Many Israelis and Jewish groups get upset when unfavorable parallels are drawn between the Israeli treatment of Palestinians and the Nazi’s treatment of Jews, particularly in Gaza, which has been compared to the Warsaw Ghetto. Groups like the American Jewish Committee see any parallel, even by Jewish progressives, as offensive and anti-Semitic.
But this week Benjamin Netanyahu used the Nazi term “Judenrein” in a meeting with the German foreign minister while discussing the possible removal of West Bank settlements. Reuters quoted a “confidant” of Netanyahu saying that the Israeli prime minister told Frank-Walter Steinmeier earlier this week that “Judea and Samaria” [the West Bank] cannot be Judenrein.” The term was used by Nazis to refer to areas “cleansed of Jews.” Asked by Reuters how Steinmeier reacted to the term, the confidant said, “What could he do? He basically just nodded.”
In attempting to leverage German guilt, the Prime Minister himself opened up the same can of worms the AJC and countless organizations would have preferred to leave buried: the meaning of many of these nationalist terms, and the frightening similarities between German nationalism and Zionism.
Aside from this, recent racist pronouncements by Israeli’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch could really best be uttered auf [1936-era] Deutsch. Germans of today have managed to move past ugly 19th Century racist nationalism, but Israel (which was founded on similar principles first described in Der Judenstaat by Theodor Herzl) just seems to be getting warmed up, especially the new government.
Now that Netanyahu has mastered German 101, here are some other phrases from the German past, with suggested uses, that might be useful for him and his coalition government:
| Abwanderung | “wandering off” or “emigration” – euphemism for deportation or worse. A synonym for “transfer” or even for the Nakba. For example: The Palestinian Abwanderung never happened in 1948. |
| Anschluss | annexation of other countries. Netanyahu could have said this week: The Anschluss of the Golan Heights will be permanent. |
| Besatzung | occupation. As in: the Besatzung of Palestine. |
| Blut und Boden | “blood and soil” – an ideology focusing on a concept of ethnicity based on descent (Blood) and homeland (Soil) and which celebrates the relationship of a people to the land that they occupy and cultivate. This could be a handy phrase to describe the lure of Zionism to outsiders. |
| Drang nach Osten | “drive toward the East” – a term coined in the 19th century to designate expansion into Slavic lands. In Israel this could be used to describe the pressures of “natural growth” that drive the eastward expansion of already illegal settlement blocks in the West Bank. |
| Gesinnungs-unterricht | ideological indoctrination. This could be used to describe appropriate kinds of education to prevent fellow Jews like David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel from becoming “self hating” (the other Netanyahu story this week) or in forming narratives for public consumption. For example: AIPAC can provide a bit of Gesinnungsunterricht. |
| Gleichschaltung | elimination of opposition. This is a wonderful utility phrase that can describe political detentions of Palestinians, extra-judicial killings, imprisonment and harassment of Jewish activists, and the introduction of new laws banning criticism of Israel’s democracy or even mentioning the Nakba. |
| Herrenvolk | ethnic group which rules. This could be used to describe the relationship of Israeli Jews to Israeli Palestinians, as in the sentence: Our Herrenvolk will replace the filthy Arabs in the Galilee. |
| Judenrein | cleansed of Jews. Oops! Bibi knows this one already. |
| Konzentrationslager | concentration camp. A synonym for Gaza. |
| Lebensraum | “living space” – space to accommodate “natural growth”. Wow! This really is a timely word. Bibi could have alternately explained to Steinmeier that: We just need more Lebensraum. |
| Ostmark | euphemism for annexed land in the east. Since Israel is running out of names for illegal settlements in the West Bank, perhaps something like “Ostmark Illit” would have a cute ring to it. |
| Rassenschande | literally, “shaming the race.” This could be used to describe anti-miscegenation programs like those in Petah Tikvah, Pisgat Zeev, and Kiryat Gat which use informers, vigilantes, rabbis, police, and municipal authorities to inform on and threaten girls who date Arabs. |
| Sprachregelung | term meaning “convention of speech,” a formal or informal agreement that certain things should be expressed in specific ways to avoid confusing and seemingly contradictory messages, and to enhance the outward appearance of unity, but also to replace sensitive expressions with euphemisms. This could be used interchangeably with hasbara. |
| Staatsfeind | enemy of the state. Since Israel is running out of ways to demonize its critics, and “anti-Semite” and “self-hating Jews” are getting a little too much play these days, this would be a refreshing new word. As in: That verdammter Staatsfeind, Noam Chomsky! |
| Siedlung | settlement or colony. Why use English when Deutsch sounds so cool and sophisticated? |
| Umvolkung | a term used to describe a process of assimilation of members of the people (das Volk) so that they forget about their language and their origin. As in: American Jews are practically goyim because of their Umvolkung. |
| Untermenschen | subhumans. Example: The Palestinians are Untermenschen. |
| Volk | “the people” – a racial or ethnic conception of a nation. In Israel, only for Jews. As in: Israeli Arabs are not a member of unser Volk. |
| völkisch | “ethnic” – the völkisch movement had its origins in Romantic nationalism, and was expressed by early Romantics such as Johann Gottlieb Fichte in his addresses to the German Nation published during the Napoleonic Wars, from 1808 onwards, especially the eighth address, “What is a Volk, in the higher sense of the term, and what is love of the fatherland?” If the word “Zionist” has a slightly negative ring to it, völkisch could be used instead. For example: Herzl described our völkische aspirations. |
| Zwangsverkauf | compulsory sale or transfer of property. This could be useful in describing why the settlements are legal in Israeli courts. |
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