The recent scandal resulting from the recent publication of a poem by Günter Grass is not an isolated phenomenon. His trivialization of the Iranian threat and his attempt to blame Israel for the escalation of the Iran-crisis point to a broader intellectual confusion currently taking possession of the German Peace movement and the intellectuals who support it.

In this spirit, the nationally-circulated daily newspaper Süddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung on March 31 published a call termed “Policy of peace instead of war in the conflict with Iran – Stop the sanctions and threats of War” („Friedens- statt Kriegspolitik im Irankonflikt – Sanktionen und Kriegsdrohungen sofort beenden”), in which over 1.700 signatories, of the same mind as Günter Grass, completely absolve the Iranian regime of any responsibility for the current Iran-crisis and instead lay the blame on Israel and the West.

The German section of „Scholars For Peace in the Middle East” has analyzed the errors of this intellectual movement in more detail. We asked, “Why do you defend the Iranian regime?” („Warum verteidigen Sie das iranische Regime?”)  in our Open Letter of March 2nd, which we addressed to the professors Altvater, Birckenbach, Dürr, Fetscher, Grottian, Krippendorff, Narr and the signatories of a similar appeal of March 2012.

We ask you to consider our statement and to bring our position to the attention of the public.

Sincerely,

yours

Prof. Dr. Ralf R. Schumann, Dr. Matthias Küntzel, Dr. Nikoline Hansen

For the board of directors of SPME-Germany

Berlin, April, 5th, 2012