if you want to see what happens when someone posts some "news" about the near-east-conflicts in imc-germany just look at the newest one which made his way through to the newswire.
both sides, the anti-german and the anti-imperialistic ones, are flaming indymedia with a not-ending flood of comments about how racist, how cruel, how mean or simple how stupid the other ones are.
then they both try to force the german indymedia crew to ONLY spread their point of view - because of course their point of view is the only truth.
first they try it with comments, later with hate-speach againts the imc-germany-crew, some in the comments-section, some backed up as articles, some via email to the imc-collective. if nothing serves they try some other ways, like they did in switzerland, where they suited imc-ch.
well, the same seems to happen now also to imc-germany. furthermore, the opposite two small groups try to involve even more imc-collectives to force imc-germany-crew to their point of view.
the imc-germany-crew for themself are not member of one of the both sides - that makes them so attacable. when they decided to bloc every news about the near-east-conflicts till the german left has learned that indymedia isn´t the right place to fight their identicalistic fight about the only truth, they get attaced from both side to stand on the side of their identicalist enemy - the anti-german or the anti-imperialistic. so with articles about "solidarity demonstrations" they forced the imc-germany-crew to let this things stand on their side because - well, its news, somehow, and maybe its not inside the rule of near-east-discussion. (i would prefferably hide this last crap too, because i dont want to support not one side in this stupid discussion)
now they blame the imc-germany-side to NOT censor something...

"They were mainly busy erasing Articles that dealt with Israeli politics, hiding or erasing comments that were contributing to the articles that were luckily not erased, and letting comments like press releases from the Israeli embassy stay as "content related addition".

thats not true - we live in germany, the most to hide is still the real nazi-stuff, i´m shure. but - just write an email to the german request-adress and you will get every hidden article you want and look for yourself.

"Racist comments that compare Palestinian to Nazis or use the term "Islamofascist" are not being erased all though any comment that will compare Jews or Israelis to Nazis will be immediately erased (as it should)."

comments and articles that compare palestinian to nazis should be hidden. if you find something like that please email to the imc-germany crew, they will react i´m shure.

it seems that your post on three indymedia-sites is either the try to use other imc´s in the identicalistic fight about the only true truth or a just ignorant move with a total leck of solidarity with the imc-projekt. if you want something changed at the imc-germany side you have to write THEM. at least you should give it a try first.
in germany we have a special word for some people like you: its called "spalter", which means you just want to divide a movement. this tactic was used since long ago of gouvernments to fight social movements by bringing some spalter into a movement with the aim that they are more in trouble with themself than with the state. but also people who wants to fight for the only true truth in the whole universe use this tactic to empower their group and their truth.

i´m using the german-imc for a long time now and it seems that some things, like this, will repeat themself over and over and over... well - it´s germany, you know

In fact the censorship of the german indymedia is very strict in comparison to those of other countrys.
I annoyed me more about it. The freedom of speech, especially in all internet media, is more and more ruled by german censors in the mainstream media as in the alternative media. You know the german have interalized the role of an model pupil (german "Musterschüler"). So everything have to be realized in patterns and rules. (And after the result of the studies of pisa, they investigate much more in this behavior ...) - Of course, since the Hamas rules in Palestine there is a change in german reports from gaza ...

But the atempt to define that facile German media coverage as already structurally anti-semitic I think fails. Here's the crucial passage:

"Given these basic features, the media world view is to be defined as structurally anti-semitic. It is true that “Jews” do not appear in it all. But the basic features of anti-semitism – Manicheanism, binary thinking, struggle and redemption, personification, conspiracy theory, and the positive referral to “people” – are contained in anti-imperialism."

But the traits German media identifies as structurally anti-semitic apply to all sorts of ideologies. Bush's rhetoric on the "war on terror" seems to me to fit almost perfectly -- but surely so does some forms of Zionist thought itself. Consider the "Euro-Arab Islamo-fascist" rhetoric that is a prominent feature of American and Israeli "pop propaganda" (I use this to refer to email lists, blogs, that are largely uncoordinated, but ideologically infused). Or, the routine attempts to deny that there is a "Palestinian people." And so on.

So are all of these "structurally anti-semitic"?

It seems reasonable to separate out the facile anti-imperialism of some left groups and think of it as a class of Manichean thought. Dangerous and short-sighted, but not itself anti-semitic. Anti-semitism, to be sure, shares structural traits with these Manichean ideologies. But it can't be simply identified with them.

This would allow us to notice that any Manicheanism, especially when combined with a romantic nationalism, is prone to anti-semitism. It is an inherent possibility, as it were, rather than an identification. And as such it can appear on the left or the right.

And German media is surely right to think that this possibility becomes reality in some "left" analyses of Zionism and Israel. What I miss, however, is a clearly articulated discussion of anti-Zionism itself. Theoretically it is obviously tied to Zionism, and thus requires a discussion of what Zionism is, both for Zionists and anti-Zionists. And is it possible to say one is not a Zionist without being an anti-Zionist? German media analysis shuts this possibility down. But it's just weird to say that one is either a Scottish nationalist *or* anti-Scottish, for example. One could think that Scottish people are better off within the UK, or simply that nationalism is a false hope that will bring no real change to working people's lives in Scotland, and so on.

But this makes it obvious that Zionism isn't just another garden-variety nationalism. It is a nationalism articulated in relation to a particular history of oppression in Europe (yes, the Holocaust, but not only that). We need to carefully consider, as people of the left, our relation to that history, and the burdens it places on us. But a critical engagement with Zionism is also required -- and for this we need both a critical distance from Zionism itself, and a rejection of the anti-Zionism German media rightly deplores.

[As an aside -- does Indymedia Germany think there's any such thing as a good nationalism, if they all require bogeymen and an impossible dream of harmony? But then must this not impact Zionism itself, understood as a form of political nationalism? And if the left must abandon its romantic nationalism -- Zionism would have to go too, no?]

Consider: an Israeli nationalism, identified with the Israeli people, Arab and Jew; Christian, Muslim and Jewish. This would be a "post-Zionist," but Israeli, nationalism. (and next door, a Palestinian nationalism identified in just the same way -- with all residents of Palestine). But then this would decouple the concept of the Jewish people from that of the Israeli people. Would this be anti-Zionist? Would it mean that the establishment of Israel had failed to create what its founders wanted -- a homeland for the Jews?


Salaam my Taqwacores