The privilege of anxiety: On censorship, self-censorship and Palestine
Soundings - ISSN 1362-6620
Volume 2024 Number 88
The privilege of anxiety: On censorship, self-censorship and Palestine
Anna-Esther Younes talks to Salma Shaka and Mars Zaslavsky, pages 113‑129
DOI: 10.3898/SOUN:88.08.2024
Abstract
This discussion looks at the mechanisms of anti-Palestinian repression in Europe. Repression of criticism of the Israeli state can operate through self-censorship: people feel anxious about losing what they currently have. That anxiety is, however, often justified, especially for those with precarious visa conditions. Repression also operates because people don’t want to part with the fantasy that the global order is governed by law and a pathway from colonialism can be negotiated. In Germany much of the left is unabashedly Zionist, partly due to the influence of the Antideutsche ideology, which regards all criticism of Israeli state actions as antisemitic. Participants also discuss intergenerational knowledge transfer in an increasingly isolating political climate. The younger generation organising for Palestine is often queer and trans and this sometimes leads to intergenerational conflict and a facile argument about a more ‘Marxist’ old guard and a younger generation that focuses more on ‘culture’ or ‘discourse’. The participants also focus on fostering solidarity between different struggles. Narrow definitions of European fascism and Nazism conveniently absolve Europeans of the responsibility to reckon with the fact that fascism’s annihilatory roots were laid in western philosophical, political and economic thought and practice.
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To cite this article
Anna-Esther Younes (2024) The privilege of anxiety: On censorship, self-censorship and Palestine, Soundings, 2024(88), 113-129 . https://doi.org/10.3898/SOUN:88.08.2024