Tapfer im Nirgendwo

Gerd Buurmann is a theater producer, actor, author and blogger from Germany.

The press writes about him:

„Today Macbeth, tomorrow Iago, the following day Kermit the Frog. Gerd Buurman (born 1976 in Emsland) is one of the most versatile performing artists in Cologne. He has successfully worked as an actor, director and writer; from 2008 to 2011 he was artistic director of the Severins Burg Theater.“ – Barbro Schuchardt, Kölnische Rundschau

“During the past years, Buurmann has repeatedly taken clear positions against unspeakable antisemitic statements in various media, and has contributed perhaps more towards a culture of debate in this city than the ad-supported news media.“ – Jules Lux, Choices

„The undisputed star of the evening is Gerd Buurmann. He is a brilliant Goethe reciter and Goethe rapper.” – Wolfgang Leipold, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung

“’Gehirne am Strand‘ (Brains on the Beach)-. Buurmann’s piece is surprising, profound, unsettling. His profound piece, laced with subtle humor, has the stuff to be performed on bigger stages. With surprising twists and turns, Buurmann seizes control of his audience.“ – Daniela Kwiotek, Bergisches Handelsblatt

„Gerd Buurmann plays the poor devil, Shylock – used by all, but loved by none – as an outcast on the edge of madness, with a downright scary and hysterical force… an impressive performance.” – Barbro Schuchardt, Kölnische Rundschau

„Buurmann’s theatrical energy blows visitors away. Buurmann is best as Iago, who incites Othello to murder. A highlight is when he, a master of manipulation, sits on a barstool defending Desdemona alleged loyalty… and then later ingenuously offers tips on how to commit murder“ – Dorothea Marcus, aKT

“Gerd Buurmann is at times cynical, loud and harsh. He exasperates and fascinates. Not through sympathy, but through his almost frightening presence. His round face, the bald head and the frightening intensity of his eyes. He appears on stage like a man on the edge of madness.” – Daniela Meyer, Deutschlandradio Kultur

“The Simon Wiesenthal Center applauds Gerd Buurmann.“ – Simon Wiesenthal Center

“It’s impossible to categorize Buurmann’s theatrical program as well as the man himself.“ – Daniela Abel, Kölnische Rundschau

For articles by Gerd Buurmann in English click here.

It’s Jew-hatred when one expects more from a Jew than from a non-Jew and it’s Jew-hatred when one criticizes Jews about something one would otherwise tolerate from others!

In his play, „The Merchant of Venice“, William Shakespeare portraits the Jew, Shylock, as an ordinary person with strengths and weaknesses, who at one point simply refuses to accept the shame of being oppressed. Shylock is a man to whom injustice is done and he defends himself!

Although, in Shakespeare’s play, Christians are incapable of living according their own Christian principles, they demand from Jews accordance to those very same principles. They punish the Jew the more violently, when it turns out that he doesn’t choose to follow the Christian commandments as many another Christian won’t or can’t. Shylock will not and can not be better than everyone else. He’s not superman. He expresses this point with the following words:

”Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge.“

Shylock is a human being with feelings and fears. As every person who is threatened or attacked, one defends oneself, protects one’s life and may even cause fear in one’s surroundings if it represents the only way to preserve one’s own life. Of course, Shylock makes errors defending himself. He even overdoes it. He is human!

It is precisely these human characteristics which Jews are denied. It’s enough just to look at the United Nations. Despite recent decades of heinous crimes against humanity in Rwanda, Cambodia and Srebrenica, and absolute oppression in Iraq, Iran and North Korea, the United Nations has adopted more resolutions against Israel than against all other nations! In a manic fixation on only 0.1% of the total world population – the Israelis – the United Nations sees a nation that deserves unrelenting attention.

As long as Jews “cooperate” in their own slaughter, they can expect empathy; but alas, when they fight back, the fun stops. The journalist, Henryk M. Broder, summed it in this simple formula:

„It’s easier to throw garlands at the graves of dead Jews than to deal with living ones.“

Jews aren’t permitted to attract too much attention to themselves. If necessary, they must disappear as conveniently as Shylock. When Shylock refuses to recognize the principle of forgiveness, he is brutally punished by Portia who also can’t feel any forgiveness. In the fourth act of Shakespeare’s, „The Merchant of Venice“, Shylock speaks his last words, and no longer appears in the fifth and final act. A Jew must disappear if he is a Shylock (i.e. a human)!

In a world full of double standards a Jew must be like „Nathan the Wise“. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s Nathan is a Jew, as critics of Israel could only wish for. He is enlightened, good, understanding, forgiving and moreover, non-religious. Nathan the Wise is not a real Jew. Rather, he is an invented image of the Jew! Were Nathan a real Jew with human qualities, he would have feelings that can manifest themselves sometimes in anger and revenge. However, in that case, any love from critics of Israel would dissipate quickly! Jews must reflect an externally defined ideal. The rest of humanity can remain multifarious!

As long as Jews reject violence and remain victims, and at most, use only rhetoric as a weapon as Nathan did; when words such as: „Never mind, the Jew is for burning“ are hurled at them, as long as they remain peaceful, they are welcome. But, as soon as they begin to defend themselves, any sympathy reverts to bitter antipathy. Then those people may feel free to say, for example, that Jews are no better than Nazis and besides, they are vindictive, greedy and implacable!

A basic problem concerning the Middle East conflict is that an Israeli politician is already at a disadvantage when he’s not a Nathan the Wise. However, an Arab politician is already praised when he is not an Adolf Hitler.

***

(Translated by William Wires)

who are now gleefully sharing a video on the internet showing an Israeli soldier shooting an Arab terrorist in the head. Your enthrallment is disgusting. In the video you extract the proof you so desperately need to prove an inherent “evilness of Jews”. It’s sickening!

The video, which was released last Thursday by the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, shows an Israeli soldier in Hebron shooting a wounded Arab terrorist, who had just seriously injured an Israeli soldier with a knife. The soldier was brought away in an ambulance.

Why are you so thrilled about this video? Arab terrorists armed with guns, knives, axes, hatchets, scissors and cars have been murdering Jews for decades. Those killers crawl through tunnels and sneak into homes. They murder men, women and children on public streets and squares, in cafes, bars and synagogues. And they are celebrated as heroes and martyrs by Hamas and Fatah. Squares and streets are named after them. The families of Jew murdering sons and daughters are rewarded with generous pensions, which are sometimes financed by European organizations, even indirectly through the European Parliament. Children are brutalized and dehumanized in training camps run by Fatah and Hamas organizations, and are then sent out to kill Jews.

But you don’t share these detestable facts on the internet. You’re not upset when Jews are killed; you’re thrilled! You get excited only about photos that depict the “evil Jew”. You’re merely blinded by hatred!

You don’t acknowledge the military’s consideration of this „serious incident“ as a violation of “the values ​​of the Israeli army“. You don’t take note that an internal investigation has already been ordered by military commanders. You ignore the fact that the soldier has been suspended. You can’t see the obvious difference between Israel’s overall denunciation of unnecessary violence against all people, regardless of their respective origins, and the widespread Arab promotion of Jew hatred whereby the murder of Jews is rewarded and celebrated!

You’re always readily excusing Arab murderers. You act as if not the Arabs themselves and their governments had any responsibility at all for their own plight, but place the blame entirely on Israel. If Israel’s Arab neighbors would use the massive amount of funds and relief supplies they receive from all over the world (and even from Israel) to build a decent infrastructure and to educate their citizens, then hope and peace would spread throughout the Arab world, rather than hate, blame and war!

Why you are so acquiescent with Arab terrorists? Why do you excuse their deeds? Because they hate Jews? Towards Jews you are apathetic. As expressed in their founding charter, Hamas politicians call for the annihilation of all Jews. They celebrate Hitler and the Holocaust by constantly using the Nazi salute at public events and they fire thousands of rockets at Israel year for year.

But if a Jew, under the pressure of such intense hatred and mortal threat, flips out, not only is he criticized, but all of Judaism. And when Arabs, full of hatred and armed with guns, axes, knives, cars, rockets, axes and scissors attack, injure and kill Jews, then these attackers are excused as poor desperate “victims”.

I can’t remain polite in the face of such attitudes. For me, you’re nothing but vile, anti-Jewish assholes!

(Translation: William Wires)