Source: Al Mayadeen English
The rally in Vienna, defying a significant police presence, was a strong and lively expression of the Palestinian solidarity movement.
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This decision was not only a breach of the constitutional right to free expression and free assemble but also demonstrated the blatant double standards of the supposedly neutral Austria. While the Palestine solidarity protests were banned, at the same time and less than a mile away in the Vienna city center, Israeli community representatives, the President of Austria, Alexander Van der Bellen (Greens), and the whole government assembled in front of a crowd of in solidarity with "Israel". It was a bizarre event, with some participants waving Iran’s pre-revolutionary monarchist flag and displaying the image of Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah of Persia.
Meanwhile, thousands attended the banned protest for Palestine in front of the scenic landmark of the city, the Saint Stephens Cathedral. The protest was loud and peaceful. Protesters waved Palestinian flags, shouting: "Terrorist Israel", "Free, Free Palestine", and "Intifada", alternating languages in German, Arabic, and Persian, in addition to "Allahu Akbar". Flags of Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and were visible in the demonstration.
Despite its peacefulness, the police tried to encircle and end the protest but were overwhelmed by its size. Having observed both protests, it was pretty obvious that the pro-Palestinian rally was about twice the size of the pro-Israeli one.
After about half an hour, the police announced through a loudspeaker that the rally must end and the protestors must disperse in German and Arabic. The crowd cheered and ignored the message. Almost two hours into the rally, more riot police of the special force Wega had arrived and encircled the remaining protesters. Despite its continued peacefulness and no signs of any unlawful organizations being displayed, they hauled one by one from the crowd, registered their identity, and charged them for attending an "unlawful rally". A Vienna police spokesperson announced this morning that 304 people were eventually charged.
Not all of those charged were indeed inside the police corridor. One young man in his teenage age, for instance, was standing next to me outside the police line when riot police ran towards him and carried him away for shouting "Allahu Akbar" about ten minutes earlier. When I challenged the police about why they were arresting a teenager calmly standing around in a public square, they grabbed me as well. They threatened to arrest me, only stopping when they saw my press card and after I explicitly said: "I hope you do not dare to arrest a journalist tonight." A policeman later informed me that the young man had been arrested for shouting "Allahu Akbar". However, this religious expression is not a criminal offense in Austria – yet.
The rally, defying a significant police presence, was a strong and lively expression of the Palestinian solidarity movement. Nonetheless, the Austrian political left was almost absent from the event. Unlike other European states, like Ireland, where leftwing members of parliament from People Before Profit and Sinn Féin displayed the Palestinian flag on their social media accounts and addressed rallies in Belfast and Dublin where they called for solidarity of the people of Palestine. The German and Austrian solidarity movements are in a dire state.
This situation shall come as no surprise, although both countries used to have influential Palestinian solidarity movements. Even during the Second Intifada and "Israel’s" war on Lebanon in 2006, tens of thousands took to the streets to protest Israeli war crimes. Austria, after all, was once the country where social democratic chancellor Bruno Kreisky welcomed Yasser Arafat.
In 2023, that is all gone. In Germany, Palestinian solidarity rallies were banned on Saturday and Wednesday, resulting in several arrests. The German state went even further: On Thursday, it set to ban the pro-Palestinian group Samidoun, as declared by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He cited the group’s celebration of the Palestinian Resistance’s Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against Israeli occupiers.
Scholz stated during an address to parliament, "Our law governing associations is a powerful instrument, and as a robust constitutional state, we will wield this instrument." Additionally, Germany has taken action against pro-Palestinian protesters and detained several, including teenagers. Calls for similar anti-democratic legislation are increasing in Austria.
There is silence and support among sections of the population for these measures, driven by media, politicians, and even some left-wing organizations. It is the result of an ideology that emerged in the early 1990s in Germany and crept into German and Austrian collective consciousness since then: Anti-German or Antideutsche in German.
This ideology was shaped in response to German reunification in 1989. Some left sections saw this event as a return to German Fascism and the dawn of a "Fourth Reich", a reference to Hitler’s "Third Reich". At rallies, they demanded: "Nie wieder Deutschland" – Never again Germany.
Their ideology is simple and dangerous: Germany, so their argument, is inherently Fascist. However, this German Fascism supposedly occurs in various forms throughout history – not only within the German Lands. Yet, it has one common feature: Barbaric people threaten civilization. Since antiquity, German tribes threatened the Roman civilization. During World War II, Hitler threatened US civilization, and now the Arabs threaten the, in their opinion, only civilization in the Middle East: "Israel". Hence, since Germans were responsible for the Holocaust, it should be the duty of all Germans to loyally defend the two civilizations threatened by barbaric tribes without asking questions: "Israel" and the USA. This distorted view led sections of the German left to become supporters of imperialism and celebrate, for instance, the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The advocates of this pro-imperialist ideology infiltrated the media and were, thus, able to shape public opinion over the following three decades. Among the early supporters of this were members of the Green Party. In the late 1980s, they were still a relatively radical and progressive force. One of Austria’s early organizations adopting the anti-German ideology was one of the Green Youth movements, Green Alternative Youth. Three and a half decades later, the Greens are coalition partners in German and Austrian governments, supporting the repressive, anti-Muslim legislation.
The anti-German influence also devastatingly impacted more radical sections of the German and Austrian left. The leftwing daily newspaper Junge Welt faced a split with anti-German elements on their editorial board who set up the pro-Israeli paper Jungle World. On Thursday morning, simultaneously with the announcement of the German government to prohibit Samidoun, the radical leftwing prisoners’ support group Red Aid (Rote Hilfe) issued a statement ending their support for Samidoun as well. In a statement, they stated, "Red Aid Berlin ends support for the campaign against the extradition of Samidoun spokesman Zaid Abdulnasser." They later added that they would end all support for Samidoun.
In Austria, the Communist student union split into two for the same reasons over a decade ago. This week, the anti-imperialist Communist Youth Association, KJO, linked with the Communist Youth Association, KSV, stated support for Palestine. At the same time, the Anti-German KSV-Left Faction (KSV-LiLi) shared a Star of David on their social media accounts proclaiming "Full Solidarity with Israel".
In the Communist Party, KPO, the anti-German ideology took hold in the early 2000s and won the ideological battle in the following decades. On Wednesday, the regional parliament in Salzburg held a minute of silence for "Israel" at the request of the KPO. The regional party leader, Kay-Michael Dankl, touted as the coming major of the region capital with the same name, Salzburg, showed solidarity with "Israel" on his X account.
Meanwhile, mass protests of Muslim youth, Arabs, and migrants are expected in Germany and Austria over the weekend. They will again disregard bans on their rallies in a loud and peaceful way, as they did over the past few days. Similar to what happened yesterday in Vienna, the Austrian left will stand idle while civilians are imprisoned, starved, and massacred in Gaza.
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