Palestine and Germany’s shame

TRAUMA is generational.

This will seem counterintuitive to some, but ring very true for others: People often process trauma by recreating it.

It’s not uncommon for people who have suffered abuse to later become abusers themselves, often creating cycles of traumatic violence that reverberate through time.

It may sound to some as gross oversimplification, but the more I think about it, the less complicated it feels – Israel is doing onto the Palestinians, what the Germans once did to the Jews.

Imagine a grandfather, father, and son.

To avoid confusion later on, let’s name them Hans (grandfather), Binyamin (father), and Ahmed (son).

Imagine that Hans abused Binyamin when Binyamin was a child. Will Binyamin go on to abuse Ahmed?

A quick Google search shows that there studies suggesting that somewhere maybe between 20% to 50% of people who have suffered such child abuse go on to become abusers themselves.

This observation is not made with the intent of blaming anyone or suggesting any kind of inevitability. The phenomenon of trauma and abuse repeating itself from generation to generation however, is not something that we can turn a blind eye to.

Let us take the analogy one step further. Let’s say later in his life, Hans became wracked with guilt about the way in which he abused Binyamin, and did everything in his power to try and make amends.

Surely this is laudable and good. What happens though, if it turns out that Binyamin is indeed abusing his son Ahmed?

Hans’ overwhelming guilt (a trauma in and of itself) may lead him to believe that the road to making amends is to support and protect Binyamin, no matter what Binyamin does.

This is a somewhat understandable response, but ultimately, an extremely misguided one.

Hans may think that Binyamin is the central focus of everything. The better subject of focus is not Binyamin himself, but the abuse which Binyamin suffered.

The proper remedy for Hans to practice is not to protect and support and spoil Binyamin no matter what Binyamin does, but to acknowledge the wrongness of the abuse, learn from it, and, to quote a famous phrase, truly practise “never again” - even if it means restraining Binyamin’s hand.

The trauma that Binyamin suffered was so severe, that from Binyamin’s perspective, “never again” likely means “never again will Binyamin suffer anything even remotely resembling abuse, no matter what”.

This is an understandable reaction, but it leads to Binyamin going to extreme and excessive lengths to do what in his mind is necessary for ‘self-preservation’ - even if it means punishing Ahmed for crimes done by Ahmed’s cousins. And even if it means abusing Ahmed in exactly the same way Binyamin was abused.

And all this leads to exactly what we started this article with: a never-ending cycle of trauma and violence.

What is truly needed instead, is a definition of “never again” that reads “never again should this abuse be allowed to occur to anyone at all”.

To Hans, we must say: Hans, this is not about you. This is not about your past sins. This is not about your understandable, desperate need to try and absolve yourself. To prove that when it comes to Binyamin, you must be whiter than white.

Not when the bleach you want to use to make things whiter than white is Ahmed’s blood.

Coming back to reality, in their absolutely petrified fear of being seen as anything even remotely resembling anti-Semitic, Germany has banned all kinds of shows of support for Palestinians in Germany. Their government’s rabid support of Israel borders on those of oil-hungry, Bible thumping American politicians.

This is not the way mein Freunde.

Germany exerts major influence on the foreign policy of Europe, and is a major player on the world stage. What they say and how they feel matters.

In 1939, Germany was on the wrong side of history. In 2023, it is on the wrong side of history again.

We all understand that wrestling with Germany’s Nazi past and its genocide against the Jews is the traumatic core at the very heart of Germany’s national psyche.

We beg of you though – we beg all that is noble and wise in Germany – do not let that trauma and guilt blind and misguide you.

Honour the memory of the victims of the Holocaust as much as you humanly can. That is as it should be.

But do you honour the victims of the Holocaust when you enable Zionists to commit the exact same genocide that the Nazis perpetrated against the Jews?

When Ahmed’s friends come crying to Hans, telling him of the ways in which Binyamin is beating, punching, slapping, and hitting young Ahmed, will Hans’ guilt make Hans turn a blind eye to Binyamin’s brutality?

Ahmed’s cousins may have hurt Binyamin, but will Hans really say that that gives Binyamin the right to abuse Ahmed the way Hans abused Binyamin?

No one condones the atrocities perpetrated by those that attacked Israel on Oct 7, and Germany has every right to condemn them.

But what happened on Oct 7 does not justify what Israel is doing today (or for the past few decades), any more than a Jew killing a Nazi, or even 1,200 Nazis, would have justified the Holocaust.

Germans have probably been obsessed with what the world thinks of them, ever since the Holocaust.

Especially for those in my generation, the only Germans you saw in the movies may have been Nazis. So we understand that this is a troubling piece of history.

But, my beloved Germany, please, please understand: two wrongs do not make a right.

We understand your desire to make things right. Indeed, we share it.

But the way to make things right is to prevent any and all genocide; not to protect, support, and enable the Zionists who are doing the exact same thing to the Palestinians that the Germans once did to the Jews.

Nathaniel Tan is a strategic communications consultant. He can be reached at [e-mail]. The views expressed here are entirely his own.