By Michael Caber

A University of the Philippines professor has been banned by the German parliament from participating in a hearing on the global financial crisis.

Walden Bello, also national president of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, said the Bundestag recalled its invitation because of his video on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that the Germans said “trivialized” the Holocaust. The parliamentary hearing was scheduled for next week.

The Germans also took back their invitation to Nicola Bullard of the Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South, a research institute where Bello works as senior analyst.

“The Philippines should stand for me for the banning of the Germans. We have become victims of the psychological turmoil of Germans over Holocaust,” Bello said yesterday, describing Bundestag’s move as a knee-jerk reaction.

“They must grow up,” he said.

Bello and Bullard received a brief letter on March 5 from Bundestag, saying the invitation had been revoked as a result of the video.

“Are we being disinvited because of the video ‘They Didn’t Exist?’ What is it about the video? The video does not deny the Holocaust; in fact, it acknowledges it as one of the worst crimes against humanity ever perpetrated,” he said in a reply letter to Franz-Josef Mesters of the Bundestag dated March 5.

“It is very exasperating to fall victim to Germany’s continuing psychological turmoil over its war crimes and genocidal acts. If you cannot view anything, including the current global financial crisis, except through a filter that sees any criticism of Israel as morally wrong, then you really have a problem,” he said.

The video, which was produced by an anti-war coalition in the Philippines at the height of the Israeli invasion of Gaza in January, shows pictures drawing parallels between the Holocaust and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.