By Kai Rebmann
Under the heading “humanitarian aid,” the German government, in the person of Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens), justified its intention to maintain financial aid to the Palestinian territories despite Hamas’ attack on Israel. This choice of words is a clever move, because who can object to such do-gooderism?
A completely different question, however, is whether it is simple naiveté or something more to try to persuade one’s own voters that German tax money is doing only good in the Gaza Strip. This “humanitarian aid,” which includes financing textbooks in the Middle East, already caused a scandal a good two years ago – but more on that later.
Glorification of martyrdom at NRW schools
In connection with the current events, we received a letter from a reader. The former teacher sent the listed comic, which according to the data was so deposited in 2016 on an “informative site for teachers”. At that time, the portal was known as “tresselt.de”; in the meantime, it apparently operates under “lehrerseite.com”.
According to our reader, the material listed there, including the glorification of martyrdom and, in particular, the present comic, “is unfortunately still current.” If such content is already being disseminated in German schools with the knowledge of the state government and the responsible ministry, it is easy to imagine what else is being taught to children and young people in the Gaza Strip – and elsewhere in the Muslim world.
In fact, this comic caused discord in the then red-green NRW government seven years ago. Behind this martyr glorification is the at least controversial Muslim mosque association DITIB, which is considered an extended arm of the Turkish government in Germany.
While the then Minister of the Interior Ralf Jäger (SPD) took the publication as a reason to immediately end the cooperation with DITIB, the Minister of Education Sylvia Löhrmann (Greens) explicitly maintained the same. It was only after a “spy scandal” at schools in North Rhine-Westphalia – imams had wiretapped other institutions and denounced them – that the mosque association was kicked out of the “Advisory Council for the Organization of Islamic Education in North Rhine-Westphalia Schools.
DITIB comeback 2021 - under CDU-led state government
This could have been the end of the story, indeed it should have been. But things turned out differently. In 2021, instead of the above-mentioned advisory board, the “Commission for Islamic Religious Education” was installed under a now CDU-led state government (Minister President Armin Laschet) and under the leadership of School Minister Yvonne Gebauer (FDP), with – once again – DITIB on board!
But that’s not all: While the eight members of the former advisory board were still chosen in equal parts by “Islamic organizations of the KRM (Coordination Council of Muslims)” and the Ministry of Education, the commission explicitly included “only members nominated by Islamic organizations”; there is no longer a fixed limit on the number of members.
In addition to DITIB, the choice fell on five other organizations: Alliance Moroccan Community (BMG), Islamic Community of Bosniaks in Germany (IGBD), Islamic Religious Community NRW (IRG NRW), Union of Islamic Albanian Centers in Germany (UIAZD) and Association of Islamic Cultural Centers (VIKZ). The Department of Education released a statement to that effect, titled: “A New, Successful Chapter for Islamic Religious Education.”
Since then, these associations have had de facto sovereignty over what is taught in Islam classes at schools in North Rhine-Westphalia – and ultimately by whom. Of course, contracts have been drawn up in which “goals and tasks, but also duties are specified”. But paper, as we all know, is patient…
EU Funding of Anti-Semitic Textbooks in Palestine
Also not entirely new is the fact that Germany and the EU are funding textbooks with anti-Semitic content in Palestine. It deserves special mention at this point above all because politicians and the media are doing their best to keep quiet about it in connection with current events – and not least the double standards celebrated by the German government.
As early as June 2021, FDP MEP Nicola Beer addressed a parliamentary question to the EU Commission. The acting vice president of the EU Parliament wanted to know, among other things, when Brussels intends to publish “a long outstanding study on Palestinian textbooks.”
In plain language: The results of the study in question had been available for weeks at that time, but had not yet been published for unknown reasons, at least not by the EU Commission. This then happened only two days after the FDP deputy had followed up.
Beer pointed out in her question that the study revealed “that the Palestinian Authority, which receives funding for its education sector from the EU’s PEGASE program, deliberately incites massive hatred against Jews in its teaching content.”
The explosive fact is that even the authors of the study did not seem entirely comfortable with the findings they had obtained themselves. This is because, despite the findings cited above, the researchers emphasized that the content of these textbooks complied with UNESCO guidelines. How exactly they came to this view will probably remain a mystery forever.
Under fire – but all the more important is your support!
“Conspiracy ideologue,” “Nazi” or “right-wing agitator”: as a critical journalist today, you have to constantly have dirt thrown at you. The public broadcasters are particularly active in this area. ARD’s chief fact-finder Gensing already sued me in 2019, and the Böhmermann broadcaster ZDF recently slandered me as a “propagator of conspiracy narratives” – without naming a single piece of evidence, and in a post full of lies. Springer journalist Gabor Steingardt slandered me in “Focus,” for which I worked for 16 years, as a “member of an army of tin soldiers” and a “media fighting machine” of the AfD. On the initiative of “Westdeutscher Rundfunk,” I was even put on the wanted list. If one defends oneself legally, one usually has to bear the costs oneself. Your support is all the more important. Also morally. It spurs you on to keep going and not give up. Thank you very much for making my work possible with your contribution – without compulsory fees and tax money.
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Kai Rebmann is a publicist and publisher. He manages a publishing company and runs his own blog.
Image: Shutterstock, lehrerseite.com, Ekaterina QuehlMore from Kai Rebmann at reitschuster.de
