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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/meet-ahmad-mansour-palestinian-doing-israels-dirty-work-germany/34796">electronicintifada.net</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Meet Ahmad Mansour, the Palestinian doing Israel's dirty work in Germany</h1>
<p class="gmail-node__submitted">
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-author"><a href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah">Ali Abunimah</a></span> -
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publication-date"><span class="gmail-date-display-single">9 February 2022</span></span> </p>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div>
<span><img src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2022-02/dpaphotosfour113441.jpg?itok=aEcsjv2_×tamp=1644424096" alt="" title="" style="margin-right: 25px;" width="392" height="261"></span><p>Ahmad
Mansour, right, a Palestinian who spreads pro-Israel and anti-Muslim
views in Germany, receives a prize from the German-Israeli Society of
Hanover, 9 September 2019. He has played a key role in state broadcaster
Deutsche Welle’s purge of Arab journalists.</p><small>
<span>Picture-Alliance/DPA</span></small><p>German state broadcaster <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/deutsche-welle">Deutsche Welle</a> on Monday <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/independent-probe-finds-no-evidence-of-structural-antisemitism-at-dw/a-60690249">fired five Arab journalists</a>
following a smear campaign by pro-Israel media and a supposedly
independent investigation, the co-chair of which describes Arabs as
murderous “savages.”</p>
<p>The investigation, launched in December, was prompted by claims of “anti-Semitic and anti-Israel” remarks by network employees.</p>
<p>In a report published on Monday, the investigators said they found no “structural” anti-Semitism at Deutsche Welle.</p>
<p>But they concluded that the five journalists deserved to be fired for
statements that “amounted to anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial or
Holocaust relativism, as well as statements that denied Israel’s right
to exist.”</p>
<p>In the wake of the report, Deutsche Welle accepted the resignation of the head of its Arabic division.</p>
<p>One of the dismissed journalists, Farah Maraqa, a <a href="https://farah-a-maraqa.medium.com/chronicles-of-a-new-anti-semitism-scandal-part-3-palestinian-jordanian-b91193b2d13">Palestinian-Jordanian</a>,
tweeted on Monday that “I just have been notified without further
explanations that I will receive a notice of termination from Deutsche
Welle with immediate effect.”</p>
<p>“I have not yet been informed about the reasons, nor been handed …
the report on which these allegations shall be based,” she added.
</p><div id="gmail-file-116031">
<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">I just have been
notified without further explanations that I will receive a notice of
termination from Deutsche Welle with immediate effect. I have not yet
been informed about the reasons, nor been handed out the report on which
these allegations shall be based!</p>— Farah Maraqa (@Farah_Maraqa) <a href="https://twitter.com/Farah_Maraqa/status/1490627371950555141?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>
Maraqa worked at DW Arabic in Berlin as a producer for its main evening
news program. She also appeared on air, reporting on Middle East and
geopolitical issues.
<p>The investigation was carried out by Ahmad Mansour, a psychologist
whose anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and pro-Israel views have made him a
darling of German media and state-funded institutions, and Sabine
Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, a former German justice minister from the
right-wing Free Democratic Party.</p>
<p>While in office nine years ago, Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger remained <a href="https://www.jpost.com/diplomacy-and-politics/german-minister-mum-on-israeli-detention-policy-314464">notably silent</a>
when asked about Israel’s human rights abuses against Palestinians and
asylum seekers from African states during a visit to Jerusalem.</p>
<p>Mansour, as is detailed below, has close ties to extreme right-wing, pro-Israel think tanks.</p>
<p>Their <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/deutsche-welle-presentation-of-the-investigation-report-of-antisemitism-allegations/a-60690257">56-page report</a> uses the so-called <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ihra-definition-anti-semitism">IHRA definition of anti-Semitism</a>, a controversial document promoted by Israel and its lobby.</p>
<p>The “definition” conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish bigotry and has become a primary tool for <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/video-why-anti-zionism-not-anti-semitism">smearing and censoring</a> supporters of Palestinian rights.</p>
<p>One illustration of the anti-Palestinian bias in the report is how it
calls the social media hashtag #rettetSheikhJarrah – Save Sheikh Jarrah
– an example of “subjective Palestinian propaganda.”</p>
<p>But even the staunchly pro-Israel German government has <a href="https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/newsroom/news/-/2507400">called</a>
on Israel to “permanently halt eviction and demolition procedures of
Palestinian structures” in that occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood.</p>
<p>Presumably, by the standards of Mansour, Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger
and Deutsche Welle, this makes the German government itself a purveyor
of “Palestinian propaganda.”</p>
<p>The report claims that, in principle, criticism of Israel is
permitted, but erects so many obstacles that almost any statement can be
construed as “anti-Semitism.”</p>
<p>“If Israel alone is singled out by the UN for human rights
violations, while the behavior of known violators such as China, Iran or
Syria tends to be ignored, double standards are applied, then that is
anti-Semitism,” the report asserts, for instance.</p>
<p>But this assertion solves a problem that doesn’t exist.</p>
<p>Israel has never been “singled out” for anything but total impunity.
Dozens of other countries, by contrast – including Iran and Syria – have
for decades faced onerous UN, US or European Union sanctions for
various alleged misdeeds.</p>
<p>Israel has never been sanctioned by the UN, US or EU for its violations of Palestinian rights and international law.</p>
<p>Far from being “independent,” the report regurgitates Israeli
government talking points long used as pretexts to intimidate anyone
questioning the actions of a regime deemed by leading human rights
organizations to be a <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/what-makes-amnestys-apartheid-report-different/34771">perpetrator of apartheid</a>, one of the most serious crimes against humanity.</p>
<h2>Smears and twisted words</h2>
<p>“This case is illustrative of the anti-Palestinian racism in Germany
and the extremely problematic attacks on freedom of expression,” the
European Legal Support Center, a group that defends free speech for
supporters of Palestinian rights, said on Monday.</p>
<p>It warned the firing of the journalists would “create a severe chilling effect on Palestinian rights advocacy.”
</p><div id="gmail-file-116036">
<blockquote><div dir="ltr" lang="en"><p>This case is
illustrative of the anti-Palestinian racism in Germany and the extremely
problematic attacks on freedom of expression. Those create a severe
chilling effect on Palestinian rights advocacy.</p><p>Also quite ironic to see the values <a href="https://twitter.com/DeutscheWelle?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DeutscheWelle</a> is trying to promote. 4/4 <a href="https://t.co/5Tq2Idyk1b">pic.twitter.com/5Tq2Idyk1b</a></p></div>— European Legal Support Center (ELSC) (@elsclegal) <a href="https://twitter.com/elsclegal/status/1490679911950004226?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>
The Electronic Intifada understands that the journalists dismissed by Deutsche Welle are examining their legal options.
<p>In addition to Maraqa, Deutsche Welle <a href="https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1290231/german-broadcaster-ends-contracts-with-two-lebanese-journalists-over-years-old-tweets-deemed-anti-semitic.html">terminated</a>
Bassel Aridi, the head of Deutsche Welle’s Beirut bureau; Daoud
Ibrahim, a freelance trainer for the network in Lebanon; Maram Salem, a
Palestinian working in Germany, and Murhaf Mahmoud, a Syrian translator
and journalist also working in Germany.</p>
<p>Aridi was <a href="https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1290231/german-broadcaster-ends-contracts--two-lebanese-journalists-over-years-old-tweets-deemed-anti-semitic.html">reportedly</a> fired for a since-deleted 2014 tweet saying collaborators with Israel – a state which has repeatedly invaded Lebanon <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-tries-whitewash-its-bloody-legacy-lebanon">killing tens of thousands of people</a>, and remains at war with it – are traitors who deserve the death penalty.</p>
<p>Ibrahim was fired for a 10-year-old tweet stating “the Holocaust is a lie #FreedomOfSpeech.”</p>
<p>Ibrahim explained on Monday, <a href="https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1290231/german-broadcaster-ends-contracts-with-two-lebanese-journalists-over-years-old-tweets-deemed-anti-semitic.html">according</a> to Lebanese newspaper <em>L’Orient Today,</em>
that “he contextualized his tweet on Twitter at the time and has since
explained to reporters and DW colleagues that he was merely trying to
call out ‘the well-known double standard when it comes to freedom of
speech.’”</p>
<p>“He insisted that he did not actually agree with the tweeted statement,” the newspaper added.</p>
<p>Ibrahim may have intended to challenge the glaring double standard
across Europe where poisonous anti-Muslim vitriol – such as cartoons
denigrating Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad – is celebrated as “free
speech,” while Holocaust denial is in some countries criminalized.</p>
<p>All five journalists were suspended back in December, after a smear campaign against them in German media.</p>
<p>Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a group based in Geneva, <a href="https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/4798/Anti-Arab-purge-in-German-Media-is-highly-concerning">expressed concern</a>
at the time about “the recent alarming increase in the targeting,
singling out and smearing of Arab and Palestinian journalists in German
media.”</p>
<p>“This entails smear campaigns that either rely on guilt by
association; selectively spotlighting years-old writings of targeted
journalists that are unrepresentative of their views today; or
deliberately misinterpreting or taking words out of their critical
context to conjure up accusations of anti-Semitism,” the group added.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://farah-a-maraqa.medium.com/">series of blog posts</a> following her suspension, Maraqa described what happened in her own case.</p>
<p>“It was a normal workday at Deutsche Welle when I got an email from a journalist [at the newspaper] <em>Süddeutsche Zeitung</em> asking me if I wanted to comment on three sentences he picked up from old articles that look criticizing to Israel,” Maraqa <a href="https://farah-a-maraqa.medium.com/chronicles-of-a-new-anti-semitism-scandal-part-2-what-is-my-case-58f0806e4c8f">recalled</a>.</p>
<p>“The sentences were from an ironic column I wrote that dated back to 2014 and 2015,” she added.</p>
<p>Euro-Med <a href="https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/4798/Anti-Arab-purge-in-German-Media-is-highly-concerning">says</a> it “examined the referenced articles and found that Maraqa’s words may have been taken out of context and misinterpreted.”</p>
<p>The human rights group also highlighted another case in which Nemi
El-Hassan, a journalist of Palestinian ancestry, had her science show
canceled by another German broadcaster, Westdeutscher Rundfunk.</p>
<p>El-Hassan’s supposed transgression was “liking” Instagram posts on the account of <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jewish-voice-peace">Jewish Voice for Peace</a>, a well-known US-based group that campaigns for Palestinian rights and <a href="https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/zionism/">opposes</a> Zionism, Israel’s state ideology.
</p><div id="gmail-file-116051">
<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">The authors of the latest investigation of <a href="https://twitter.com/DeutscheWelle?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DeutscheWelle</a>
want to embrace a narrative that sees Palestinain demands for freedom
as riots led by terrorist groups, and the mere mention of Palestinian
Nakba as anti-semitic questioning of Israel’s right to exist.
𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙: <a href="https://t.co/1LOofIEw80">pic.twitter.com/1LOofIEw80</a></p>— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) <a href="https://twitter.com/RamAbdu/status/1491406802466258946?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 9, 2022</a></blockquote>
</div>
On Wednesday, EuroMed <a href="https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/4900/DW-independent-probe-into-anti-semitism-is-biased,-flawed-and-dangerous">denounced</a>
the “independent” Deutsche Welle report written by Mansour and
Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, calling it “biased, flawed and dangerous.”
<p>The group said it reviewed the report and concluded that its
“framework, analysis and recommendations contain multiple evidence of
bias in favor of Israel and against the Palestinians.”</p>
<p>EuroMed warned of a further escalation of “what is tantamount to an anti-Arab purge in German media.”</p>
<h2>Eliminating criticism of Israel</h2>
<p>The purge of Arab journalists at Deutsche Welle is only the latest
episode in a campaign to ensure that there is no room for criticism of
Israel in German media.</p>
<p>In May, as Israel was <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/al-wihda-street-massacre/33366">annihilating entire Palestinian families</a> by bombing Gaza, Deutsche Welle <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/watch-german-tv-regrets-airing-interview-about-gaza">publicly denounced</a> this writer as an anti-Semite. This followed a live interview in which I criticized German complicity in Israel’s crimes.</p>
<p>German elites have long viewed giving unconditional support for
Israel as a cheap and easy way to “atone” for the German government’s
murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust.</p>
<p>“I think it is time for the people of Germany and German elites to
stop making Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip pay for the crimes of
the German people against European Jews,” I said in the interview.</p>
<p>Following my interview, Deutsche Welle issued an internal memorandum
sharply limiting what its journalists or guests are allowed to say about
Israel, including prohibiting the use of the words “apartheid” or
“colonialism.”
</p><div id="gmail-file-116041">
<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Here's an inside
memo sent around to people at Deutsche Welle concerning how to talk (or
rather not) about Palestine and Israel's ongoing brutalization against
Palestinians. All in response to <a href="https://twitter.com/AliAbunimah?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AliAbunimah</a> Truly disgusting from German media. <a href="https://t.co/p04u7MyNwF">pic.twitter.com/p04u7MyNwF</a></p>— Corner Späti (@cornerspaeti) <a href="https://twitter.com/cornerspaeti/status/1393683126631768067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 15, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>
Then in December, around the time it suspended the five journalists, Deutsche Welle <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/dw-suspends-partnership-with-jordanian-broadcaster/a-60026792">ended</a>
a cooperation agreement with Jordanian TV station Roya, allegedly
because the broadcaster spread “anti-Israel and anti-Semitic” material
on social media.
<p>On Monday, Deutsche Welle <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/deutsche-welle-presentation-of-the-investigation-report-of-antisemitism-allegations/a-60690257">published a 10-point plan</a> that will ensure that the German government broadcaster becomes even more pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian.</p>
<p>Among the measures is adopting a “mandatory” definition of
anti-Semitism that “includes the recognition of Israel’s right to exist
and the rejection of denial and trivialization of the Holocaust.”</p>
<p>It also includes adding more staff to Deutsche Welle’s Jerusalem
bureau. Presumably those additional staff will not be Palestinians.</p>
<h2>Arab “savages”</h2>
<p>Undoubtedly, the role of Ahmad Mansour as an “independent”
investigator has lent the witch hunt against Arab journalists in Germany
an air of credibility – at least in the eyes of the German
establishment.</p>
<p>A Palestinian with Israeli citizenship who turned against his own people, Mansour has adopted the role of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpCkp0PrSl8">native informant</a>, legitimizing the racist and anti-Muslim views of Western elites.</p>
<p>Like other such figures prominent in North America and Europe since
the 11 September 2001 attacks, he claims to once have been a devout
Muslim before seeing the light.</p>
<p>The Bridge Initiative, a Georgetown University project documenting Islamophobia, <a href="https://bridge.georgetown.edu/research/factsheet-ahmad-mansour/">describes Mansour</a> as a “validator.”</p>
<p>According to <em>Fear Inc.</em>, the Center for American Progress’s <a href="https://islamophobianetwork.com/">landmark study</a>
of the Islamophobia network, a validator is an individual who “claim[s]
inside knowledge about the realities of radical Islam” and bolsters
“the extreme views of the Islamophobia misinformation experts,
right-wing media enablers and anti-Muslim politicians.”</p>
<p>Among his links with the anti-Muslim and pro-Israel far-right,
Mansour was a program director and senior policy advisor at the European
Foundation for Democracy.</p>
<p>This Brussels-based think tank “focuses on defaming Muslim civil
society organizations and attempting to exclude them from the European
political field,” according to the Bridge Initiative.</p>
<p>The European Foundation for Democracy is <a href="https://purehost.bath.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/167838098/PII_IsraelLobbyEUreport2016_Cronin_Marusek_Miller.pdf">closely associated</a> with and has received substantial funding from the <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/foundation-defense-democracies-0">Foundation for Defense of Democracies</a>.</p>
<p>FDD is a prominent Washington-based think tank that has <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/watch-film-israel-lobby-didnt-want-you-see/25876">worked secretly</a> with the Israeli government to monitor, smear and sabotage supporters of Palestinian rights.</p>
<p>The European Foundation for Democracy <a href="https://www.europeandemocracy.eu/author/ahmad-mansour/">deleted the page</a> for Mansour from its website at some time since 21 April 2021, the last date for which an <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210421083213/https://www.europeandemocracy.eu/author/ahmad-mansour/">archived copy</a> of it is available.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-how-an-israeli-arab-psychologist-became-germany-s-staunchest-islam-critic-1.8062690">generally positive profile</a> of Mansour in Israel’s <em>Haaretz</em> newspaper in 2019 describes him as “one of Germany’s most prominent critics of Islam.”</p>
<p>It is unimaginable that someone would be casually described in the
21st century as, say, “one of Germany’s most prominent critics of
Judaism” without it being couched in the harshest condemnation.</p>
<p>But as <em>Haaretz</em> notes, Mansour, who moved to Germany in 2004,
“is a sought-after interviewee on German news programs and talk shows,
as well as in the press – conservative, liberal and left-wing alike –
and he regularly publishes opinion pieces in local papers.”</p>
<p>His 2015 book <em>Generation Allah</em>, validating German fears about the “radicalization” of Muslim youth in the country, has been a bestseller.</p>
<p>As <em>Haaretz</em> put it, “the point Mansour makes, in his writing
and in our conversation, is that what he calls the Muslim mainstream in
Europe – which rejects radicals and certainly terrorism – is actually
significantly responsible for radicalization among Muslim youth: The
mainstream don’t understand what leads to murder and extremism, or that
they themselves are laying down the foundations on which extremism is
based.”</p>
<p>In other words, <em>all</em> Muslims in Europe are suspect, even if they do not espouse “radicalism” and “terror.”</p>
<p>His views of Arabs are no less vile. “Some Arabs are savages and some aren’t,” he <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-how-an-israeli-arab-psychologist-became-germany-s-staunchest-islam-critic-1.8062690">generously allows</a>.</p>
<p>“Let’s define ‘savage,’” he elaborates. “I think mainstream Arabs
have huge problems with democracy and everything connected to human
rights.”</p>
<p>“There are problems of violence that are related to culture,” he
adds. “I don’t think most Arabs want to murder, but I think we do have a
problem. Forget the Jews. Look how many Arabs murdered Arabs in recent
years. It’s a lot.”</p>
<p>This is the kind of essentialist racism long deployed in Europe and
North America against Indigenous peoples and marginalized communities,
including Germany’s Jews, to justify colonial violence overseas and
repression and discrimination at home.</p>
<p>It also echoes racist tropes about “Black-on-Black” violence that have been used to deflect attention from the violence of <a href="https://aadl.org/node/247047">South Africa’s former apartheid regime</a> or <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/black-black-crime-loaded-controversial-phrase-heard-amid/story?id=72051613">American state forces</a>.</p>
<p>Such claims are often rooted in racist views that Black people –
similar to Mansour’s view of Arabs – are innately more prone to violence
than other populations.</p>
<h2>Showered with honors</h2>
<p>Needless to say, Mansour did not lose his job or his status for
generalizing that Arabs are “savages” who are culturally prone to
committing murder. Indeed, these racist views are precisely why he holds
such high status in Germany.</p>
<p>He has been <a href="https://bridge.georgetown.edu/research/factsheet-ahmad-mansour/">showered with honors</a>, including a <a href="https://www.domradio.de/themen/islam-und-kirche/2019-10-07/ahmad-mansour-bekommt-menschenrechtspreis">“human rights” prize</a> from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and an <a href="https://www.haz.de/Hannover/Aus-der-Stadt/Hannover-Deutsch-Israelische-Gesellschaft-ehrt-Ahmad-Mansour-mit-Theodor-Lessing-Preis">award</a> from the German-Israeli society of Hanover.</p>
<p>Currently Mansour works for the ZDK Society Democratic Culture, an organization <a href="https://www.hayat-deutschland.de/">funded</a> by the German government and <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/networks/radicalisation-awareness-network-ran/collection-inspiring-practices/ran-practices/exit-deutschland_en">the European Union</a>.</p>
<p>Founded in 2003, it <a href="https://zentrum-demokratische-kultur.de/start/">claims</a>
its purpose is to challenge “anti-freedom and radical ideological
movements, such as right-wing radicalism and Islamism, as well as
left-wing radicalism, which is anti-freedom.”</p>
<p>What this amounts to is fearmongering about Muslims and immigrants in
general, while claiming to fight all kinds of “extremism.” But in
reality, it is soft on right-wing, neo-Nazi extremism – a growing threat
across Europe.</p>
<p>Mansour has used his platform to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/how-should-germany-deal-with-islamic-anti-semitism/a-43511521">promote the claim</a>
that young Muslims from a migrant background are responsible for an
upsurge in anti-Semitism in Germany and to demand harsher repression.</p>
<p>Such <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/european-jewish-congress-promotes-anti-muslim-bigotry">false claims</a>
are regularly advanced by supporters of Israel, who attempt to
associate all support for Palestinian rights – which is particularly
strong in Germany’s communities of Turkish and Arab ancestry – with
anti-Jewish bigotry and religious extremism.</p>
<p>In fact, according to statistics from Germany’s federal police, the <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/german-anti-semitism-surges-right">vast majority of documented anti-Semitic incidents</a>
and hate crimes in the country in 2020 had a right-wing political
motivation – nothing to do with the Palestine solidarity movement or
Muslims.</p>
<p>For Mansour, the remedy for allegedly rampant “anti-Semitism” among
Muslims in Germany is that they must be taught unambiguous support for
Israel.</p>
<p>“We need mosques that will say during Friday prayer that in this
country, people must not question Israel’s right to exist,” he has <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/how-should-germany-deal-with-islamic-anti-semitism/a-43511521">said</a>.
Mansour is also chair of the Muslim Forum of Germany, a group created with <a href="https://www.kas.de/en/pressemitteilungen/detail/-/content/-muslimisches-forum-deutschland-gegruendet1">funding</a> from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a staunchly pro-Israel organization linked to the right-wing Christian Democratic Party.</p>
<p>In that role, Mansour provides cover for mainstream, respectable Islamophobia. He is cited approvingly, for example, in a <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-a-german-islam-must-be-liberal-self-critical/a-19277619">Deutsche Welle</a> article by Susanne Schröter, a “researcher on Islam.”</p>
<p>For her, the dangers Muslims supposedly pose to Germany include that:
“Nearly every mosque has soccer teams that play against other sides
from other mosques. Islamic daycares, cultural centers are being
founded; Islamic aid groups, social work and youth work have arisen.”</p>
<p>The pretext for her concern at all this pro-social activity is that it supposedly leads to “segregation.”</p>
<p>“It would be nice to hope that these young people could gain access
to the knowledge that liberal, enlightened and humanist Muslims have
developed,” Schröter muses.</p>
<p>Among those “enlightened” Muslims are of course Mansour and the Christian Democratic Party-backed Muslim Forum of Germany.</p>
<p>Schröter does not seem to acknowledge that migrant communities,
particularly Muslims, might seek comfort and safety among their own
community from the <a href="https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/identity-and-muslim-integration-germany">pervasive racism and exclusion</a> they have faced for decades and still face in mainstream German society.</p>
<p>A good faith effort to “integrate” these communities – whatever that
means – would first and foremost involve a frontal assault on the
enduring and prevalent German racism that within living memory led to
genocide, and today manifests in unquestioning official support for
Israel’s apartheid regime.
</p><div id="gmail-file-115936">
<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Germany rejects such
terms as "apartheid" and a one-sided focus on criticism of Israel.
Accusations of human rights’ abuses need to be taken seriously, but
human rights advocates also have a responsibility not to involuntarily
encourage a worrying rise in anti-Semitism in Europe.</p>— Susanne.Wasum-Rainer (@GerAmbTLV) <a href="https://twitter.com/GerAmbTLV/status/1488959559255437320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 2, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<div id="gmail-file-116046">
<blockquote><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Welcome to Israel <a href="https://twitter.com/FregatteBayern?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FregatteBayern</a>! Happy to have <a href="https://twitter.com/BundeswehrGI?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BundeswehrGI</a> and ship crew in Israeli waters and Haifa port on their way back to Germany. Tribute to our close military cooperation <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/IndoPacificDeployment?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#IndoPacificDeployment</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/IDF?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IDF</a> <a href="https://t.co/k55YlMZCFg">pic.twitter.com/k55YlMZCFg</a></p>— Susanne.Wasum-Rainer (@GerAmbTLV) <a href="https://twitter.com/GerAmbTLV/status/1490337536715149318?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 6, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<h2>A who’s who of Israeli military and intelligence</h2>
<p>It is not only German media and politicians who are enthusiastic consumers of Mansour’s tailor-made bigotry.</p>
<p>Mansour is also <a href="https://www.ict.org.il/Worker.aspx?ID=845#gsc.tab=0">identified as a staff member</a> at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, a right-wing think tank housed at <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/idc-herzliya">IDC Herzliya</a>, an Israeli university with close ties to the state’s intelligence and propaganda apparatus.</p>
<p>The think tank’s <a href="https://www.ict.org.il/Content.aspx?ID=28#gsc.tab=0">board</a> and <a href="https://www.ict.org.il/Content.aspx?ID=29#gsc.tab=0">staff</a> are a who’s who of Israeli military and intelligence figures, including <a href="https://www.ict.org.il/Worker.aspx?ID=29#gsc.tab=0">Shabtai Shavit</a>, a former head of Israel’s international spying and murder agency <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/mossad">Mossad</a>.</p>
<p>That Mansour was chosen to sit in judgment of the journalists at
Deutsche Welle indicates that the only Arabs or Muslims who will be
allowed to thrive within German institutions are those who view the
countries and communities they or their parents came from as enemies.</p>
<p>The five journalists must seek and receive redress for being
dismissed and scapegoated by Deutsche Welle. Yet their firing is also a
moment of clarity.</p>
<p>Their presence, along with that of other Arabs and Muslims, has
allowed Germany’s institutionally anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian and
anti-Arab state media to falsely present itself as “diverse.”</p>
<p>It should now be seen for what it is: the racist mouthpiece of a
racist state where the only “good” Arab or Muslim is one who hates Arabs
and Muslims and loves their oppressors, especially Israel.</p>
<p><em>Ali Abunimah is executive director of The Electronic Intifada.</em></p><br>
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