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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation
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can conceive of peace only in terms of the complete
annihilation of Israel.
Colette Khoury has described the impression she
had of me in the monthly periodical France-Pays Arabes. Here are some
excerpts:
I had learned through a friend in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and through the editor of Al Baas that she
had arrived in Damascus the previous day. They told me she had come to see
President Assad and to protest our alleged massacre of Israeli prisoners of
war. They said she was pro-Israeli. At least that woman did not conceal her
purposes. She received me coldly with a drawn smile. I introduced myself as a
writer and journalist and asked if she was not connected with the press.
"Not at all," she answered.
"But I thought you came here to
interview our president."
"Sorry," she said, "I'm here to protest."
I was amused by her aggressive response. I asked if she had made an
appointment with the Palace.
"I went there yesterday and delivered my
protestation."
"Then you do not insist on seeing the president or his
deputy? You have come just to deliver a protest?"
"I do want to speak
to him. But no responsible person has gotten in touch with me.... "
Why
did she come, if she is convinced no one would speak to her? To protest? That
is becoming a fixation. I said gently: "You are honest and you have sincerely
believed the false propaganda that claims we are massacring Israeli prisoners.
So you came here to protest. I can understand that."
"I am protesting
not only as an individual, but also in the name of the German people."
I felt smothered. This was a being from another planet. "Do you believe
the entire German people agrees with you?"
"I don't believe they do,"
she answered simply. "But being a German I am representative of the German
people."
I decided further discussion of this subject would be futile.
The conversation turned to her home.
"Oh, the cat and the dog get along
very well. And the marmoset is very small.... My baby is just five months
old... "
Listening to her speak, I thought she is herself a baby,
hypnotized, who speaks of reality and ordinary life as if it is a dream, a very
distant dream, almost inaccessible. I invited her to lunch. 'What is this
woman? She thinks of herself as young Germany, the daughter of people who lived
under Nazism. She began asking political questions and questioning the past.
Then she met the man she was to many, a Jew.
"You can be a Jew without
being a Zionist," I said to her.
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WHEREVER THEY MAY BE
© 1972, The
Beate Klarsfeld Foundation |
|
Back |
Page 296 |
Forward |
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|
