The German film “Auserwählt und ausgegrenzt – Der Hass auf Juden in Europa” (“Chosen and excluded: the hatred of Jews in Europe”) is online illegally, but only for a day. It is highly regarded as thorough and honest, and you can read about it on the German Wikipedia, which will translate the piece into English wenn Sie kein Deutsch sprechen können.
The automatic translation of part of it:
The hate of Jews in Europe is a 90-minute documentary by the authors Joachim Schroeder and Sophie Hafner from the year 2016 about anti-Semitism in Germany, France , the Gaza Strip and the West Jundland – including the Jews’ hatred of Muslims . The film took a media interest both inside and outside the German-speaking countries after the TV channel Arte had rejected a broadcast in the summer of 2017. The WDR , which produced the film and had previously edited it in an editorial, expressed “doubts about the journalistic quality of the documentation”.
On 13 June 2017 the news and entertainment portal Bild.de published the film for the duration of 24 hours. The documentation is preceded by an introduction, in which the picture editor Claas Weinmann explains:
” Chosen and discriminated – the hatred of Jews in Europe – that is the anti-Semitism documentary that Arte does not want to show, and which still examines the WDR. We have been discussing this film for weeks, without being allowed to SEE him. The suspicion is, therefore, that the documentation is not shown because it shows an anti-Semitic view of the world in large parts of the society, which is staggering. Our historical responsibility obliges us to take a firm stand against the inadequacies, which are documented in the documentation. But we must all know what we are dealing with. That is why BILD shows the film, which the public broadcaster Arte NOT wants to show for 24 hours. “
On the same day, Arte responded with a press release stating that Arte had noted that Bild.de had put the documentation online on its own responsibility. “Even though this approach is strange, ARTE has no objection to the public’s own opinion on the film.” Furthermore,
“However, ARTE can not and does not want to legitimize the film by means of its own broadcasting since, without ARTE being informed about it, it deviates significantly from the agreed broadcast concept. Such an approach can not accept ARTE in this as in any other case. The hypothesis that the film does not fit into the program for political reasons is simply absurd. The program proposal, which was originally approved by the program conference, expressly envisaged the subject of anti-Semitism concealed under the cover of Israeli critics – but not in line with the editorial line of ARTE East, but in Europe. ”
So, if you speak German, watch it NOW. I can understand most of it, but lack time to watch the whole thing, and so can’t judge its quality or objectivity. If you understand German and watch it, weigh in below
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If I knew how I’d take a copy of The Eternal Jew ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eternal_Jew_(1940_film) ) , retitle it The Eternal Other, swap the narration for quotes of Danald Trump, Steve King, Michael Savage and the other right-wing nut jobs and then market it as an updated documentary.
The idea that the “journalistic standard” is questionable is ludicrous. There’s nothing that would be new to anyone familiar with the facts surrounding these issues. I think the real problem is that it shows footage of Muslim fanatics appearing onstage with Neo Nazis, and perhaps worse, uses Israeli sources for some of their factual material. Instead of checking the facts, they decided to pull the film.
As the Jerusalem notes–
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The Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, which has documented financial misconduct and irregularities among EU-funded NGOs in Israel, was a source for the film. European media frequently cite NGO Monitor’s research numbers.
The film also covers the European-funded NGO World Vision, whose head of Gaza operations Mohammed al-Halabi allegedly siphoned millions of dollars to the EU- and US-designated terrorist entity Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Before the public outrage this month over censorship at ARTE and WDR, editors at the outlets had rejected the film because it was “pro-Israel,” “a provocation,” “pours oil into the fire,” and “shouldn’t be shown because of terrorism.”
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http://www.jpost.com/BDS-THREAT/Franco-German-TV-outlet-snubs-German-Jews-pleas-to-air-film-on-antisemitism-496581
I’ve seen it.
It tries to expose anti-Semitism in Germany and France and does a good job. I think the quality is ok.
The maker Joachim Schroeder doesn’t deny that the film is Pro Jewish, but says he doesn’t know how one can make a movie about anti-Semitism that isn’t pro-Jewish.
I guess “don’t hate or kill Jews just because they are Jews” is “pro-Jewish”. It also seems normal common sense and civilised behaviour. Or does the film go further in promoting Judaism in any way?
No it doesn’t
Personally I find it repugnant to widen meaning of anti-semitism in its special European sense to include the Jews hatred of Arabs. This seems to me to to hint at fostering the peculiar notion that the jews given the opportunity were and are as bad as the christians because of what they are doing to the Arabs today. Christianity has been looking long and hard for a way to get itself off the historic anti-semitism hook. Now with th Arab nations also subtley undermining history it may be beginning to see some moral salvation.
I know this is a bit off the point but I see an unfortunate trend to alter the long accepted meaning of anti-semitism as it was used in the last century and in the sense that christians used when sending millions to the gas chambers.
I thought “including the Jews’ hatred of Muslims” was a grammatical mis-translation. Guess not. And I agree, if the film is indeed including that in its definition of anti-Semitism, that’s… problematic.
It’s true that “anti-Semitism” originally arouse out of German racial theories and referred to people of Semitic origins, which would include Arabs (not “Muslims” necessarily; it will never cease to amaze me how often people conflate those two categories). So in that sense it could be accurate.
But you’re right, the modern definition—made modern by the actions of German racists in the 20th century—is more specific, and everyone knows what it means: Jew-hatred. Expanding that definition strikes me as morally irresponsible, because it obfuscates what makes anti-Semitism unique, and uniquely dangerous, among bigotries—for one, its penchant for fantastical conspiracy theories. No one thinks Arabs are secretly controlling world affairs. And then there’s that whole Christ-killing, Mohamed-rejecting thing…
“Anti-semitism” originally arouse out of German racial theories […]
I didn’t know Gobineau and Chamberlain were German.
Notice the quotes. I honestly don’t know what the technical term for Jew-hatred was before “anti-Semitism” came along. Checking Wikipedia…
Huh. Somehow I always forget about the French racists. I guess because they never really got the chance to run with their ideas the way the Germans did, as much as the anti-Dreyfusards* would have liked to.
*Dreyfusards is a real term. I don’t get French either.
Before antisemitism the term was “Judenhass” but it was deemed too plebeian. German intellectuals needed a more “scientific” term. Hence, antisemitism. And no, it was never meant to encompass all Semitic people. As German Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained to worried admirers of Nazis among Arabs, it was meant only for Jews. It’s documented very well in a book by Professor Jeffrey Herf, “The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda During World War II and the Holocaust”.
It begins by stating that anti-semitism is deeply rooted in European culture, chiefly in Christianity and it’s myth of the Jew Judas who’s responsble for the death of Jesus (interesting how Jesus death can serve many functions that are mutually exclusive, dying for sins, redeemer, but also serve to further hatred of Jews).
They use that to set up that anti-semitic conspiracy theories and stereotypes are still alive. We see Mahmoud Abbas asserting Jews were poisoning the water of Palestinians, and a Left politician in another context who believes Israel not only poisons the Palestinian water, but the Mediterranean, too.
After that, they continue the tour to Berlin, where we are at New Right wing demonstration. If you are familiar with Lauren Southern, Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad) and the likes, you know their basic talking points. Characteristic is that they are not longer clearly right wingers, but are murky combination of Far Right and some Leftist “anti-establishment” talking points, where the narrative is always about a group of elites (i.e. Jews) who act against the interests of “the common people” — with a clear identitarian bent (this movement is called Alt-Right in the US and Identitarian Movement in Europe, and it is very popular among “skeptics” on YouTube, too). There’s more that can be added here, but I leave it at that.
We then see a Professor at your Chicago University, Moishe Postone, who also spells it out: “[in German] they have no idea about imperialism. None. [in English] It got completely mixed up with identity politics”. However, he interestingly characterizes it as “New Left”. He also claims that Assad has killed more arabs than the other (“western”) nations combined.
A political scientist explains that relativism of the Nazi era is paradoxically even more common among the Left, because they struggle with the fact that the common people (workers, the proletariat) were such willing to participate in the Nazi project. A notable exception, according to him, is the Frankfurt School, who critically reflected on this fact.
We then fly to Israel, and see a short history about Israel and Palestine, with some tidbits how the Britains refused to accept Jewish refugees during the World War, and how Jews fought the Brits. As soon as the Brits leave, and Israel is founded, war is declared by various Arab states. The narrator claims Israel was without international help, only fought back only using Czech weapons, but they won — which hurt the pride of the Arab nations. However, Jordan also gobbled up parts of the territory. This war led many Arabs to leave, allegedly mostly voluntarily or because they were ordered by their leaders (who claimed that they would strike back and they’ll soon have their belongings back, and more). The interviewee admits that they also drove away Arabs, but asserts this was a minority of the cases. Others Arabs stayed and they became Israel citizens. The narrator claims this true version of events was spun into the myth of a displacement-genocide of Arabians.
The next segment is about NGOs. Palestine is teeming with NGOs, many of them appear to be Christian and also tied to big – EU funded – foreign aid (this bit connects to the beginning EU speech by Abbas). According to the documentary, they perpetuate more anti-semtitic conspiracies like claiming the Israel placed knives next to dead palestinians to make them seem the aggressors. They claim mostly anti-Israel (anti-semitic) foreign aid/NGO has a volume of 100 million €.
This bit has ostensibly caused the WDR to not air the documentary, because it did not seek commentary from the NGOs to defend themselves, and also deem it too one-sided. This was against journalistic standards, according to a statement. The maker of the documentary points out that the numbers are correct, and says “how can you make a film about European anti-semitism and […] not make it pro-jewish by heart” (source: Zeit, Jun 13). Arte points out they didn’t air the documentary because it was supposed to have a thematic centre on Europe (which is what their channel is about), not the Middle-East, but they do not object to others airing it. Indeed, the bulk of the documentary is on site in Israel.
They then interview Palestinians, and assert that they are kept as refugees, in a sense, a pledge on their heads to keep the money flowing to Gaza. Palestinian children inherit the refugee status, whereas others are long integrated. Also, it’s suggested through many interviews of passersby that the western money does not reach the common people in Gaza. Allegedly, passersby readily told them, off camera, that the money only keeps Hamas alive and that the West (or Europe) better turn off the funds to make this scheme collapse. This theme is reinforced a few times. Basically, it’s suggested to be a huge scam. Do-Gooder Westerners (mostly the EU) send tens of millions and little reaches the streets of Palestine.
These themes are then further explored in the remaining last third: a broad unlikely alliance from left to right, and Christian is anti-semitic and they fund a large number of organisations, or NGOs, and the money they raise then never reaches the Palestinians, who are kept in a refugee state to keep the money flowing. Even more money comes the EU.
My impression was that the documentary is too careless with the distinction between anti-semitism and criticism of Israel. Some of the people interviewed did espouse anti-semitic views, like perpetuating the Protocols of the Elders of Zion conspiracy, while others appear to be critical of Israel’s politics.
Thank you for taking the trouble of describing the Documentary.
An edit button would be great. Also, I forgot that they discuss anti-semitism as a problem among European Muslims.
Thanks for the recap – I watched the film last night when it went up on Bild (*shudder*), but didn’t think to take notes.
It bears saying that the film as presented is not in a finished form, as evidenced by several missing subtitles. Some segments are clearly not a final edit (sorta jumbled), while others are to my eye nice and finished.
Thanks for the run through.
Perhaps you could do an overdub translation.
“West Jundland”? = West Bank
Here’s a 720p HD version of the movie:
After first viewing I have to say I wouldn’t choose showing this documentary for educational purposes. Particularly the first part of the documentary jumps from short sniplet to sniplet. The viewer is given quick interpretations that don’t help to understand how different different aspects truly fit together. Instead I feel like I am supposed to “form an impression”, to fly along with the film makers’ interpretation (the music…). Sometimes they cut to ironic or sarcastic comments of their own to the sound of “Knight Rider” – what is that all about? It’s not in depth journalism to me and doesn’t make me any the wiser.
I guess when I am shown people that I am supposed to understand have been brought to misguided views by inaccurate, partisan propaganda, I want to be shown that in the most crisp, accurate and impeccable way possible. Otherwise, it just feels poor.
The second half gets more informative. Particularly where they go to the Gaza strip and ask one question to several different groups of people: “Where does all the aid money payed by UN, Germany etc, go?” They get very different answers from the different people – you can’t help but stop and think about this. So I am glad that I watched the documentary for that.
But apart from that I wonder whether we have entered a time where an audience is not supposed to think for themselves any more but is expected to have the attention span and emotional depth of a goldfish watching a catgif.
That being said, the topic is way to important for a job half done – good, thorough journalistic work is in dire need.
Liking this because I could not agree more with the last part. Glib sound bytes seem to have taken over integrity.
Just to show another point of view (this is from a blog written by a German who’ve seen the film. I’m giving just fragments but probably it’s already too long):
The film provides very well what it was commissioned to investigate. It illuminates current anti-Semitism in Europe like no other documentary! The film presents European philosophers, composers and writers who had expressed themselves negatively towards Jews over the centuries. Christian writings are quoted which were used to propagate Jew hatred in Europe. Martin Luther, whose anti-Semitic writings were later referred to by the Nazis, is also portrayed. In the documentation, Julius Streicher, who expounded Nazi hatred toward Jews in his publication, Der Stürmer, justified the hatred with these words:
„Anti-Semitic publications have existed in Germany for centuries. Dr. Martin Luther would certainly be sitting next to me in a court of law. In the book „The Jews and Their Lies,“ Dr. Martin Luther writes that the Jews are snakes, that their synagogues should be burned, and that the Jews should be exterminated.”
How much medieval European Jew hatred exists today can be experienced in a speech Mahmud Abbas held on June 23, 2016 in front of the European Union Parliament.
During the Plague, Christians accused the Jews of poisoning the water wells. Those accusations were not coincidental, since for centuries, Jews had been accused of subterfuge, sorcery and conspiracy against Christians. Because hygiene regulations anchored in Jewish custom, they were often less affected by epidemics than other urban populations. Instead of searching for the causes of infection and the advantages of clean water, Christians turned against the Jews. That was in the Middle Ages. Today, it’s not much different!
On June 23, 2016, Mahmud Abbas was a guest of the European Parliament. In his speech he tested the Parliament as to its openness to anti-Jewish propaganda by reviving the medieval lie of well-poisoning whereby he claimed that there were certain rabbis who had wells poisoned. Abbas‘ allegation, of course, is a lie, as he himself admitted two days later. However, Abbas had gained certainty that Jew hatred is alive today in Europe. At the end of the speech, there was a standing ovation from members of the European Parliament.
This hate is documented, but ARTE and the WDR refuse to show it. The documentation also shows New Right demonstrations, whereby the most evil conspiracy theories are decimated. The documentary makers were told that there is a secret power behind the United States of America, an American-Zionist world-conspiracy. Zionism is defined as a money-mafia which promotes and profits from worldwide suffering. One demonstrator even said, „Everything written in the Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion has so far been true. So even if the protocols are a fake, someone was still thinking pretty cool and was a good prophet!“
[…]
The documentation concerns itself with the connections between German and Palestinian nationalist movements whereby amazing parallels are presented. Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, Mufti of Jerusalem, who was ideologically and financially supported by Adolf Hitler, is portrayed in the film. Mohammed Amin al-Husseini created a Bosnian-Islamic unit within the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS. He arranged for the extradition of several thousand Jews to the German Reich. He also aided Radio Zesen, a German Reich radio station, designed to spread the Nazi ideology into the Arab world.
When the filmmakers visited the Gaza Strip to see whether there were still traces of German initiated anti-Semitism, they made a terrifying discovery: Jew hatred in the Gaza Strip and in the Palestinian autonomy areas is being funded by Germany and Europe. That is probably the most frightening discovery presented in the documentary! Money from “Bread for the World”, “Misereor” and the European Union is being used to finance Jew hatred in the Middle East. The documentary also relates how funds from Europe and the United Nations are used to abuse Arab children by forcing them to function as human shields. Images from Gaza – never having been shown before on public television – are particularly important in this context. It’s a scandal that those images are still being withheld from viewers, mainly because the documentary shows how Jürgen Todenhöfer, a Middle East reporter popular with public broadcasters, is biased in reporting on Gaza, indeed he is a drama queen of propaganda.
The documentation also deals with Palestinians and Arabs who are being threatened by Europeans if they refuse to work against Israel. It is one of the most difficult moments in the documentation to listen to an Arab Palestinian who lives in peace with Jews and relates how his life has been made into a hell by Europeans because of his refusal to hate Israel.
[…]
The documentary „Chosen and Excluded – Jew Hatred in Europe“ shows in ninety minutes how Jew hatred had set foot in Europe, was brutalized by Luther and justified by philosophers, writers and composers, and finally transformed by the Nazis into industrial mass murder. The documentary shows how this hatred has been exported to the Arab world and is now returning to Europe in the form of a brutal criticism of Israel, funded by European organizations, no longer hesitant to persecute and murder. After seeing the documentation, one understands the conclusion that the Arabs in Europe would never have been opposed to the Jews, had they not been convinced that it was their duty to show solidarity with their brothers in faith in Palestine. „But they were told that it’s necessary.“
The hateful propagandists are people from Europe: Christians of „Bread for the World“ and „Misereor“, left- and rightwing activists, and European Union politicians, But also journalists and editors from the public broadcasting corporations do their part. The documentation illustrates how public television stations reporting on Israel is biased in such a manner that anti-Semitism is fueled.
Well, at least we now know the one thing that can bring together the left and the right in multiple countries: hating Jews and Israel.
Malgorzata, thank you for that. It is not too long. It is at least as long as it needs to be, to explain what it covers so well. It is very enlightening. Can you provide a link to the source? I want to forward that to misguided Pro-Palestinian people I know who are otherwise willing to question and learn without undue bias.
Here is the link:
https://tapferimnirgendwo.com/2017/06/04/a-public-television-debacle/
Many thanks, Malgorzata.
The opening scene stole a joke I made about my wife’s “colorberg” relatives (goldberg, silverberg, rosenberg, etc.) It says …
“It is well known that all the disasters in the world are the fault of the Jews. Take the sinking of the Titanic, for instance. But that was an iceberg, wasn’t it? Iceberg, Greenberg, Rosenberg… it is all the same thing… ”
I don’t see why the video was pulled. It makes an important point. And yes, Arabs are semites too, so those Jews who refer to Arabs as “vermin” are antisemites. That is not to say that there is any comparison between the way Israel even under the current conservative government of Israel treats Muslims and the way Hamas or any of the other Jihadist groups treats Jews or that there is any justification for the BDS movement. Israel, for all its faults is still the only country in the Middle East with even a pretense of democracy and respect for human rights.
The visceral depth of antisemitism has always amazed and appalled me and its “root”, as usual, is in religion. If it didn’t lead to violent actions and hideous deeds, it would be somewhat amusing: for a person to believe that a group of people, who make up less than one half of one percent of the world’s population and which is losing “members” at the rate of 50,000 a year (births aren’t equaling deaths, and Judaism isn’t big on proselytizing), is either actively involved in a conspiracy to control the world, or already actually DOES so. I say, if the Jews are THAT good at it, why don’t we LET them control everything? They couldn’t do much worse of a job than we’re seeing now! I read a story years ago about some land ceded back to the Palestinians by Israel which happened to have on it a huge, several-million-dollar greenhouse- the first thing the Arabs did was to bust every single window in it….
“I read a story years ago about some land ceded back to the Palestinians by Israel which happened to have on it a huge, several-million-dollar greenhouse- the first thing the Arabs did was to bust every single window in it….”
That must have been in the Gaza Strip. It was hoped that the homes, businesses, and infrastructure handed over intact to the Arabs (a.k.a. “Palestinian Refugees”) would provide a basis for growth and development of families, communities, and so on. Turns out, it was unrealistic to hope they could raise themselves up from this already raised level and stop focusing on destruction, death, and the killing of Jews. The proof is in the pudding, as that saying goes.