{"id":74070,"date":"2013-06-26T12:09:29","date_gmt":"2013-06-26T12:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=74070"},"modified":"2013-06-30T01:37:43","modified_gmt":"2013-06-30T01:37:43","slug":"gabi-weber-the-gatekeeper-of-freiburg-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=74070","title":{"rendered":"Gabi Weber: The Gatekeeper of Freiburg University"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction by Gilad Atzmon \u2013 gilad.co.uk June 12, 2013<\/h1>\n

Defeating Israel and The Lobby in a Western court, let alone, Germany, is a rare event. The following article tells the story of such a victory. It exposes the work of \u00a0Dr. Heinrich <\/span>Schwendemann<\/span><\/a>, \u00a0a shameless Sabbath Goy and a Holocaust Industry pedlar. Caf\u00e9 Palestine Freiburg has managed to unveil his tactics and his destructive power within the University.<\/h5>\n

The Gatekeeper of Freiburg University<\/h1>\n

By Gabi Weber \u2013 othersite<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>Six weeks ago, the University of Freiburg was defeated by Cafe Palestine (Press<\/span> Release<\/span><\/a>) when five judges at the Administrative Court of Freiburg rejected the university\u2019s arguments for denying Cafe Palestine a venue for one of its speakers. Surely it is now time to delve a little more deeply into this unprecedented case which deserves close attention.<\/h5>\n
At the centre of it all we find one Dr.\u00a0 Heinrich <\/span>Schwendemann<\/span><\/a>, Freiburg University historian and a founder of one of many German Holocaust memorial sites Shoa.<\/span>de<\/span>. <\/a><\/h5>\n
A year ago, Cafe Palestine invited Dr.\u00a0 Schwendemann, together with Prof. Norton <\/span>Mezvinsky<\/span><\/a> the renowned American Jewish historian to participate in a panel at Freiburg University. Also participating was Gilad<\/span> Atzmon<\/span><\/a>, the Jazz artist and author of “The Wandering Who \u2013 A Study of Jewish Identity Politics”.\u00a0 This much discussed book has been endorsed by some of the most important scholars and intellectuals <\/span>of our time<\/span><\/a> with a German<\/span> edition<\/span><\/a> published in June 2012.<\/h5>\n
Dr. Schwendemann enthusiastically accepted the invitation but, three\u00a0 days before the event, he changed his mind insisting that reading Atzmon\u2019s book made it impossible for him to share a platform with somebody who is “relativising the Holocaust”.\u00a0 The event took place without Dr. Schwendemann (Speech Gilad <\/span>Atzmon<\/span><\/a>), (Speech Prof.<\/span> Mezvinsky<\/span><\/a>)<\/h5>\n
In July 2012, Cafe Palestine planned to host another talk at Freiburg University featuring French professor Christophe Oberlin from Paris. The talk was titled “Plastic Surgery in Gaza” and was set to attract the attention of the local medical community as well as Palestine supporters and humanists. But Cafe Palestine soon learned that the university had decided to withdraw use of the venue. Smelling a rat, Cafe Palestine looked closely into this cancellation and after having received the letter from the University outlining the reasons for the cancellation, decided to issue a complaint at t<\/span>he<\/span> Administrative Court<\/span><\/a>.<\/h5>\n
It became clear that the University has been foolish enough to allow itself to be guided by Dr. Schwendemann, even going so far as to make Schwendemann part of its legal team. Schwendemann duly appeared at the Administrative Court at the defendant\u00b4s desk together with the University\u2019s lawyer and a University representative.<\/h5>\n
When it was time for the University to present its defence, it was to Schwendemann to whom it turned as its expert witness. Unfortunately, the arguments presented by Schwendemann were so off-topic as to be simply embarrassing. According to Schwendemann, Cafe Palestine Freiburg\u00b4s crime was in bringing Gilad Atzmon as a speaker and in translating his talks without comment which, according to\u00a0 Schwendemann, meant that Cafe Palestine must be in complete accord with absolutely everything Atzmon says and must fully support all his political views.<\/h5>\n
In fact, Cafe Palestine Freiburg doesn\u2019t actually agree with everything Gilad Atzmon or for that matter, any other participant of the talks, says but does believe that Atzmon’s, as well as all the other speakers\u00b4 ideas deserve public attention, discussion and critical thought. It further believed that Freiburg University was a most appropriate platform for this discussion as was proved by the vivid debate that was provoked by the Mezvinsky-Atzmon panel.<\/h5>\n
Although the arguments against Atzmon delivered by Schwendemann and the University were so ridiculous and out of order that the Court dismissed them completely and rejected the University\u00b4s defence altogether, it is still well worth examining their arguments because they provide us with a glimpse into those powerful but destructive mechanisms that interfere with our most precious rights and liberties.<\/h5>\n
The University\u2019s lawyer wrote that \u201cAccording to Dr. Schwendemann\u201d,\u00a0 Atzmon\u2019s book \u201ccontains the entire anti-Semitic arsenal including Holocaust Relativism” but failed to explain exactly what it was that makes Atzmon into a \u2018relativist\u2019.<\/h5>\n
Then, \u201cAccording to (Atzmon\u2019s book)\u00a0 the Jews were made responsible for all evil,\u201d\u00a0at which point it became embarrassingly obvious that Schwendemann, as well as the University attorney had either not read the book or even more worryingly, had failed to understand it. Atzmon\u2019s book\u00a0 is, as its title suggests, \u2018a study of Jewish Identity politics\u2019. It refers to ideology (Jewish identity politics) not to people (Jews) \u2013 a point Atzmon makes clear numerous times in the text.<\/h5>\n
Atzmon may be right and he may be wrong, but his ideas deserve attention and discussion and the University of Freiburg is surely the place for this.<\/h5>\n
Schwendemann did state that \u201cAtzmon declares that he is conducting his own personal war against Zionism and Jewish identity politics.\u201d Yet, neither the historian nor the University explained what exactly is wrong with criticism of a political standpoint –\u00a0 or is it just that political criticism to be outlawed in Freiburg University?<\/h5>\n
It took the Court under an hour to grasp that Freiburg University was wrong and ruled the University\u2019s conduct unlawful. Cafe Palestine Freiburg and justice itself had won a landmark victory. Since then, the University has assured Cafe Palestine that future applications for space will be treated impartially.\u00a0 A talk with Professor Oberlin from Paris is planned for October.<\/h5>\n
So here are two question we might ask ourselves:<\/h5>\n
1. Why did this German historian not take the opportunity to challenge Atzmon in the open debate organised by Cafe Palestine Freiburg in July 2012 rather than\u00a0 act clandestinely, denying \u2018the accused\u2019 the possibility to defend himself.<\/h5>\n
2. Do we need a German from Freiburg University to tell an Israeli-born intellectual, who has served in the Israeli Military during the first Lebanon war, how to deal with his own society and its ideologies, his own past, his own culture and the future? Is it not enough that the “Schwendemanns” of our time tell the Germans what to think?<\/h5>\n
And one more\u2026. How is it possible that a prominent German university with the words \u201cThe Truth Will Set You <\/span>Free<\/span><\/a>\u201d engraved in gold over one of its entrances follows the orders of someone like Dr. Heinrich Schwendemann \u2013 a man who by his conduct has managed to set new standards of a lack of intellectual integrity and clumsy scholarship.<\/h5>\n

Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defeating Israel and The Lobby in a Western court, let alone, Germany, is a rare event. The following article tells the story of such a victory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,15,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Hidden_and_Revisionist_History","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74070"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74313,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74070\/revisions\/74313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}