Forgotten Black Jewish
On Friday 7 June, the Black Jewish Alliance (BJA) held an action outside the German Embassy in London. We chose this location because Germany, the second largest seller of arms to Israel, holds a very specific role in upholding Zionism.
Germany claims to have dealt with its own genocidal history through Holocaust memorialisation, but its support for the genocide of the Palestinians shows that extreme racialised violence remains in the picture. We came to show Germany and the rest of Europe that "Never Again" is for everyone.
BJA is an anti-Zionist collective of radical Black Jews, Black non-Jews, and non-Black Jews that came together in 2021 to rebuild communal and political Jewish practice beyond colonialism and Israel. We organise on the basis of solidarity between Black and Jewish communities, which are inherently interlinked through our shared histories of racialised violence and joint, radical resistance.
We were founded in a context of tensions between Black and Jewish communities, underscored by claims of inter-communal racism, lack of solidarity and the changed social positions of Jews and Black folk to wider society, and to each other.
Our action outside the German embassy sought to demonstrate why Black and Jewish people need to struggle together. Germany's past and present perpetration of genocide, including the Herero and Nama genocide, the Holocaust (including both the Shoah and the Porajmos), the genocide in Palestine, as well as its active support of the Ottoman genocide of Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians, demonstrates the historical links between anti-Black racism, antisemitism, and anti-Palestinian racism.
ps: Armenia, 6 hours ago, recognize Palestine as a state
Colonial racism doesn't disappear, it transforms. In James Baldwin’s words: “If they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night.”
As a crowd gathered at the Embassy around banners which read “Free Palestine from German Guilt” and “From the River to the Sea, Fuck you Germany”, a BJA member opened the evening with an introduction and grounding in remembrance of the victims of genocide in Palestine. In our remembrance, we acknowledged the role of both Germany and Britain in facilitating the genocide, in words and in weapons, through providing money, arms and political cover to the occupying Israeli forces.
We brought in Shabbat with the Jewish Bloc’s anti-Zionist siddur, which contains the usual prayers for bread, wine and candles, but also poems written by Palestinian comrades, and anti-Zionist definitions of terms like Yisrael, interpreted to mean not the nation state, but “those who wrestle and struggle with God.”
We then heard from Palestinian, German, Black and Jewish speakers who shared their expertise on Germany’s history of supporting and enacting genocide. They included Nadz, a Black Jewish German citizen; Moe from BLM UK and the Decolonial Centre; Howie, a Jewish academic researching genocide and collective violence in Germany; and Hanna, a Palestinian-German activist, academic and playwright. Special guest Wieland Hoban, chair of Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden in Nahost (Jewish Voice for Peace in the Middle East), a German-based group, joined us in person as well. We learned from these speakers in detail about the manifestation of race in German, the Herero and Nama genocide’s connection to Palestine, and the idea of the singularity of the Shoah.
As Howie told the crowd, Germany continues to propound the notion that the Shoah was a break with the natural course of Western liberalism, one that has never happened before or since. This is an obvious negation of, for example, slavery and the West's violent colonial history. The Western world sees Germany as having committed the worst crime possible, to which nothing else can compare. This idea, known as the singularity thesis, asserts that no other community has suffered a slaughter so horrific, and that no other community ever will. This notion undermines solidarity between racialised communities and makes it impossible for some people to view the horror in Gaza as a genocide.
This provides the ideological cover for the emergence of the Israeli ethno-nation state: a settler colonial project that regards itself through the lens of the singularity of Jewish experience in and at the hands of Germany. Germany, in turn, views Israel as both an outpost of its political interests in the region and the resolution for its Holocaust shame, as is clearly legible in Angela Merkel’s proposition that Israel is Germany’s Staatsraison (reason of state). Any criticism of Israel is therefore seen to be anti-German, and the response from the German state is, consequently, violent and repressive. Hanna told us how Germany’s reason of state is increasingly translated into the erasure of Palestine and Palestinians, as “Palestinians are denied not only the permission to narrate our own life stories, but German logic outright negates the possibility of our existence.”
It is through this lens of “fighting” antisemitism that Germany characterises and justifies its support for genocide in Gaza. White, Christian, antisemitic violence is projected onto Muslims, Palestinians, and people of colour, rather than interrogated at home. Two Palestinian comrades in Germany who have faced intense police repression shared video messages with us which we played through the speaker. Salah Said, campaigner and founder of NGO Worldcitizen, and American journalist Hebh Jamal explained how the German state has brutally targeted them and their comrades – Palestinian, Jewish, and others – who call for an end to the genocide. Groups have reported violent arrests, raids and bank account closures.
Jamal shared this crucial insight: “Instead of facing their history of colonisation and the politics of dehumanisation that made the Holocaust possible…Germany unconditionally agrees with and supports a state that claims to be the representative of Jewish people worldwide. In order to do this, they first have to silence, censor, sideline and criminalise Palestinian identity in ways no other country except the state of Israel has done before. We are a pesky nuisance getting in the way of their tactical response to the Holocaust – which is of course, material support for Israel.”
The history of Germany's enthusiastic support for genocide demonstrates that murderous violence goes through cycles and renewals. Each generation gives a different target, a different shade, a different language, a different religion, but the same outcome: mass death, annihilation, and a new generation of traumatised people. If we don't say, forcefully and without equivocation, never again for anyone, then it will soon be again for someone, and eventually everyone.▼
Black Jewish Alliance is an anti-Zionist collective of radical Black Jews, Black non-Jews, and non-Black Jews. BJA organises on the basis of solidarity between Black and Jewish communities, and works to rebuild communal and political Jewish practice beyond colonialism and Israel.
If anyone [not only
member Jennifer Koonings] try to learn really basic Arabic in the wake Gaza - Israel war [will be Lebanon - Israel war], can click pdf dictionary here
At least 12-13 days Jennifer Koonings, PMHNP, MS, MS, NYSAFE hunger strike outside White House in the wake US complicit Genocidal Gaza. This is [click link] her writing as member of CODEPINK Alert CODEPINK’s Newsletter. Jennifer is Certified Forensic Examiner for Adults and Children, really full knowledge about sexual assault, such as sexual assault by Israel to every Palestinian, like NYT reporting [photo uploaded].
We as Muslim prohibited to fasting at least 6 days for entire year [365, or 366 in leap year]. 2 Days Eid Fitr / Eid el-Fitr [1 Shawwal and 2 Shawwal / Syawal Syawwal], Day of Eid Adha / Eid el-Adha [10 Dzulhijjah / Dhul-Hijjah - today], and days of Tashriq [11th, 12th and 13th Dhul-Hijjah / Dzulhijjah, or in Gregorian Calendar 2024, the days of Tashriq means 17-19 June]. But doesn’t mean prohibited for ‘less eating or hunger strike.’ As sacrifice in DC at least 13 days by Jennifer Koonings just because her protest about Gaza, I keep ‘eating less’ not only for her but also for Palestine, at least until 19 June. And for June 20th, back again for nonmandatory fasting, normally 17-18 hours, as even Jennifer, with her gut, sacrifice herself for Gaza. Wisdom quote I hear since war [Israel - Gaza] nonstop ‘’...You can't make people care about a genocide happening right in front of their eyes. They either do immediately, or a chip is missing up there, and they never will.’
For solidarity, since she started to hunger strike, I put myself eat 1 very tiny plate/day for break the fasting and for entire day after, extreme fasting 16.5 hours [based on my location]. I’m still continued for hunger strike, because its very easy. In last 17 years, I already [minimum] 340 days / year to fasting [29 - 30 days for mandatory fasting for muslim, ramadan session, the rest is voluntary fasting / sunnah]. Photo Jennifer with ann Wright, retired retired US Army [like Leo M. Stolfi ] and also [Ann] retired State Department
Medea Benjamin Medea Benjamin Medea’s Substack and Jennifer Koonings
Medea Benjamin Medea Benjamin and Mary Ann Wright ann Wright
footage by CODEPINK Alert CODEPINK’s Newsletter, multiple nurses in DC, after humanitarian duty in Gaza.
Please keep donating to [1] PCRF / Palestine Children’s Relief Fund or [2] Freedom Flotilla.
As PCRF pictures by Dr Rajha in Gaza, Ariana Grande - Butera, and CODEPINK Alert
Jennifer Koonings PMHNP, MS, MS, NYSAFE part of CODEPINK AlertJen
Unlike Israeli and pro zionist student [very easy] get a money [thanks for multiple billionaire], contrary, Palestinian very hard to get a money [like encampments across the world]. Link attached by CODEPINK Alert Jen Jennifer Koonings PMHNP, MS, MS, NYSAFE is Nagham, same healthcare worker like Jennifer but in Palestine. 4 Weeks ago is Nagham’s birthday. Link to donate. Nagham is still alive after Rafah bombing 3 weeks ago.
Link to help journalist Abdelrahman Alkahout, Reshare by CODEPINK Alert
Jen Jennifer Koonings, PMHNP, MS, MS, NYSAFE. Abdelrahman is still alive after Rafah bombing 3 weeks ago
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Yellow Flower, Jennifer Koonings in Betlehem [around 3pm local time West Bank, 5 weeks ago], nearly same exact result voting UNGA [11.17am NYC - Rockefeller Building of United Nations], 143 votes in favor, nine against, and 25 abstentions for Palestinian membership.
Footage by mine. Minutes before Jennifer
Jennifer Koonings literally singing also for foundation - charity movement Sing for Hope. How golden heart.
Love you, Jennifer Koonings PMHNP, MS, MS, NYSAFE. Dont know how deteriorated of you after Hunger Strike