The following day, March 11, Kivunim braved the cold and hurried off the bus into the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A German official met with us to introduce German international policy and so forth. Extremely articulate and knowledgable, he spoke English probably better than a lot of us and even a few phrases of Hebrew.Upon asked why Germany has failed to recognize Hezbollah (as its militant and political wings are virtually one) as a terrorist organization, he insisted that evidence "was needed," or otherwise "there could be a strong case against it." Bulgaria (in reference to the bombing of an Israeli tour bus last year) has failed, he said, to "[provide] the adequate evidence." If they succeeded in proving Hezbollah's role, "Germany would be willing to push for it."
On Germany's abstention on Palestinian observer status at the UN last year, our speaker began that "Germany is a staunch ally of Israel." However, he remarked, Germany wanted to act in accordance with other European Union countries as recommended upon. He implied if it were not for the EU block strategy, Germany would have voted against the UN bid. This, perhaps, also reflects Germany's post-war hesitance to exert too much influence within the sphere of the EU and the world. In addition, he emphasized Germany would have supported the 40-year anniversary memorial service at the 2012 Olympics.
The German-Israeli relationship proves patently unusual. Our speaker mentioned Germany "does not see its role as a party to condemn Israel" - in contrast with the rest of the world - only to occasionally "voice criticism" (for instance, that the Israeli settlement policy hinders the possibility of a two-state solution).
When pressed as to why the Hezbollah terror during the 2006 Second Lebanon War does not adequately serve as evidence, our speaker ambiguously mentioned that "previous actions [for reasons he did not know] were not being discussed." Moreover, the EU would only list the military section of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, and they fear isolating the political wing of Hezbollah and thus preventing any further political interaction (with Hezbollah's stronghold in Lebanon).
Throughout the morning, I found his multiple references to examples of Germany's reluctance to exhibit individual nationalism intriguing. I didn't know that mentality still existed in Germany, with their nationalistic popularity in soccer and such.
That afternoon, we visited Der Berlinischen Galerie, a modern art museum in Kreuzberg. Holding a temporary exhibit, "Diversity Destroyed" depicted the degenerate art confiscated by the Nazis during World War II. The artists or their work violated the Nazis' "cultural policies" - "decadent" art, Jewish art or Jewish artists' work, anything associated with communism or expressionism, anything abstract, and so forth. Utilized as resistance, this art depicts a historical and political era.
Defined as anti-art, or DADA, these reactionary works illustrate mutilated, dehumanized, or even perverse images. The chaos and irrationality reflects the frustration and entropy (chemistry nostalgia) of the time. For example, a mannequin possessed a revolver as a shoulder as well as a fork and knife sticking out of its body. A lightbulb constituted its head and dentures modified other features of its body. Moreover, DADA artists intended this provocation and shock, depicted in a work such as this one, to stimulate self-reflection within society. Some of the DADA movement's most famous artists include Hannah Hoch, John Heartfield, and George Grosz.
"DADA ist die willentliche Zersetzung der bürgerlichen Begriffswelt.
DADA is the conscious disintegration of the bourgeois idea of concepts."
Between the Germany Ministry of Foreign Affairs and this art museum, today constituted one of my favorite days of the Central Europe trip.
I continue to India, but the blog posts will continue! Stay tuned.Rebecca Abbott
(Kivunim - www.kivunim.org) - a gap year before Barnard
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