The opposition Green Party is wrestling with a schizoid image–manifestations of blatant anti-Semitism by some members and avowed opposition to anti-Semitism by others.
The dichotomy came to the fore last week at an anti-Israel demonstration at which participants carried placards defaming Jews and in a blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon in a newspaper published by the Green Party in West Berlin.
The cartoon drew angry protests from the Jewish community and several organizations which found it reminiscent of the style of Der Stuermer, the newspaper of the Hitler era which caricatured Jews as vile monsters. It triggered a sharp debate within the Green Party which has been accused in the past of harboring anti-Semites, though it also has individual Jews and Jewish groups among its members.
The cartoonist, identified only as “Michael,” offered no apology. He claimed he was unaware his drawing bore any resemblance to Der Stuermer’s depiction of Jews and advised his Jewish colleagues in the party not to be over-sensitive. But many Greens take the incident seriously and have vowed to fight any anti-Semitic tendencies in the party’s ranks.
The cartoon was inspired by a recent political scandal in which several prominent real estate operators, only one of whom is Jewish, bribed politicians and municipal officials. The cartoon shows a speculator offering a bribe. The figure is unmistakably “Jewish” in the Nazi sense.
It was reproduced on a placard carried in the recent demonstration by a Green group-against Israeli Premier Shimon Peres. Other placards suggested that Jews be confined to synagogues, questioned the existence of a Jewish people and claimed that the Palestinians, not Jews, were the real victims of Auschwitz.
In a series of discussions among party groups, much was said about how to detect and combat latent anti-Semitism, of which many party members claim to be unaware. It was also suggested that many people confuse the Green-Party’s opposition to Israeli policies in the Middle East with anti-Semitism.
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