This is just grim, honestly. Never Again as a phrase became...
Arnesa Buljušmić-Kustura@arnesa_kustura
12 views
Jun 16, 2024
~3 min read
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This is just grim, honestly. Never Again as a phrase became popularised by both political prisoners who vowed “never again” in the context of the fight of fascism as well as Jewish survivors who invoked it as “never again” in the context of the Holocaust. But…
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The term, initially tied to the Holocaust, became popularised as part of a larger fight against fascism, ethnonationalism, and other genocides following the Holocaust. It meant “never again for anyone…anywhere”. To say that “Never Again” is exclusive to Jewish people is awful.
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It means that others are “fair game”. It means that genocide is okay and acceptable as long as it’s not happening to us. It’s such a horrific statement to say and one that is deeply reflective of the rot of ethnonationalism.
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Partly this is the consequence of Holocaust exceptionalism & partly this is the consequence of ethnonationalism. When you are raised to believe that only your suffering matters, only you get to be the victim, only you matter and only your safety is important…this is the result.
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That statement, as absurd as it is, is even more infuriating because it positions the Palestinians as the people responsible , instead of the Nazis. “Never again means you can’t harm us again”. It was not the Palestinians who caused or were responsible for the Holocaust.
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Every day, on social media, there is a new horrifying statement that astounds me and yet does not shock me at all. Israel is the perfect case study on the dangers of ethnonationalism. It’s very identity is built on ethnonationalism. It is impossible to divorce it from that.
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& I cannot help but wonder what will happen when the last bomb drops. When some new “peace agreement” is implemented. Even when Palestine becomes fully free and its own state. What will become of Zionists everywhere and how will they direct their ethnonationalism…
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Both Serbia as well as Bosnian-Serbs show us that even after the implementation of a peace agreement, even after 30 years of “peace” or at least lack of war, the ethnonationalism is so deeply ingrained in every aspect of their culture and society. It’s both personal & political.
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It is something that worries me, constantly. As ethnonationalist rhetoric becomes increasingly prevalent, particularly throughout Europe, and as it forms the very identities of people…how will we rid of it? How will it be rooted out? Can it be rooted out while states exist?
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Anyway, what a disgusting manner of thinking. Ethnonationalism makes victims out of the Génocidaires, it makes them position themselves and their state as the only people to ever suffer, the only people to ever matter, both powerful and in need of constant aid.
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@libtim Holocaust survivors and compare them to the rebels in Rome. They would often be told that they had gone “like sheep to slaughter” and didn’t fight unlike the Jewish rebels groups in Masada who they view as heroes.
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@libtim The term then actually gained popularity when the survivors at Buchenwald concentration camp displayed it in various languages on handmade signs. Political prisoners in that camp as well as others were particularly fond of it and carried on it.
