Meron Mendel

There is hardly any other country in Germany that is the subject of so much discussion and debate: Everyone has an opinion about Israel. Why is the Middle East conflict so important? Why is the debate so emotional – and often so poisoned?

When Meron Mendel came to Germany twenty years ago, he was surprised to discover how important Israel is in the public discourse. Almost everyone he spoke to was able to formulate very clear positions on Israel and its policies. And even today, the attitude toward Israel is constitutive for many Germans in their political positioning.
Is Israel part of the German reason of state? Is it permissible to talk to BDS activists? Should radical Palestinian positions be given space in the German media? What lies behind these questions, which are discussed so passionately in the land of the perpetrators?

Talking about Israel (2023) does not deal with Israel or the conflict with the Palestinians – it is about how the Middle East conflict is negotiated in Germany, in politics and in the media, among leftists, among migrants and among Jews. It is about: the German Israel complex.

Meron Mendel, born in 1976, grew up on a kibbutz, studied education and history in Haifa and Munich, and is now a professor of social work and director of the Anne Frank Educational Center.

In the series Israel