIN – Twenty five German academics published a petition Wednesday urging their government to loosen its embrace of Israel and start embracing Palestinians in an unprecedented act in the history of the relationship between Germany and Israel. The academics in question are highly influential professors at the country’s leading universities .... Many of them are known for their anti-Israel stances.

The academics called on the German government to stop giving “special treatment” to Israel following the Holocaust and warned that the sympathetic attitude could lead to unrest amidst the German people. The petition was recently published in the German based journal Frankfurter Rundschau owned by the Dumont Schauberg publishing house. The company recently purchased 25 percent of Haaretz’s stocks.

...The academics questioned whether Germany was obligated to stand exclusively by Israel in the Middle East in light of the Holocaust, and wondered about the whether preserving the relationship would have consequences on the German people, particularly between Jews and Muslims....

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