Slavoj Žižek
2024/05—04
Canceling Palestin
LJUBLJANA – It is only April, but we already have a good candidate for photo of the year. On April 12, German police shut down a Palestine Congress that was set to take place in Berlin, and among those arrested was Udi Raz, a devout Jew with a red yarmulke. In photos and videos of the incident, one can clearly see the smirking aggression on the faces of the policemen – reminiscent of their forebears in the 1930s – as they drag away a Jew.
Among those swept up in the ongoing struggle against anti-Semitism in Germany, many are Jews. The Palestine Congress itself was a joint initiative of the Berlin-based organization Jüdische Stimme für Gerechten Frieden in Nahost (Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East) and the pan-European political movement and party DiEM25, whose top figure is Yanis Varoufakis. Yet the German Ministry of the Interior has now banned Varoufakis not only from entering the country, but even from online participation in any political activities there.
Varoufakis is fully justified in claiming that, with this ban, the German government has crossed the line into authoritarian behavior. Worse, the German political establishment – including even the Greens and Die Linke (The Left) – have supported the move, reflecting the breadth of the new anti-anti-Semitic cancel culture. To be sure, similar incidents are occurring in the United States, where, for example, Hobart and William Smith Colleges recently placed political theorist Jodi Dean on leave, after she published an essay discerning an emancipatory potential in Hamas’s October 7 attack. But Germany represents an extreme case of how the establishment has appropriated cancel culture.
To dispel any suspicion that Varoufakis might have delivered an anti-Semitic speech at the Palestine Congress, one can simply read his prepared remarks. The text unambiguously condemns any form of anti-Semitism, and demands only that the same standards be applied to both sides in the conflict. On April 13, CNN reported that, “Hundreds of Israeli settlers surrounded Palestinian villages and attacked residents across the occupied West Bank … after an Israeli boy who had gone missing from a settlement was found dead.” Let’s call these attacks by their proper name: mob lynchings. Far from a normal police investigation, the Israel Defense Forces have simply allowed vigilantism to prevail. One can only imagine how the enlightened West would react if it had been hundreds of Palestinians attacking Israeli settlements after a Palestinian boy went missing.
Or consider another case: On January 18, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu rejected the idea of a Palestinian state and promised that Israel would control the entire region it currently occupies: “And therefore I clarify that in any other arrangement, in the future, the state of Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea.” Netanyahu’s use of “from the river to the sea” has come under particular scrutiny, and for good reason. When Palestinians or anyone on the left have used the same phrase to demand a free Palestine (as in the popular chant: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”), those on the right have disingenuously argued that they are calling for the death of all Jewish people in Israel.
In short, a phrase that is denounced as genocidal when Palestinians use it is now being used by Netanyahu. The formula “from the river to the sea” represents what Israel is actually doing and planning to do, but would never publicly admit to doing, until now – when the Israeli prime minister himself turns it into an obscenity.
I could go on with these examples. On April 2, Netanyahu called the airstrike that killed seven aid workers in Gaza a “tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people.” How, then, would he describe the deaths of thousands of Palestinian children at the hands of Israel’s forces?
The house of cards is falling. Previously, Israel at least pretended to follow two rules: criticism of Israeli policies is permissible, but anti-Semitism is not; and the bombing of Gaza is directed at Hamas, which itself terrorizes ordinary Palestinians, not at Gaza’s entire population. Lately, however, these distinctions have collapsed. Netanyahu has openly stated in interviews that in cases where direct anti-Semitism is not allowed, criticism of Israel has taken its place. Likewise, many senior Israeli officials have become increasingly open in equating Gaza with Hamas.
According to Israel’s hardline finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, over 70% of Israelis support the idea of “encouraging voluntary immigration,” because “two million people [in Gaza] wake up every morning with the desire to destroy the State of Israel.” (If this is the case, perhaps it has something to do with the indiscriminate Israeli bombing of Gaza.) The implication is that all Gazans are legitimate targets – and it is clear that the West Bank is next.
Given this, the oft-repeated argument that Israel cannot really eliminate Hamas misses the point. For Israel, the true goal of the war is to absorb Gaza and the West Bank: a Greater Israel, from the river to the sea. Until then, Israel needs to be able to claim that Hamas remains a threat, to justify continued military intervention. The gap between elite and popular opinion in Western developed countries, as well as in some Arab countries (such as Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco), has grown too wide to be papered over. While governments basically support Israel, their citizens can only protest – and, increasingly, be canceled, threatened, and even arrested for it. The danger I see is that if popular dissatisfaction explodes, it will take the form of anti-Semitism. That is why acts like Germany’s cancellation of the Palestine Congress should be recognized for what they are: a new perverted chapter in the history of anti-Semitism.
现在仅仅是四月，但是我们几乎已经拥有了一张能够入选年度照片的候选者。在四月十二日，德国警察制止了一场准备在柏林举办的巴勒斯坦议会的集会。在警方行动中被逮捕的就有Udi Raz，一位带着红色yarmulke的虔诚犹太人。在记录这场行动的照片和视频中，人们可以清楚的看到出现在警察们脸上的得意的侵略性，——这让人联想起他们在上世纪三十年代的forebear们，——警察们在拉拽拖离一位犹太人。
在对抗发生在德国的反犹主义的行动中被清除的人，有许多都是犹太人。前面提到的巴勒斯坦议会本身是一个隶属于位处柏林的名为“Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East” （译：为中东正义和平的犹太之声）的组织的分支机构， 同时也隶属于一个泛欧政治运动和党派 DiEm25。这个组织的头号领袖是Yanis Varoufakis。但是德国的内政部长已经取消了Varoufakis不仅仅是进入该国的权利，同时也取消了他通过线上参与任何德国的政治活动的权利。
Varoufakis已经通过做出如下声明来传递明确信息，即：通过德国政府的禁令可以看出，现在的德国政府已经越过了政治红线，进入了Authoritarian的行为模式。更糟糕的是，德国的政治当权者~~（establishment一般翻译为建制派？但是齐泽克后文提到了绿党和Die Linke绝不是建制派。）~~——包括绿党和Die Linke——都已经支持这项行动。这显现出当下的anti-anti-Semitic Cancel Culture（旨在反对反犹主义的取消文化）的广泛性。可以确定的是，同样的事件也在美国发生。在美国最近的一个例子是，政治理论家Jodi Dean在发表了一篇辨析哈马斯十月七日进攻行动中解放性的文章之后，被Hobart and William Smith College 勒令强制休假。但是德国更为极端地展示了当局如何开始利用和合理化cancel culture。
为了消除任何可能有的关与Varoufakis也许会在Palestin Congress发表一个反犹主义演讲的怀疑，怀疑者可以非常容易地去看到他准备好的陈述（齐泽克附上了链接）。这些文字清楚无疑的谴责了任何形式的反犹主义，并且只诉求能够将同样的标准应用于冲突的双方。
在四月13日，CNN这样报道：”数以百计的以色列定居者包围了巴勒斯坦的村庄，并且在西岸地区袭击了巴勒斯坦居民...在一名从犹太人定居点失踪的男孩被发现死亡之后。” 让我们用一个适当的词语来称呼这些袭击，“暴民的私刑”。而以色列的国防军队非常轻易的就让Vigilantism而远非正常的警方调查支配了整个行动。人们只能想象，高贵的被启蒙（运动过的）西方世界会对如下行为如何反应：数以百计的巴勒斯坦人，在一位巴勒斯坦小男孩失踪之后，袭击了犹太人定居点。
或者考虑另外一个例子：在一月十八日，以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡拒绝了巴勒斯坦国的协议并且保证以色列会控制住现在已经占领的所有领土，他说到：“因此让我说清楚，在未来，在所有的协议当中，以色列政府必须要控制整个区域，从约旦河到地中海。”内塔尼亚胡使用的语言文字“从大河到大海”，一定经受了最为严格的审查检视，也一定是有充足的理由。而当巴勒斯坦人或者任何左派使用完全一样的短语来呼吁一个自由的巴勒斯坦，（就像这个著名的宣唱：“从大河到大海”，巴勒斯坦会变得自由和解放，）那些右派就会一直不坦诚地宣布：这些人是在宣告呼吁所有在以色列的犹太人的死亡。
简短地说，（就是）一个短语在被巴勒斯坦人使用时被冠以种族灭绝，而同样的短语正在被内塔尼亚胡使用。这个组合“从约旦河到地中海”展示了以色列正在做的和准备做，却永远不会公开承认去做的，直到现在——当以色列总理本人把他变成了无耻言论。
我可以继续举出这样的例子。在四月二日，内总理将杀死了七名在加沙工作的救助机构的工作者是一场“我方军事力量无意为之的袭击了无辜者的重大悲剧”。好的，那么，他会愿意提及在以色列军队手中丧生的数千名巴勒斯坦儿童吗？
纸牌屋正在倾倒。在之前，以色列至少会假装遵守两条规则：对以色列政策的的批评是可以被接受的，但是反犹主义不可接受；针对加沙的轰炸只针对哈马斯，尽管哈马斯本身对普通巴勒斯坦人实行恐怖统治，但轰炸并不会针对所有的加沙人口。可是最近，这样的区分规则崩溃了。在内塔尼亚胡接受采访是的表述中，不可接受的从反犹主义，被替换成了对于以色列的批评。类似地，许多的以色列高级官僚，越来越对将加沙地区和哈马斯画上等号采取开放态度。
据以色列的强硬派经济大臣Bazalel Smotrich所说，超过70%的以色列人”支持自愿的移民行为“，因为”两百万加沙人每个月会从对于摧毁以色列的渴望中醒来。“（如果情况果真如此，那么这种民意可能会与以色列对于加沙的无差别轰炸有关。）这种书法是在暗示所有的加沙人都是合理的轰炸对象——并且很明显，约旦河西岸就是下一个目标。
考虑到这些，那么“以色列没有办法真正完全消灭哈马斯”这样一个常见的观点就没有抓住重点。对于以色列来说，战争真正的目标是吸收加沙地带和约旦河西岸：建立一个更大的以色列，从约旦河到地中海。在这个时刻到来之前，以色列会需要一直能够宣称，哈马斯是一个威胁，来合理化自己持续不断的军事行动。
在西方发达国家，还有一些阿拉伯国家（比如：埃及，约旦还有摩洛哥）之中，精英阶层和大众的观念差异已经非常巨大以至于没有办法被掩盖。因为上述政府基本上支持以色列，上述民众只能够抗议示威 ——并且，他们的抗议正在被越来越多的取消，威胁甚至是因此遭到逮捕。我从中看到的危险是，如果民意的普遍不满最终引爆，它可能在将来以反犹主义的形式存在。这就是为什么向德国政府这样的取消巴勒斯坦议会的行为应当被定义为他真正的模样：即反犹主义历史当中新的邪恶的一章。
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