THE WALL MIGHT BE GONE IN GERMANY ….. BUT SO IS FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Left-wing groups enraged by Germany municipality’s decision not to allow anti-Zionist Israeli historian to speak at governmental institution. Pappe writes to Munich mayor his policy reminiscent of Nazi Germany

Sarah Stricker
Anti-Zionist historian Prof. Ilan Pappe, one of the most important “New Historians”, was scheduled to speak last weekend at the Pedagogical Institute of Munich. But a letter received from the “Israeli-German association of Munich”, claiming that Pappe’s lecture would turn into “an anti-Israeli propaganda show,” led the Munich Municipality to reconsider the event.

The municipality eventually did not let Pappe use the room, claiming its decision was prompted by fears of violent clashes breaking out in the area. The Munich police insisted that there was no danger of fear for the security of those attending the lecture.

The Munich mayor refused to comment on the issue despite appeals from German media outlets. Pappe’s associates eventually organized a room not owned by the authorities and the lecture took place as planned.

“We are not seeking to criticize Israel, only to hold an informative-scientists discussion,” one of the associates said.

Prof. Pappe wrote an open letter to the mayor, stating that “in the 1930s my father, a German Jew, was silenced in a similar manner, and I am saddened to discover the same censorship in 2009.”
Pappe noted in his letter that he had not experienced oppression or such a strong desire to silence his opinion in any other European country. He said that “a handful of people” attempted to frighten the mayor, “people who view themselves as representatives of the Jewish people and the disaster they went through in Europe.”
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