2d ago

Regarding Mid-East-related Comments on !europe

Hi.

In the past few days, discontent regarding mod decisions in this community has been brewing, particularly when it comes to comments on Palestine, Israel, and Israeli politics and actions. There are also misunderstandings regarding mod intention and German law. We hope to clear that up with this post.

While the servers of feddit.org are in Austria, most of the mods of this community as well as admins of this server live in Germany. Speaking of, our server admins have also posted a write-up on the same topic.

And with that, let's go:

In Germany, antisemitism is specifically sanctioned in German criminal law, both for speech and as a motivation for other criminal behavior. In addition, Germany seeks to protect the Jewish state of Israel (the so-called "Reason of State" introduced in 2008) and thus verges toward protecting Zionism as well. Certain criticism of Israel/Israelis is also categorized as "Israel-related antisemitism".

Since criminal law is involved, enforcement can mean things like police raids and device confiscations. After such police action, it does not really matter if it was appropriate or if cases are dropped or never charged: The damage is done. All told, it's not that fun.

There is also no point in engaging in discussions about the veracity of statements that could get us into legal trouble. In addition, we believe that you can express most opinions without breaking rules.

If your comment contains the following, it will be removed from this community:

Calling for the dissolution of Israel, or calling for a one-state solution without specifying equal rights for all people; Jewish in particular.
Calling for a destruction, annihilation, an end of all Zionism or the like.
Equating Israeli actions and (historical) Nazism.
The slogan "from the river..."
Endorsement of or justifications for Hamas or Hezbollah, or slogans or graphics positively referring to these organizations. These are considered terrorist organizations in Germany.
... and obviously: Any of the common antisemitic tropes or calls to violence against Jews or Israelis

Comments will not be removed for the following:

Denouncing genocide.
Denouncing Israeli war crimes.
Criticizing Zionism as an ideology or political movement.
Referring to the current Israeli government as "criminal," "expansionist," or "far-right".

If your comment is removed nonetheless, these are not the reason. I'd also like to stress that this community was never a free-speech-absolutist zone: It is a (usually lightly) moderated community. There may also be times when bans go too far. In such cases, please DM the @EuroMod@feddit.org account (which all mods have access to).

federal reverse (on behalf of the mods of !europe)

131 comments

Sad to see this. This effectively muzzles Israeli and Jewish anti-Zionist voices to make Germans feel good about themselves. This is antisemitic.
- How does this muzzle any anti-zionist voices that are not calling for yet another genocide? If you think that are the only anti-zionist voices worth listening to then yes that is antisemitic.
  
  Because you're proscribing calling for an end to Zionism, proscribing comparisons to the Shoah, proscribing views held by anti-zionist jews, which have been deplatformed and politically persecuted in Germany. People like Nancy Fraser, Masha Gessen, Yuval Abraham, Eyal Abraham.
  Because by doing so, you're picking and choosing good zionist jews and bad antizionist jews. WHICH IS ANTISEMITISM.
  Here is a nice excerpt for you:
  There is, as the Israeli-born architect and academic Eyal Weizman has acidly put it, a certain irony in “being lectured [on how to be properly Jewish] by the children and grandchildren of the perpetrators who murdered our families and who now dare to tell us that we are antisemitic”.
  As for this:
  If you think that are the only anti-zionist voices worth listening to then yes that is antisemitic.
  I never said that. I never called for the banning of pro-zionist views. You're the one enforcing a policy that silences "bad" jewish voices.
  
  Literally who on lemmy is calling for another genocide???
  
  Great, so why the big ruckus if you think so?
  Nothing stops people from participating on feddit.org communities if they don't use thinly veiled dogwistles for such or endorse organisations that call for ethnic clensing like Hamas and use slogans popularized by them.
  Not relativising or denying the holocaust is hopefully a given, but it seems some people from other instances are also not so clear on that.
  
  But if i say "from the river to the sea there will only be Jewish sovereignty" I am dandy, right? It's only the proscribed polarity that matters. Right?
  
  What ruckus? Mate what the fuck are you on about? My only engagement in this thread was to ask you to provide an example of a problem you seem to believe is prevalent on here, which you promptly neglected to do.
  Nothing stops people from participating on feddit.org communities if they don't use thinly veiled dogwistles for such or endorse organisations that call for ethnic clensing like Hamas and use slogans popularized by them.
  Ok cool, so is it also server policy to ban anybody endorsing the state of Israel, given its current campaign of ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank? Why/why not?