In a six-part TV series for the German broadcaster ARD, Franz #Kafka is shown not so much as a victim but as a master of bureaucracy – and an effective one at that.
#TV#series#Kehlmann#Schalko#screenplay@Channel4@guardian
@ARDde
https://t.co/Q9OhzC3lbC?
Franz Kafka gilt als der weltweit meistgelesene Schriftsteller deutscher Sprache. Am 3.6.2024 jährt sich sein Todestag zum 100. Mal. Aus diesem Anlass zeigt @ARDde die neue 6-teilige Mini #TV#Serie#Kafka m jeweils 3 Folgen am 26.+27.3. ab 20.15 Uhr.
@ORF
https://t.co/TlW7ejnOvP
Nach "Der Vorname", einem Kammerspiel von 2018, und "Der Nachname" aus 2022, wird nun auch noch "Der Spitzname" gedreht. Diesmal in den Alpen, "der Rahmen wird also etwas erweitert", sagt #Regisseur Sönke #Wortmann.
#Film#Kino#DerSpitzname@SZ
https://t.co/sXFXPKjpxv
“They violently raped me”
“Islamic Republic of Iran’s agents made us face the walls of the vehicle and gave electric shocks to our legs…They tortured me through beatings … They pulled down my trousers and raped me…I was really being ripped apart…I was throwing up a lot and bleeding from my rectum.”
Maryam, who was gang raped in a Revolutionary Guards detention centre, recounted that her rapists told her: “You are all addicted to penis, so we showed you a good time. Isn’t this what you seek from liberation?”
Sexual violence weaponized to crush Iran’s “Woman Life Freedom” uprising, documents in detail the harrowing ordeals of 45 survivors, including 26 men, 12 women and 7 children,
Security forces in Iran used rape and other forms of sexual violence to suppress last year protest after the murder of Mahsa Amini.
Amnesty International said in a new report published today.
State agents raped women and girls vaginally, anally and orally, while men and boys were raped anally. Survivors were raped with wooden and metal batons, glass bottles, hosepipes, and/or agents’ sexual organs and fingers. Rape took place in detention facilities and police vans, as well as schools or residential buildings unlawfully repurposed as detention places.
This is what exactly Hamas did to women in Israel on October 7 and we the people of Iran were the first ones who loudly condemned the savage brutality against Israeli women by Hamas terrorists. Because we especially the women of Iran know very well that the Islamic Republic and Hamas are cut from the same cloth and both use rape and torture of women as a weapon of war.
Israeli Women and teenagers were gang-raped, beaten, tortured and murdered.
Some were mutilated and set on fire, some had their lifeless bodies dragged around, spat on and beaten by wild and ecstatic crowds celebrating the “victory” of Hamas.
The horrifying images of these atrocities — filmed by the terrorists themselves — have been seen around the whole world.
In Iran we faced the same brutality. Last year after the killings of more than 700 innocent protesters and imprisonment of more than 20,000, many young teenagers told us that they faced raped in prison. We had many young protesters committed suicide after being free from jail.
For many years now I have been campaigning for women of Iran and Afghanistan, calling attention to their suffering under Islamic fundamentalism.
Iranian women and their Afghan sisters have long felt that their voices go unheard in the West.
Today, it is our Israeli sisters that have been raped by the same barbaric terrorists.
Whether it is the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic in Iran, or Hamas-Isis in Israel, we must collectively condemn the atrocities perpetrated against women in the name of this Islam.
We must stand together to resist and eliminate this violence against all women everywhere — no matter where in the world it raises its ugly head.
My message to Western Feminists: Do not abandon your sisters in the Middle East. Stand up to Islamist terror.
#TogetherWeAreStronger
Dear Arabs and Muslims,
I just back from Israel, and my life will never be the same.
I thought I was going to be met with pure racism, and then came to see that half of Israelis look just like me.
I thought I was going to be treated as a terrorist, but I was met with kindness and hospitality.
I thought I was going to experience apartheid, but I saw people from different backgrounds co-existing in peace together.
I thought I was going to see hatred against Muslims, but I met dozens of Muslims who love Israel and are proud of their country.
I thought I was going to meet angry Jews who hate all the goys and want to manipulate them, but I was met by a kind people who are struck by grief and terror.
Every street I visited in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv has a story of a terror attack. In every cafe I sat in, I was told ”A Jew was stabbed right here”, and ” A shooting happened on the other side of this street a few months ago.”
Throughout this trip, I have been ex-communicated by close-minded friends and family members. But you know what? It was worth it. Because I got to see Israel and experience the truth about the country that I was indoctrinated to hate for myself.
I wish that my friends and family members would also be able to visit Israel and see the beauty and hospitality of the country like I did. I was able to swiftly visit Israel because of my Swedish passport – I won’t deny my privileges.
But I also have the elusive privilege of humanizing both Israelis and Arabs. I had the greatest privilege of meeting, and seeing and talking to Israelis, whom I had learned to hate since I was a child.
I am so happy to have cleansed the hatred out of my soul. I wish that the Muslim and Arab communities could do the same.
Nothing good can ever come out of hatred, violence, and terrorism. And now, having been in Israel, I cannot stress enough how much it saddens me that my culture and my people have learned to hate this country and these people.
To all the Israelis who have opened their hearts and homes to me and showed me their beautiful country - thank you.
Dear Muslims,
I said ”The world is scared of us” and many of you called for my death.
I said ”The world is laughing at us” and many of you said I was going to ”burn in an eternal Hell” and that I am ”a CIA agent”.
I said ”The world is worried about us” and many of you said Allah and his soldiers will take care of me.
Do you believe that reflects a ”religion of peace”? When you talk, act, and behave like perpetrators of violence?
I do not claim to speak on behalf of Muslims, but I do speak on behalf of Muslims who risk losing their lives for choosing a peaceful Islam that you do not believe in.
I speak on behalf of myself when I was 12 years old in Muslim schools, when I wanted to learn about art and music, but instead was fed Islamic tales of wars and beheadings – stories no child should be listening to.
I speak on behalf of Raif Badawi, the brave Saudi Arabian writer who started a blog about freedom of speech, liberalism, and secularism in Saudi Arabia, and was flogged in jail for 10 years. Raif was released from jail last year, but he’s still imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, banned from traveling or expressing himself.
I speak on behalf of atheists, Christians, Jews, women, gays, non-Muslims, and peaceful Muslims who don't want to be a part of your destructive narrative.
To those saying I am ”a dirty ex-Muslim,” ”a kaffer,” ”a CIA agent, "a Mossad agent”, who say I know nothing about Islam, who call for my death:
Thank you for proving my point.
Wohl das Stärkste, was ich von deutschen Politikern je gehört habe. Jeder Satz hallt nach. Robert Habeck ist in diesen für Deutschland entscheidenden Tagen der Anker, den das Land braucht. Leben wir „Nie wieder!“ - oder behaupten wir es nur gelegentlich?
To those raising the Palestinian flag,
Where were you when ISIS was launched and beheaded tens of thousands of Arabs in Iraq, Libya, and Syria in the name of Islam? Why didn’t you take to the streets and raise their flags? Why didn’t you condemn the terror and call for a ”ceasefire”?
Where were you when Arab dictators and terrorists killed hundreds of thousands of Arabs in Syria and Libya? Why didn’t you take to the streets and raise their flags? Why didn’t you condemn the terror and call for a ”ceasefire”?
Where were you in the last decade when Saudi Arabia, backed by 8 Arab countries, killed 400,000 Yemenis, my own people? I didn’t see any of you take to the streets or raise the Yemeni flag. I did not see any of you condemning the terror and calling for a ”ceasefire” while Arab countries were slaughtering my own people.
This must lead to some self-reflection.
When millions of Arabs are slaughtered by other Arabs, you say nothing.
But when 7 thousand of Arabs are killed by Jews defending their right to exist, you revolt, you get angry, you storm the streets in the East and the West, you raise the Palestinian flag, you condemn the terror, you call for a ceasefire, you turn the world upside down.
Why is that?
Why were you so silent then but SO LOUD now?
Can it be that you are finally raising a flag and creating chaos because you only hate that the perpetrators are Jews?
Because you obviously don't care when millions of Arabs are killed by other Arabs.
Can it be that you storming the streets is just you venting out your hatred towards Jews? The same hatred we learned in our mosques and schools?
You speak of ”numbers and proportionality.” But by the rules of proportionality, you should not be raising Palestinian flags.
Unless, there is another agenda at play: Jew-hatred. Or as I would call it: Hatred.
As Arabs, we need to understand that Israel and the West are not our oppressors or enemies.
We, Arabs, are our own worst enemies.
We, Arabs, are our greatest oppressors.
We, Arabs, have killed and oppressed a million times more of our people than the West and Israel can ever do.
It is not Israel that married off my mother when she was a child. It is my people who did.
It is not the West or Israel that has been bombing Yemen for the past decade and killed 400,000. It is us, Arabs, who did it.
It is not the Israel that implanted Islamic extremism in the East and the West. It is our mosques, it is the books we worship, it is the Imams we follow, it is what we learn and what we teach.
It is not the West that forces us to treat women like commodities. It is our people.
And most of all, it is not the West or Israel that doesn’t value Arab lives.
It is us, Arabs, who do not value human life.
If we do not admit to ourselves that WE are the problem, that WE are refusing to progress, and that WE need to change – then change will never happen, blood will keep flowing, and we will never know peace.
How do we expect the world and the International Community to respect us, when we don’t respect ourselves?
Absolutely masterful interview on Gaza of Dominique De Villepin, former Prime Minister of France, who famously led France's opposition to the Iraq war and who, IMHO is the best diplomat the West has produced in decades.
This is so important, so incredibly well argued, that I decided to translate it in full:
"Hamas has set a trap for us, and this trap is one of maximum horror, of maximum cruelty. And so there's a risk of an escalation in militarism, of more military interventions, as if we could with armies solve a problem as serious as the Palestinian question.
There's also a second major trap, which is that of Occidentalism. We find ourselves trapped, with Israel, in this western bloc which today is being challenged by most of the international community.
[Presenter: What is Occidentalism?]
Occidentalism is the idea that the West, which for 5 centuries managed the world's affairs, will be able to quietly continue to do so. And we can clearly see, even in the debates of the French political class, that there is the idea that, faced with what is currently happening in the Middle East, we must continue the fight even more, towards what might resemble a religious or a civilizational war. That is to say, to isolate ourselves even more on the international stage.
This is not the way, especially since there's a third trap, which is that of moralism. And here we have in a way the proof, through what is happening in Ukraine and what is happening in the Middle East, of this double standard that is denounced everywhere in the world, including in recent weeks when I travel to Africa, the Middle East, or Latin America. The criticism is always the same: look at how civilian populations are treated in Gaza, you denounce what happened in Ukraine, and you are very timid in the face of the tragedy unfolding in Gaza.
Consider international law, the second criticism that is made by the global south. We sanction Russia when it aggresses Ukraine, we sanction Russia when it doesn't respect the resolutions of the United Nations, and it's been 70 years that the resolutions of the United Nations have been voted in vain and that Israel doesn't respect them.
[Presenter: Do you believe that the Westerners are currently guilty of hubris?]
Westerners must open their eyes to the extent of the historical drama unfolding before us to find the right answers.
[Presenter: What is the historical drama? I mean, we're talking about the tragedy of October 7th first and foremost, right?]
Of course, there are these horrors happening, but the way to respond to them is crucial. Are we going to kill the future by finding the wrong answers...
[Presenter: Kill the future?]
Kill the future, yes! Why?
[Presenter: But who is killing whom?]
You are in a game of causes and effects. Faced with the tragedy of history, one cannot take this 'chain of causality' analytical grid, simply because if you do you can't escape from it. Once we understand that there is a trap, once we realize that behind this trap there has also been a change in the Middle East regarding the Palestinian issue... The situation today is profoundly different [from what it was in the past]. The Palestinian cause was a political and secular cause. Today we are faced with an Islamist cause, led by Hamas. Obviously, this kind of cause is absolute and allows no form of negotiation. On the Israeli side, there has also been a development. Zionism was secular and political, championed by Theodor Herzl in the late 19th century. It has largely become messianic, biblical today. This means that they too do not want to compromise, and everything that the far-right Israeli government does, continuing to encourage colonization, obviously makes things worse, including since October 7th. So in this context, understand that we are already in this region facing a problem that seems profoundly insoluble.
Added to this is the hardening of states. Diplomatically, look at the statements of the King of Jordan, they are not the same as six months ago. Look at the statements of Erdogan in Turkey.
[Presenter: Precisely, these are extremely harsh statements...]
Extremely worrying. Why? Because if the Palestinian cause, the Palestinian issue, hasn't been brought to the forefront, hasn't been put on stage [for a while], and if most of the youth today in Europe have often never even heard of it, it remains for the Arab peoples the mother of all battles. All the progress made towards an attempt to stabilize the Middle East, where one could believe...
[Presenter: Yes, but whose fault is it? I have a hard time following you, is it Hamas's fault?]
But Ms. Malherbe, I am trained as a diplomat. The question of fault will be addressed by historians and philosophers.
[Presenter: But you can't remain neutral, it's difficult, it's complicated, isn't it?]
I am not neutral, I am in action. I am simply telling you that every day that passes, we can ensure that this horrific cycle stops... that's why I speak of a trap and that's why it's so important to know what response we are going to give. We stand alone before history today. And we do not treat this new world the way we currently do, knowing that today we are no longer in a position of strength, we are not able to manage on our own, as the world's policemen.
[Presenter: So what do we do?]
Exactly, what should we do? This is where it is essential not to cut off anyone on the international stage.
[Presenter: Including the Russians?]
Everyone.
[Presenter: Everyone? Should we ask the Russians for help?]
I'm not saying we should ask the Russians for help. I'm saying: if the Russians can contribute by calming some factions in this region, then it will be a step in the right direction.
[Presenter: How can we proportionally respond to barbarism? It's no longer army against army.]
But listen, Appolline de Malherbe, the civilian populations that are dying in Gaza, don't they exist? So because horror was committed on one side, horror must be committed on the other?
[Presenter: Do we indeed need to equate the two?]
No, it's you who are doing that. I'm not saying I equate the faults. I try to take into account what a large part of humanity thinks. There is certainly a realistic objective to pursue, which is to eradicate the Hamas leaders who committed this horror. And not to confuse the Palestinians with Hamas, that's a realistic goal.
The second thing is a targeted response. Let's define realistic political objectives. And the third thing is a combined response. Because there is no effective use of force without a political strategy. We are not in 1973 or in 1967. There are things no army in the world knows how to do, which is to win in an asymmetrical battle against terrorists. The war on terror has never been won anywhere. And it instead triggers extremely dramatic misdeeds, cycles, and escalations. If America lost in Afghanistan, if America lost in Iraq, if we lost in the Sahel, it's because it's a battle that can't be won simply, it's not like you have a hammer that strikes a nail and the problem is solved. So we need to mobilize the international community, get out of this Western entrapment in which we are.
[Presenter: But when Emmanuel Macron talks about an international coalition…]
Yes, and what was the response?
[Presenter: None.]
Exactly. We need a political perspective, and this is challenging because the two-state solution has been removed from the Israeli political and diplomatic program. Israel needs to understand that for a country with a territory of 20,000 square kilometers, a population of 9 million inhabitants, facing 1.5 billion people... Peoples have never forgotten that the Palestinian cause and the injustice done to the Palestinians was a significant source of mobilization. We must consider this situation, and I believe it is essential to help Israel, to guide... some say impose, but I think it's better to convince, to move in this direction. The challenge is that there is no interlocutor today, neither on the Israeli side nor the Palestinian side. We need to bring out interlocutors.
[Presenter: It's not for us to choose who will be the leaders of Palestine.]
The Israeli policy over recent years did not necessarily want to cultivate a Palestinian leadership... Many are in prison, and Israel's interest - because I repeat: it was not in their program or in Israel's interest at the time, or so they thought - was instead to divide the Palestinians and ensure that the Palestinian question fades. This Palestinian question will not fade. And so we must address it and find an answer. This is where we need courage. The use of force is a dead end. The moral condemnation of what Hamas did - and there's no "but" in my words regarding the moral condemnation of this horror - must not prevent us from moving forward politically and diplomatically in an enlightened manner. The law of retaliation is a never-ending cycle.
[Presenter: The "eye for an eye, tooth for tooth".]
Yes. That's why the political response must be defended by us. Israel has a right to self-defense, but this right cannot be indiscriminate vengeance. And there cannot be collective responsibility of the Palestinian people for the actions of a terrorist minority from Hamas.
When you get into this cycle of finding faults, one side's memories clash with the other's. Some will juxtapose Israel's memories with the memories of the Nakba, the 1948 catastrophe, which is a disaster that the Palestinians still experience every day. So you can't break these cycles. We must have the strength, of course, to understand and denounce what happened, and from this standpoint, there's no doubt about our position. But we must also have the courage, and that's what diplomacy is... diplomacy is about being able to believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel. And that's the cunning of history; when you're at the bottom, something can happen that gives hope. After the 1973 war, who would have thought that before the end of the decade, Egypt would sign a peace treaty with Israel?
The debate shouldn't be about rhetoric or word choice. The debate today is about action; we must act. And when you think about action, there are two options. Either it's war, war, war. Or it's about trying to move towards peace, and I'll say it again, it's in Israel's interest. It's in Israel's interest!"
It's so unbelievably terrible what is happening in #Israel right now! I hope that this attack will be stopped quickly!
My thoughts are with my family in Israel and for whom I am very worried.
#IStandWithIsrael