> .. layers of irony.. Hundreds of people at this point have said that #HannahArendt would not be eligible for the #HannahArendtPrize. But I was also corresponding with this philosopher, #SusanNeiman — an #IsraeliCitizen who lives in #Germany who is a premier scholar of German politics of memory — and she wrote to me saying #Arendt wouldn’t even be able to get a visa to come to Germany, if she needed a visa of course.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/12/16/masha-gessen-israel-holocaust-00132132
/HT @dbattistella
#MashaGessen
Masha Gessen Kicks the Hornet’s Nest on Israel and the Holocaust

In a new Q&A, the Russian-American journalist discusses why a prestigious award ceremony for them got called off.

POLITICO

> .. people who criticize Israel are denounced as antisemites.. And a lot of times they’re Jews, and in particular even Israelis, because those are the people that are likely to be criticizing Israel very harshly.
> The #IHRA definition also wields a fair amount of power in the United States..

IHRA: International #HolocaustRemembranceAssociation

> It turns ‘Never Again’ into a kind of magic spell rather than a political project.

#MinamataDisease education and remembrance ceremonies by the big bureaucracies and politicians give me the same feeling. When comparing Minamata's tragedy to a #Taiwanese corporation's mass fish-kill in #Vietnam, an impoverished area where some will have to eat and try to sell the fish... a bureaucrat will ask "Was it mercury?" as if the PR denial and State cover up and other pollutants aren't just as key...