In the progressive part of the West it has been agreed that the racism of the white majority society oppresses all minorities. But if racism is ubiquitous, why are some rising and others not?
There are many ethnic groups that are having a hard time. The Rohingya in Burma, the Christians in Egypt. But no one receives the same affection and attention as members of the Palestinian people. If there is such a thing as the panda bear of international politics, it is the Palestinian.
The Palestinian can do whatever he wants, he will be forgiven. He can hit his neighbors with rockets. Or lay out small explosive belts as toys in kindergarten. Or behave badly during a state visit like the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Berlin.
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It’s been a long time since a visitor has embarrassed the federal government like the Fatah leader. You have to be pretty beside yourself to explain in the presence of the German Chancellor that the Jews not only committed one Holocaust, no, that they committed 50. Not even the most stubborn neo-Nazi can do that.
But forget it, all forgive and forget. There is still a check at the end. 340 million euros for the guest, it was the same this time. Actually, I would have expected someone to say: Mr. Abbas should look for his money somewhere else. But aid to Palestine is not being shaken, inappropriate Holocaust comparisons or not.
There is a strange obsession with the Palestinian cause. No demo without the supporters of Palestine traipsing along. Even at gay demonstrations, a department is now regularly present, waving the flag for “Free Palestine from the River to the Sea” and the end of Israel.
Sometimes I secretly wish that the friends of the LGBTQIA scene, who are so incredibly keen that the Arabs finally get their rights, would just once, just once, walk through Ramallah in a fuddle. If they don’t get hung up on the nearest lamppost right away, I’d say they’re lucky.
As a “fashion accessory for young men and women of all ages”, the Palestinian scarf is available on Amazon for 12.99 euros. Amazon didn’t exist when I was in school. Nevertheless, the Pali scarf was suddenly there and completed the school uniform of jeans and parka from then on. Of course we were also rooting for the liberation struggle of the Palestinian people. The fact that they occasionally hijacked a plane and singled out all passengers of the Jewish faith – forget it.
Years ago, while researching my book “Unter Linken”, I took the trouble to compile the funding amounts. Between 2000 and 2007 alone, three billion euros flowed into the autonomous regions from EU funds. At a donor conference in Paris, a further five billion were decided. In March 2009, shortly before the book was published, another 4.5 billion were added. And that’s just the payments from 2000 to 2010. If the title of the world’s most subsidized ethnic group existed, the Palestinians would be a strong contender.
One must not make the mistake of asking what happened to the funding. The fact that its inhabitants received more money than the Europeans during the entire Marshall Plan can only be seen from the look of the autonomous region if you look at the villas of the Fatah officials in their luxury enclaves. But the corruption in the PA is also likely to be blamed on Israel.
The victim discourse always works, even on an international level. Being able to blame others when you fall short of expectations has undeniable benefits. Hardly anything is as demoralizing as the realization that you have only yourself to blame for your misfortune because you were too lethargic, too lazy or just too stupid to get anywhere.
Of course, when the Palestinians send suicide bombers, they act out of desperation. If to this day there is no functioning administration, no significant economic activity, not even a sewage system worthy of the name, it is because of the Zionists and the wall they built around the Gaza Strip.
The problem with victim thinking, however, is that it doesn’t get you any further. Those who always blame higher powers tend to settle into their misery. That’s why every therapist advises overcoming self-pity and taking responsibility for one’s own life.
I’ve been in the US for three weeks. The first thing I read in the morning now is the New York Times. Origin is a huge topic. In principle, it has been agreed that it is the racism of the white majority society that prevents minorities from rising. The unspoken mantra is that whites need to move for change, not non-whites.
But apparently some minorities manage to rise despite the omnipresent racism. Asian-Americans are now leading the way in university entrance exams. Education is a good indicator of participation because everything else follows from it: income, social status, social power and influence.
Asian Americans were not welcomed with open arms either. The number of prejudices (and swear words) associated with them is long. Nevertheless, they are one of the most successful minorities today.
The number of university degrees would be even higher if only performance counted and not origin. A number of elite colleges have resorted to artificially lowering the number of Asian Americans to allow access for young blacks. Some Asian parents then complained because they no longer want to accept that their children are systematically disadvantaged so that the quota is correct. The case is now before the Supreme Court. Observers assume that the lawsuit will be upheld, which would mean the end of the so-called Affirmative Action.
The Mexicans have also made it relatively far. Since no one laments their hardship with them, they have no choice but to pull themselves out of the swamp by their own bootstraps. Apparently, family cohesion and cultural values play a major role in promotion. Whether children grow up in an intact family or whether the father disappears as an infant has enormous consequences for the further course of life.
In Germany, differences can also be observed among minorities. It’s not the same whether someone grows up, say, in a Jewish family or in an Arab family. This does not apply in every individual case, but in general. Which is why no middle-class couple from one of the leafy inner-city districts would think of sending their children to a Muslim school, but certainly to a Jewish one.
But like I said: forget it. You shouldn’t take on difficult topics on vacation.
• Read all of Jan Fleischhauer’s columns here.
The readers love him or hate him, Jan Fleischhauer is indifferent to the least. You only have to look at the comments on his columns to get an idea of how much people are moved by what he writes. He was at SPIEGEL for 30 years, and at the beginning of August 2019 he switched to FOCUS as a columnist.
Fleischhauer himself sees his task as giving voice to a world view that he believes is underrepresented in the German media. So when in doubt, against the herd instinct, commonplaces and stereotypes. His texts are always amusing – perhaps it is this fact that provokes his opponents the most.
You can write to our author: By email to j.fleischhauer@focus-magazin.de or on Twitter @janfleischhauer.
