Contested Terrain

Medinat Weimar - For a new Jewish State in Germany?

I was told about this project by an acquaintance at a party and was quick to brush it aside as a ridiculous fantasy. When I looked into it, I came to appreciate it as a ridiculous fantasy and to find it positively provocative.
Medinat Weimar is a “movement for a Jewish State in Thuringia. Deutschland.”

From their 13 Principles:

2 > Medinat Weimar is a solution to overcome the present crises and heal Jewish trauma, German guilt, East Mediterranean conflicts, East German troubles and many other problems in the world.

Maybe they’re overshooting this a little bit, but OK, it’s worth a read. Don’t get discouraged yet.

4 > Medinat Weimar defines Jewish not through blood or ancestry but through similarity in mind, culture, common history and unity of fate. Jews from European origin, Jews from non-European origin, Palestinians Arabs (Muslim and Christian alike) and all other parties affected by the activities of the state of Israel are considered to share a common fate.

Always a mess when defining “a people” or “a nation.” The attempt to lump “all effected” into the category of “Jewish” is certainly a mess. And their elaboration of this principle tends towards the “Palestinians are the new Jews” line of thinking which dehistoricizes both Jewish and Palestinian history. It also tends to treat all victims with the term “Jew.” Not much of a compliment. This principle is a mess.

7 > Medinat Weimar is not a replacement of the current state of Israel but a different Jewish state. A state apprising to live up to the vision of being a “light to the nations”, generating a cultural and spiritual renaissance as well as a peaceful home addressing the failure of the Zionist claim to “normalize” the Jewish people and establish a safe haven.

Not so anti-zionist as I expected the project to be. Flipping Ahmadinejad on his head, not only should Germany allow for the creation of a Jewish state on its territory, the state of Israel is not to be replaced by it.

8 > Medinat Weimar believes peoples maintain not only the rights of self-determination and self-definition, but self-redetermination and self-redefinition as well.

This is one of the most interesting principles because it is innovative, not just on the level of identity, but on the practical reality of jewish history and its remaking. It also grapples with the situation of many Israelis who are moving to Europe or seeking EU passports.

13 > Medinat Weimar is not a realistic movement, but rather one that seeks to agitate and provoke by taking anti-Semitic, neo-liberal, nationalistic, Zionist arguments to their unreasonable conclusions illustrating their inner logic and absurdity.

Thought-provoking, even where I disagree. It’s worth a read because it is not just a set of one-sentence principles, but rather some elaborations of their attempts to work through and substantiate their ideas.

The little I know about the people involved is that two of them are Israelis living in Germany, both previously (currently?) active with Anarchists Against the Wall. But contrary to my expectations, Medinat’s mini constitution lacks much of the anti-zionist rhetoric and simplistic assessments of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rather than an attack on Jewish identity, Medinat suggests an affirmation of Jewish identity. It grapples with the insecurities that many young Israelis feel, living in a state of constant conflict with hostile neighbors. Citing the tendency of Israelis to seek EU passports “just in case,” the project addresses both the fear they live with as well as the practical measures some are already taking.

The project also addresses German guilt not as a feeling which Germans should give up, but rather as an historically based reality which Germany should address in a practical way. It is insufficient that Germany support Jewish nationhood for Jews who live far away from them. Germany should rather provide support for Jews in Germany, the Medinat activists argue in their 13 Principles.

The mini-constitution touches on a variety of issues in a constructive way, even if it’s not taken as a serious initiative to found the Medinat state. It’s worth a look.

Visit the Medinat Weimar website here and read the 13 Principles.

Visit the website of Medinat’s secretary and artist, Ronen Eidelman, here.

Read an article about Medinat in the Jewish Time here

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 1:47 pm and is filed under post-zionism, blog, Israel, Germany. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.