A RESPONSE TO PROF. MONTANARI

In the article "Nessuno tocchi Anna Frank" (Hands off Anne Frank), published in Il Venerdì of La Repubblica on 26 July 2024, Prof. Tomaso Montanari invites everyone to see Anne Frank not as an adversary - as those who deface her image by comparing her to State of Israel - but a very powerful ally of those who embrace the Palestinian cause. Anne Frank, with her unjust death in the Shoah, would constitute, according to the rector of the University of Siena, a symbol of denunciation against any collective persecution and, in particular, against the "genocide" (sic!) of the Palestinians and the "violent ”. colonialism" in progress perpetrated thanks to the criminal choices of the State of Israel.

By re-proposing the repeated analogy between Israel and Nazism and indicating in a single symbol the obscene affinity between the victims of yesterday and the "executioners" of today, Montanari returns to abusing a script that is often provocative and offensive. Montanari, what you write is nothing new, we have already seen Anne Frank with the keffiyeh, and even Jesus, many times on the walls and on signs. The symbols must not be handled for one's own use, because there is a risk of gross errors or, worse, the manipulation and revisionism of Memory; furthermore, take care, their use does not exempt us from the rigorous analysis of complex situations, such as that of the conflict in the Middle East which has no connection with Nazism.

For centuries, Jewish culture has been manipulated, used by many as a source of inspiration to undertake new adventures for humanity, which invariably arise in opposition or affinity to Judaism itself. Judaism is used, copied, manipulated, distorted in its meaning, criticized, discriminated against, persecuted; only rarely is its paternity fully recognized, in its characteristic facies and original condition, but this partial and temporal overall recognition often generates a new form of opposition to Judaism or anti-Jewish discrimination.

Some examples reveal what arises in opposition and in open contrast to Judaism.

Christianity with its ghettos, the crusades, the inquisition, the expulsion edicts, the papal bulls, the discovery of America, the genocide of the American Indians and Africans, slavery, the pogroms, up to the Right with the racial laws and the Shoah; We Socialist Jews reject all ties and constraints with it.

Islam, with its many examples, sometimes of happy and fortunate coexistence between Jews and Muslims, sometimes of anti-Jewish discrimination, up to the authoritarian and anti-Semitic drift of some representatives who today want the extermination of the Jews and the destruction of Judaism.

Other examples reveal what arises in analogy or even affinity with Judaism.

The Left with the idea of ​​revolution and self-determination drawn from the Jewish experience of Pesach, the creation of the courts, the Shabbat (the weekly day of rest for all), the resistance to persecution, the rules of social and environmental equity, the conquest of civil rights, minorities and workers, Socialism. The Left, which was born with Judaism and from Judaism, is today transforming itself into a new form of opposition to Judaism and a worrying practice of anti-Semitism.

All this, and much more, up to current politics, with politicians and heads of government competing in dragging Jews and Israel into their propaganda speeches, distorting and overturning the original context. Thus, what is called the "Jewish question" continues to be fueled, the complex of events linked to the presence of the Jewish people in the world and the related prejudices and hatreds which, overall, have caused persecution, mourning, unhappiness and millions of deaths.

For centuries, Jewish symbols have also been used and manipulated to accuse Jews who are forced, for example, to wear the yellow star as a negative sign. Let it be clear, once and for all, that these symbols represent, without distinction, all the Jewish people, wherever they live, in the diaspora or in Eretz Israel. Any attempt to separate Jews from Israel is a new form of manipulation.

Prof. Montanari, we recommend that you change your clichés, that you respect Anne Frank and our dearly departed, that you do not manipulate the Shoah and our Memory; that you invent something new, perhaps a new symbol and new enemies, while We Socialist Jews reiterate our request to meet you, which we make public today, certain as we are that it is possible to clarify with you that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism.

NES We Socialist Jews

Date: 2024-08-12

Author: NES We Socialist Jews and Gherush92 Committee for Human Right

Italian Version