“Ok, “at least try to explain”. Jews have always lived all over the Middle East. When the Hashemites had to leave Mekka because the British Vice-king of India had promised Mekka to the Saudi’s, the Hashemites got Jordan, because the British Vice-king of Egypt had promised also them a country. Meanwhile the British minister of Foreign Affairs promised the Jews free settlement in Palestine. All these areas had been Ottoman for a longtime, and went after the British victory on the Ottomans into British control. Jordan, Saudi-Arabia and Israel are all three artificial creations born out of negotiations with the colonial power. Yes it were mainly Jews from Europe who took the initiative to found Israel, but the oriental influence was strong from the beginning, in a way that Hannah Arendt felt estranged with Israel officials. Anyway, Israel was born out of anticolonial terrorist activity against the British colonizer. Next point is that Israel became a refuge for Jews from all other countries from the region, already in the 1970’s most Israelis were born in the region and not in Europe. Yes, US-American Jewish organisations were – and are – financing a lot of those resettlements, but we are talking about people from the region. I do not think that the share of Jews in the whole Middle East population is higher today than under Ottoman Rule. Where do you see a colony? Yes, there where evictions and murders which justify Nakba as a Palestinian description of what had happened. But by now Israel is there for 75 years, if we should want to reverse all border changes of the last 75 years, we should talk about Tibet for example. The Israelis have the right to have their own country, as the Kurds should have one. Yes, the colonization of the West bank should be reversed, yes the actual Israeli government shows no concern for civilian rights in Gaza at the moment. Yes the actual government should be critizised. But as much as we critizise Russia without demanding the dismantling of Russia and we critizise Rwanda for its war in the Congo without demanding the dismantling of Rwanda, we should also critizise Israel without calling for its dissolution. Independently of how bad the actual Israeli government behaves, Israel has the right to stay an independent country. Following Arab propaganda of Israel as a colony is following the same people who refuse the Kurds their own country, following Hamas terrorists and their warcrimes. Both sides break international law here. Engagement from outside does not help if it chooses sides. The only two sides one could try to support are the civilians on both sides and international law. My great-grand-mother was expelled from Silesia, as a result of the Second World war. No way that I would demand restitution. My family has made their living elsewhere. Why Arab countries still keep Palestinians in “refugee camps”, 75 years later instead of having integrated these people into their societies long time ago? Half of the Syrians who came to Germany in 2015 are already 10 years later integrated into the German labour market. It gets far too long for a Facebook post, and i should have mentioned the PLO’s attempts to overthrow the Tunisian, the Jordanian and the Lebanese governments, I should have mentioned that Palestinian citizens of Israel enjoy more political freedom than in any Arab country and still a lot more arguments to go. But I have to finish. Middle Eastern History is to complicated to be judged by Europeans in two-minute-slogans.Those smell also a little bit like neocolonial attitude…”

Malte Woydt, reply to a Facebook post…, 23.7.24