Social issues

Accusation of anti-Semitism against the Berlinale

Open letter to Claudia Roth, German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media

by Shelly Steinberg, Germany

(9 March 2024) (Edit.) At this year’s Berlinale, an international film festival, the documentary film “No Other Land” was honoured with the Berlinale Documentary Film Award. The film deals with the expulsion of Palestinians in the West Bank. In his acceptance speech, the Palestinian co-director, Basel Adra, said: “It is very difficult for me to celebrate when tens of thousands of my people in Gaza are being slaughtered by Israel.” He demanded that Germany should not supply any more weapons to Israel. Israeli co-director Yuval Abraham spoke of “apartheid” in the West Bank. The audience applauded. Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) then raised the accusation of “disgusting open anti-Semitism”. In her letter to Mrs Roth, Shelly Steinberg rejects this accusation and characterises it.

“New authority” at school! – Excuse me?

by Carl Bossard,* Switzerland

(23 February 2024) First, educational authority is frowned upon, and then it returns to the classroom, labelled with the attribute of the “new”. This is happening through the back door and via a private institute. Educator Carl Bossard writes about the slalom course of an elementary concept.

Agriculture

Defamation and attempts to divide the farmer protest movement

by Marita Brune-Koch

(16 February 2024) For almost two months now, farmers have been protesting on Germany’s streets against the fact that it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to make ends meet with their farms. In the beginning, the major protests were very prominent in the media. Suddenly they disappeared – not the protests, which continued, but the reports in the media. They were replaced by an omnipresent coverage of the demonstrations “against far-right”. This is quite contrary to the fact that farmers from many European countries are united in their protest: reports are reaching us from the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Italy, and Poland, but in the public media and the mainstream press we hear and read virtually nothing about it. Obviously, this tactic is not enough; the protests still seem too dangerous for those in power. So, they are being helped along with a tried and tested means: with the label “right-wing” the farmers are now to be divided and silenced.

The EU is destroying farms across Europe …

France also joins the protests

by Pierre Lévy,* France

(9 February 2024) (Edit. S-St) Farmers in Europe are protesting against increasing regulations, constraints and falling incomes. This development is no coincidence. In recent years, the air has been cut off from them insidiously through various EU requirements that are implemented nationally. More and more are threatened in their existence. Suicide rates are high. A similar gloomy picture is emerging everywhere. Farmers are rightly fighting back against this development.

A Champion for Justice – My Tribute to John Pilger

by Stuart Rees,* Australia

(2 February 2024) People of the world who cherish human rights have lost a champion. The courageous, skilled, inimitable John Pilger, prolific author, film maker, foreign and war correspondent died in London on 30 December 2023. He was 84 years old.

Today, «A-levels» mean guided thinking

Significance of the PISA study

Interview with Professor Hans-Peter Klein*

(2 February 2024) Hans-Peter Klein, professor of biology, is one of the most prominent voices in the German education debate. In an interview with Mathias Brodkorb**, he talks about the disastrous results of the PISA study, educationally disadvantaged migrants, and the abolition of the achievement principle.