Diversity Macht Frei
July 7, 2017
In this article from the left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the correspondent visits Israelis living in Berlin who tell him that Europe has been ruined by Muslim immigration. He then spends the rest of the article denouncing their views and explaining how the European peoples never really existed; and, anyway, if they did, it was a problem and they should be grateful for their own annihilation.
BERLIN – The story here is over, sighed Israeli A, as he poured himself another glass of chilled wine. They’ve ruined this country with all the garbage they’ve let in, said Israeli B.
We were sitting in the neighborhood biergarten, which was full of people and decorated with colored lights. The two of them have been here for years and their businesses are prospering – they are primarily in real estate and home prices are rising relentlessly; everyone wants to live and work in this city, which is flourishing as a result of immigration. But they’re complaining. A. pulled up an article from an Israeli website on “Germany’s Islamization,” while B. ranted about “Arab France.”
Ah, yes, I said. Once it was good, when France was French and Germany was German and pure. Once upon a time, foreigners knew their place. Once upon a time, those in charge knew how to deal with them. My interlocutors fell silent.
For years Israel has been flooded with monstrous descriptions of Europe. This is a transparent result of the delusions of Israeli politics. What’s especially bizarre is that so many Israelis embrace a totally unrealistic, imaginary past of a European paradise, pure as the driven snow, which was lost forever when the “migrants” came. Many Europeans talk that way, as they always did, but when you hear it from Israelis, some of whom felt the joys of good old Europe on their backs, it’s nauseating. It’s hard to decide whether it’s primarily ignorance or racism.
There is no such thing as “pure” Europe. The area known as Europe, whose borders are always changing, was always a hotbed of migration. What is Germany essentially? After all, not too long ago there were two Germanys, and this vibrant city was a bloody wound. Throughout most of German history a multitude of tribes and principalities were massacring one another. And the Jews, who lived here for a thousand years, were they Germans? And who decides?
National purity is a hollow and dangerous myth. There have always been foreigners/the poor/the “other” everywhere. Their demonization, the hatred, doesn’t stem from how they look or religious differences. In the early 20th century, there was a pogrom in Marseille against Italian immigrants. They were very similar in appearance and religion to the locals, but the latter still murdered them. They call it racism, and it stems from incitement and political interests.