Published – Michael Sappir https://sappir.net Critical commentary in English, Hebrew, and German Tue, 30 Apr 2024 17:13:34 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7 https://sappir.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/cropped-android-chrome-512x512-2-300x300-1-150x150.png Published – Michael Sappir https://sappir.net 32 32 167974999 The spiraling absurdity of Germany’s pro-Israel fanaticism https://sappir.net/en/2024/03/21/the-spiraling-absurdity-of-germanys-pro-israel-fanaticism/ Thu, 21 Mar 2024 20:29:45 +0000 https://sappir.net/?p=16108 As repression of Palestine solidarity penetrates every sector of life, the state’s liberal self-image is fast becoming a story Germans can only tell themselves.

Read on +972 Magazine >>

Italian translation published by MicroMega >>

]]> 16108 Germans are rising up against AfD. Their problems go far deeper https://sappir.net/en/2024/02/15/germans-are-rising-up-against-afd-their-problems-go-far-deeper/ Thu, 15 Feb 2024 10:42:57 +0000 https://sappir.net/?p=15924 Revelations about a ‘masterplan’ for ethnic cleansing have triggered historic protests across Germany. But off the streets, centrists are bending to far-right demands.

Germans are rising up against AfD. Their problems go far deeper
]]> 15924 Speech at demonstration for Gaza, 13 August 2022 https://sappir.net/en/2022/08/13/speech-at-demonstration-for-gaza-13-august-2022/ Sat, 13 Aug 2022 17:31:00 +0000 https://sappir.net/?p=11829 A speech I held at a demonstration for Gaza in Leipzig. English translation at the JID website >

]]> 11829 Why socialists (must) support the Palestinian cause https://sappir.net/en/2022/05/15/why-socialists-must-support-the-palestinian-cause/ Sun, 15 May 2022 13:01:00 +0000 https://sappir.net/?p=9133 On 15th May, Palestinians commemorate their expulsion during the formation of the State of Israel in 1948. As socialists we must support them on this day and on all days. This is imperative in Germany specifically.

Why socialists (must) support the Palestinian cause
]]> 9133 Terminal Rearmament https://sappir.net/en/2022/03/09/terminal-rearmament/ Wed, 09 Mar 2022 09:43:00 +0000 https://sappir.net/?p=8187 The war in Ukraine is spurring a terrifying arms race that will undermine peace, stifle efforts to reverse climate change, and destroy Ukraine

(Based on an earlier version which appeared in Hebrew at Haokets; a further updated and developed German version appeared at Die Freiheitsliebe)

Terminal Rearmament
]]> 8187 Grasp Israeli apartheid by the roots – decolonize! https://sappir.net/en/2022/02/12/grasp-israeli-apartheid-by-the-roots-decolonize/ Sat, 12 Feb 2022 19:35:27 +0000 https://sappir.net/?p=7874 In a piece for Lower Class Magazine, appearing in English in The Left Berlin, I discuss the new Amnesty International report accusing the State of Israel of committing the crime against humanity of apartheid. I note how different discourse around the report is on the Israeli left compared with Germany, and review some of its content. I note the criticism from Palestinians and their allies, which argue the report should not have shied away from identifying the structural root of Israeli apartheid: settler-colonialism. The conclusion, I argue, must be decolonization – involving both the colonized Palestinians and all Israelis willing to live among them as equals.

Grasp Israeli apartheid by the roots – decolonize!
]]> 7874 Why is Amnesty Germany staying silent on the apartheid report? https://sappir.net/en/2022/02/03/why-is-amnesty-germany-staying-silent-on-the-apartheid-report/ Thu, 03 Feb 2022 20:39:00 +0000 https://sappir.net/?p=7879 Amnesty Germany’s discomfort with publicizing the new report on Israeli apartheid highlights the sorry state of human rights discourse in the country.

Read the full text on +972 Magazine >>

]]> 7879 The inquisition of Nemi El-Hassan https://sappir.net/en/2021/10/06/the-inquisition-of-nemi-el-hassan/ Wed, 06 Oct 2021 12:20:00 +0000 https://sappir.net/?p=6982 The campaign to cancel a Palestinian-German journalist is not aimed at fighting antisemitism, but at suppressing Palestinians’ political existence.

]]> 6982 Without waiving intellectual property rights, the pandemic won’t end [Hebrew] https://sappir.net/en/2021/08/30/without-waiving-intellectual-property-rights-the-pandemic-wont-end-hebrew/ Mon, 30 Aug 2021 09:17:00 +0000 https://sappir.net/?p=6610 In a piece for Local Call, I make the case for supporting the proposal put forward in the WTO by South Africa and India, and supported by most governments in the world, to temporarily supsend intellectual property rights regarding Covid-19 vaccines and all medicine and equipment required to combat the pandemic. While the Israeli government, like many others, point to their support for the COVAX initiative as an alternative, that effort is proving a colossal failure, people in low-income countries have hardly begun to receive vaccines, and vaccine production capacities world wide remain unutilized due to licensing. To bring the pandemic to an end, this entirely artificial barrier must be removed and international efforts focused on overcoming all remaining barriers to widespread vaccination.

To the full text, in Hebrew >>

Main sources (in English):

]]> 6610 No, we should not “accept” mass Covid deaths [Hebrew] https://sappir.net/en/2021/08/15/no-we-should-not-accept-mass-covid-deaths-hebrew/ Sun, 15 Aug 2021 09:03:00 +0000 https://sappir.net/?p=6605 In an opinion piece for Local Call I criticize calls by Israeli Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked to “accept” a modicum of death and severe infection during the pandemic. I point to the cruel politics behind the apparent banality that “there is a global pandemic, and in pandemics people die” – urging the public to accept a politics of pandemic management that makes no pretension of trying to end the pandemic. The fact that the dead and severely ill disproportionately come from marginalized groups makes it easy for far-right neoliberal Shaked and those on the center-left who lauded her “frankness” to “accept” these horrors.

Full text, in Hebrew >>

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