“Germany is promoting only those Jews who are willing to produce anti-Muslim discourse. Jews who do not perceive Muslims as such are being marked as a threat not just to the German nation but to Jews themselves.”
Udi Raz, 34, is sitting in a cafe in Berlin, where he lives, reflecting on a turbulent six months. Since Israel’s war on Gaza began following the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October, Raz, an Israeli Jew raised in Haifa, has been fired from his job and had the activist group he’s part of labelled antisemitic by Germany’s official antisemitism commissioner.
Last Friday, German authorities arrested Raz, a board member of Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East, after they cancelled and then banned the group’s three-day conference on Palestine.
The conference, which was set to feature notable speakers including former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis and leading British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah, was cancelled by Berlin police within its first two hours on Friday.
“They came in and blocked the screening of a recorded video message, then they broke into the control room and switched off the electricity for the whole building with hundreds of people inside,” Raz told Middle East Eye…..more
