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Month: May 2022

Radio Berlin International #9 Silencing Palestinian Voices

Discussing anti-Palestinian repression in Germany and globally


23/05/2022

In this episode, we are talking about anti-Palestinian repression and silencing in Germany and globally.

This episode’s guests are:

  • Asmar from the activist group Palestine Speaks – https://www.palaestinaspricht.de/
  • Nora, an expert on the history of anti-Palestinian racism in Germany
  • Waed Manaf Abba, a Palestinian activist and social organiser, human rights researcher and campaigner connecting based in Ramallah.

This episode’s playlist is:

Shadi Zaqtan – 11 الف محل فاضي
Ramallah Underground – سجن بسجن

This episode is presented and produced by Magda and Tom.

Don’t miss our next show live on reboot.fm 88.4 MHz in Berlin, 90.7 MHz in Potsdam and online at http://reboot.fm at 7pm on Sunday 5 June.

Please tell us what you think of the show by emailing radio@theleftberlin.com. Don’t forget to include your name and where you’re listening from, and we’ll read out as many messages as possible on the air.

Also check out previous episodes of Radio Berlin International.

Theatre Review: “Draussen vor der Tur” by Wolfgang Borchert

A new performance of an anti-war play at the Berliner Ensemble is flawed but still worth seeing


21/05/2022

Today we face moves towards a new inter-imperialist war. Again…

It is timely that the Berliner Ensemble Theatre, is reviving Draussen vor der Tur (Outside the Door, or Being on the Outside) by Wolfgang Borchert (1921-1947). There are several aspects that socialists might be interested in: the author, the literary movement he belonged to, the play itself, the current production, and the theatre in which it is staged now in Berlin. I will discuss the first three.

The author [more information here, here and here]

Borchert wrote the play at 26 years of age, returning from forced service in the Nazi assault on Stalingrad in 1941. His father was in the Dada movement, and Borchert was a young poet. But to earn a living he became a bookseller while circulating anti-Nazi poems. This led to his first jail. On release, in 1937 he saw actor Gustaf Gründgens, playing Hamlet, which inspired him to become an actor. [Gordon Burgess, ‘The life and works of Wolfgang Borchert’; 2003; p.1-2; Woodbridge, Sussex]

Borchert was conscripted in 1941, and sent to the Eastern Front. There he claimed that his finger was shot off in single combat against a Russian soldier. The Nazis rejected this, seeing instead ‘self-mutilation’ to evade military service. Exonerated he escaped the death penalty, but was quickly re-arrested for anti-Nazi statements and poems. Under the Heimtückegesetz, (1934 Nazi ‘Treachery Act’) he was convicted of “defeatist statements”. Sentenced to nine months imprisonment, he was then sent back to the Eastern Front in a ‘punishment battalion’. All this led to chronic hepatitis, typhus and severe frostbite.

He survived and returned to his family in 1945. But he was a bed-ridden, physical wreck in the last two final years of his life. He wrote his famous play in an inspired burst in eight days. He only heard it as a radio ‘Horspiel’. A wonderful rendition of the original can be heard here. In 1947, he died tragically – one day before its stage premier.

In a foreword to the play, Stephen Spender wrote: “This appears to be the life of a perfect victim of our times, a man whose soul must bear simply the impress of the world of dictatorship and war and post-war horror into which he was born. It is in some ways like the life of a man born and bred in a prison cell.”

I will briefly review the play itself below, however his most famous poem also deserves attention. The poem’s is known as “Sag Nein!” (Say No!) a phrase that echoes through the poem. The official title is “Dann gibt es nur eins!” (Then there is only one). It was written as a Manifesto, lying on his deathbed in Basle, just weeks before his death. While I think it rings out in the original German, the power certainly comes across in translation:

“You. Man at the machine and man in the workshop. If they order you tomorrow not to make any more water pipes or cooking pots – but steel helmets and machine guns. then there is only one:
Say no!
You. Girls behind the counter and girls in the office. If tomorrow they order you to fill grenades and mount scopes for sniper rifles, then there is only one thing:
Say no!
You. Factory owner. If they order you tomorrow, you should sell gunpowder instead of powder and cocoa, then there is only one thing:
Say no!
You. Researchers in the laboratory. If they order you tomorrow to invent a new death against the old life, then there is only one thing:
Say no!
You. Poet in your room. If they order you tomorrow not to sing love songs, you should sing hate songs, then there is only one thing:
Say no!
You. Doctor at the bedside. If they order you tomorrow, you should the men write fit for war, then there is only one thing:
Say no! …
You. Mother in Normandy and mother in the Ukraine, you, mother in Frisko and London, you, on the Hoangho and on the Mississippi, you, mother in Naples and Hamburg and Cairo and Oslo – mothers on all continents, mothers in the world, if they tomorrow command you to bear children, nurses for war hospitals and new soldiers for new battles, mothers in the world, then there is only one thing:
Says no! Moms say NO!…”

The power that this poem can wield is seen as recited by actress and artistic director of the Hamburg Theater, Ida Ehre. She announced Borchet’s death on stage after the premiere. In 1983, Ehre  addressed an open air meeting for the “Kunstler fur den Frieden” (Artists for peace).

II) Borchert and the Trümmerliteratur (rubble literature) or der Stunde Null (hour zero) or Heimkehrerliteratur (or home coming) literature

Borchert was the most famous of this school of writers. After the war ended they made their way home from the fronts, from prison, or from exile. But Germany was changed. Many had begun writing about their experiences in the prisoner-of-war (POW) camps of the Western Allies. The school gave rise to ‘Group 47’, and work from the German Democratic Republic (GDR). In West Germany, Heinrich Böll became the most famous exponent. Writers of the GDR largely adopted (and sometimes distorted) variations of ‘socialist realism’. Borchert differed as seen below.

Trümmerliteratur aimed at realism, but was also influenced by existentialism and writers of the Resistance: Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, through to the more realist Ignazio Silone. American realists such as Ernest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck were another influence. The Allies had distributed these authors in the POW camps. The overall literary result aimed at a psychological raw truth, but coupled with a ‘magical’ realism.

Returning veterans found an unrecognizable ‘home’, with only ‘rubble’ and poverty. Moreover they were shunned by those in comfort. Yet their writings reverberated among the wider German people. Many found their houses destroyed and were left with nothing. Another theme was also urgent – a collective guilt for the war, for Nazi fascism and what came to be known as the Holocaust.

III) The synopsis of the play and four ‘magic’ realisms

A stark tone is set from the prologue. In the ‘Horspiel’, the prologue is intoned by a separate voice from the actor playing the lead personage, Beckmann – the returning soldier. (This differs from the production reviewed below). Beckmamn is listed in the cast list as “one of them”. The play starts as follows:

“A man comes to Germany.
He was gone a long time, the man.
Very long. Maybe too long.
And he comes back very different from when he left. Outwardly it is a close relative of those creatures that stand in the fields to frighten the birds (and sometimes people in the evening). Inside – too. He’s been waiting out in the cold for a thousand days.
And as an entrance fee he had to pay with his kneecap. And after waiting a thousand nights outside in the cold, he finally comes home.
A man comes to Germany.”

Returned soldier Beckmann finds his wife has another man, and she turns Beckmann out the door. Very soon, the ‘magic’ of Borchert’s realism becomes vivid. Four examples will suffice.

First, a burping ‘Undertaker’ watches as Beckmann is about to drown himself in the Elbe in Hamburg. He is joined by an ‘Old Man’, an extraordinary meeting. It is revealed that the Undertaker is ‘Death’ and constantly burps from eating too many dead: “Overeating. Outright overeating. That’s all. You can’t stop burping these days. Burp! Sorry! “ The Old Man declares he is one “in whom no one believes any longer”. He is God, and unable to prevent his ‘children’ from killing themselves.

A second ‘magical’ device is the personification of ‘The Elbe’. When the soldier Beckmann attempts to drown himself, he wonders what has happened. He is enlightened but startled by Elbe – who replies:

“You thought I was a romantic young girl with a pale green complexion? The type of Ophelia with water lilies in her loose hair? You thought you could spend eternity in my sweet-smelling lily arms. No, my son, that was a mistake on your part. I’m neither romantic nor sweet-scented. A decent river stinks. Yes. After oil and fish. What do you want here?”

Beckmann replies he wants “to sleep” and escape the world. Elbe rejects him, not actually unkindly – urging him to struggle:

“You snotty-nosed suicide. No, you hear! Do you think because your wife doesn’t want to play with you anymore, because you have a limp and because your stomach is growling, that’s why you can crawl under my skirt here with me?… I don’t want your miserable little life… Let an old woman tell you: Live for a while. Let yourself be kicked Kick again!… I want to say something to you, very quietly, in your ear, you, come here: I fuck your suicide! You baby”.

Beckmann is dumped on the shore, where a young woman either takes pity on him, or being lonely enough, fancies him. She takes him home. A sojourn is interrupted by a one legged giant cripple on crutches. It turns out to be her dead husband – killed on the front. Of his absence “the girl” said: “Starved, frozen to death – what do I know. He has been missing since Stalingrad. That was three years ago.“

It is implied but not certain, that the giant cripple was one of the eleven soldiers of a total of 20, who corporal Beckmann had led to their death, in Russia. Beckmann: “I was three years away. In Russia.. In Stalingrad”. He was following orders to lead a foray into the surrounding forces.

The third ‘magical’ image comes fast – it is the “Other”. This turns out to be an inner dueling, contesting Other – presumably Beckmann’s own consciousness. At the end of the play, the Other be silent, and thus desert Beckmann when he is at his lowest. But now, he urges Beckmann to get rid of his guilt, or his “responsibility” (“Die Verantwortung”). How?

By giving it back to his commanding officer. Beckmann finds the commanding officer, who has been eating caviar for three years while Beckmann and the minions were: “under the snow and had steppe sand in their mouths. And we spooned hot water. But the boss had to eat caviar. For three years. And they shaved our heads off. Up to the neck – or up to the hair, it didn’t really matter. The head amputees were the happiest.”

The commanding officer demands to know what Beckmann wants. Beckmannreplies that he wishes to give back responsibility, explaining this will let him sleep to avoid a recurring nightmare.

This brings the fourth devastating ‘magical’ example – a blood soaked General wakes him, playing a giant xylophone made of bones: “He’s got skullcaps, shoulder blades, pelvic bones. And for the higher notes, arm bones and leg bones. Then come the ribs—many thousands of ribs. And finally, at the very end of the xylophone, where the very high notes are, there are knuckles, toes, teeth. Yes, the teeth come last.”

Beckmann argues that responsibility is “not just a word, a chemical formula, according to which light human flesh is transformed into dark earth. You can’t let people die for an empty word.” The commanding officer is horrified, even guilt-struck. But he pulls himself together – and brazenly takes it as a wonderful act fit for the stage. Booted out, and prodded by the Other – Beckmann find his way first to a stage director. His act is deemed ‘too true’ and shocking for people, and besides it is not art.

Finally Beckmann tries to find his parents. They have committed suicide to evade denazification: “The old Beckmanns could no longer… They exhausted themselves a bit in the third Reich.. What does an old man like that need to still wear uniform. And then he was against the Jews, you know that, son, you. The Jews… Been a little active, your old man. Was amply used by the Nazis.”

Almost his last hope – his parents are no longer. Now only his Other deserts him as all seems hopeless. The last anguishing words in the play are: “Where are you, other? You’re always there! Where are you now? Now answer me! now i need you answerer! Where are you, then? You are suddenly no more there! Where are you, answerer, where are you.. Where’s the old man who calls himself God? Why isn’t he talking!! Please answer! Why are you silent? Why? Doesn’t anyone have an answer? Doesn’t anyone answer??? Doesn’t anyone give an answer???

IV) The Berliner Ensemble production by director Michael Thalheimer; and Beckamnn and the other – Karin Wehlisch.

The production premiered on the 25 March 2022. It is up against historical precedents including the Horspiel and film adaptions, not to say significant prior stage productions. The production tries therefore to be novel and modern. A staging with a forest of hanging lights that entwine around the actors is effective.

However in the quest for novelty ridiculous staging is introduced. For example the Director is put on rollerskates (which he nearly falls off inadvertently), and the commanding officer is shaved in a slapstick foamy scene. All this is simply distracting and does not add anything. Perhaps the most useless novel feature is that Beckmann is almost continually screeching. The monotony that this introduces compares badly with clips that can be seen from prior stage productions and films.

Nonetheless this live performance of the play is worthwhile, and the anti-war message is propelled. The intense history of the Berliner Ensemble and the shadows of Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel are always worth visiting. I intend to return to that theme. But in the meantime, for this play – the old-fashioned Horspiel trumps the ‘novel’ stage.

Draussen vor der Tür is currently playing in the Berliner Ensemble. Tickets available here.

News from Berlin and Germany, 19 May 2022

Weekly news round-up from Berlin and Germany


20/05/2022

NEWS FROM BERLIN

Car ban in Berlin put on the brakes

The initiative “Volksentscheid Berlin Autofrei” (Berlin Car Free Referendum), which seeks for a ban on cars within Berlin’s S-Bahn ring, seems to have lost its current round: the way to a referendum was blocked by the Senate for the time being. For one thing, Berlin’s interior administration considers the draft law submitted for review to be inadmissible. Besides, the transport administration under Senator Bettina Jarasch (Greens) reflects it as politically unsocial. “We need car-free neighbourhoods and green oases, but not a car-free inner city,” Jarasch stressed. Source: nd.

The street that doesn’t interest anyone

For a long time, drawings and old telephones as audio guides about GDR times could be admired in the “Café Sibylle”, on Karl-Marx-Allee. But what can be seen there today since its reopening in 2018 has little to do with that. Achim Bahr, the chairman of the non-profit association Stalinbauten campaigns for the preservation of the cultural heritage along Karl-Marx-Allee, is more than disappointed with the current situation. For the Corbusier House and the Hansa Quarter, which also apply for cultural heritage status, there are rooms for exhibitions and information. On Karl-Marx-Allee, however, there is nothing similar to this. Source: nd.

 

NEWS FROM GERMANY

Baerbock speaks out in favour of NATO expansion

The 30 NATO foreign ministers are in Berlin to discuss the Ukraine war and the admission of new members. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (“die Grünen”) has held out the prospect of Sweden and Finland quickly joining NATO. The German government has already held talks with “all democratic parties”. According to Baerbock, numerous other NATO countries have also promised a rapid ratification process, too. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the other hand, has said Scandinavian countries were virtually “guest houses for terrorist organisations”. As expected, the enlargement plans have been met with rejection in Moscow. Source: DW.

Prosecutor demands five years in prison for 101-year-old defendant

In the trial of an alleged former guard of Sachsenhausen concentration camp, the prosecution demanded a five-year prison sentence for the 101-year-old accused. There is no doubt that Josef S. worked as an SS man in Sachsenhausen, said prosecutor Cyrill Klement. The accused had not only put up with the conditions in the camp, but had even made a career there, Klement added. He did not take the opportunity to be transferred to the front, either. The prosecution accuses Josef S. of aiding and abetting cruel and insidious murder in more than 3,500 cases. Source: rbb.

Former chancellor to be given up

The office of former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is to be officially given up. This is what the budget committee of the Bundestag wants to decide in its session on Thursday. Although terms like “Putin”, “Russia” or “Gazprom” do not come up, Schröder has been criticised for his closeness to Russian President. Instead, the liquidation is justified by the fact that “former Chancellor Schröder no longer has any continuing obligations from office.” The staff remaining in the office should wind up the office. The posts would not be filled after 19 May, and the holders would take on other duties outside the office. Source: taz.

Meat consumption is the problem

The German government wants to reduce the use of biofuels, which is long overdue. At a time when food shortages are looming worldwide, it is not justifiable to ferment grain into biofuel instead of feeding people with it. However, such debate ignores the place where the most food is wasted: the trough. Of the grain grown in Germany, about 20 per cent ends up directly on the plate, just under 10 per cent becomes fuel, and almost 60 per cent is used as animal feed. In the end, the animals fed with it also serve human nutrition. But direct use would feed many more people. Source: taz

Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka

Session III. 20th – 22nd May 2022 Berlin, Germany


19/05/2022

Was the EU’s terror listing of the LTTE, at the instigation of the US, the political trigger for the genocidal war against the Eelam Tamils?

As we see a confrontation taking place between the two sides of the geo-political divide as to who controls this strategically important island, while its economy collapses – the Eelam Tamils in the homeland and in the Diaspora will find the deliberations at this tribunal very instructive. And, as the world in witnessing again, in Ukraine, the failure of negotiations resulting in a terrible war, the discussions at the Berlin Tribunal will not only be of concern to the Eelam Tamils, but to all those concerned in peace through negotiations.

The Tribunal will investigate the following inter-related areas

  • Who holds the primary responsibility in the war against the Eelam Tamils?

  • Is the United Nations’ Human Rights Council manipulated by the perpetrators?

  • Was the war of extermination of Eelam Tamils a threat to peace in the Indian Ocean?

  • What is the significance of the international criminalisation of Tamil activists?

  • Is the destruction of social progress made in Tamil Eelam, particularly concerning women, part of the genocidal process?

  • Is the ongoing structural genocide supported by the external perpetrators?

In articulating the tribunal as that of the people, on Saturday 21 May from 2.00 – 4.00 pm (Berlin time) 30 leading human rights activists from Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America will engage in the Tribunal virtually in a manifestation of people-to-people solidarity.

The third session of the tribunal – like the Dublin sessions – will take place under the aegis of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal. As with the previous sessions, the organisers will be the Internationaler Menschenrechtsverein Bremen in collaboration with the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka – Dublin

The Tribunal will open at 6pm on Friday and continue on Saturday and Sunday. Attendance has to be regulated, and if you wish to take part, please contact imrvbremen@gmail.com as early as you can. More information here–

Donations can be sent to: IMRV – Germany, IBAN: DE77 2001 0020 0009 9292 07 or GoFundMe

Berlin Police Attack Demonstrators Mourning Shireen Abu Akleh

After violent policing, CDU now want to give police even more power against demonstrators


16/05/2022

On 15th May 2022, Nakba Day, people demonstrated throughout the world for Palestinian rights. This year’s demos were particularly important following the murder of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, shot in the head by Israeli snipers a few days earlier, while she was wearing a press vest. Thousands demonstrated n London, Bahrain, Australia and Ramallah. In Berlin, however, all demonstrations were banned.

Just over a week ago, I wrote about earlier recent bans in Berlin, fuelled by Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism and the election of Berlin mayor Franziska Giffey on a law and order platform. At the time, many thought that these bans were a one-off, but it seems that something more permanent is developing. The Berlin police and media are increasingly insinuating that any demonstration for the rights of Palestinians is in itself anti-semitic.

Rally by Jewish Organisations Also Banned

Let’s take the case of 15 May. Palästina Spricht planned to have an information tent on Oranienplatz at the weekend with music, films and discussion, followed by a demonstration on Sunday. On the day that Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was murdered, the Berlin police banned all activities for Palestine for Nakba weekend. Their excuse was that “the protests presented an immediate risk of anti-Semitic chants, intimidation and violence”.

A second “rally for freedom of opinion, press and assembly” was registered to protest the ban. This was also banned, as was a rally by the Jüdische Stimme (Jewish Voice, an organisation of Jewish socialists) to mourn Abu Akleh’s death. Police argued that both protests fell under the same ban as the Nakba Day demos, as they were “Ersatzveranstaltungen”, i.e. replacement events.

Before I go on, just stop and think about this. The police can ban a demonstration for dubious reasons. Once they have done this, we have no recourse to complain, because any action to protest the ban can itself be prevented using the same legislation. Even people who are not sympathetic to the Palestinian cause should be deeply concerned about this worrying exercise of state power.

In reaction to the ban, Palästina Spricht issued a statement saying “this latest prohibition reveals the ongoing, coordinated, structural attempt to eliminate our social, political and communal existence in Germany… It is an alarming symptom of unwarranted state repression of certain groups – be it Palestinian, anti-racist or refugee voices. For us to exist has always meant to resist. We ask for your solidarity in our resistance and our existence. We will not be silenced.”

One event which was not banned was a ceremony at Bebelplatz, the square which is infamous for being the site of Nazi book burning. An advent announced a declaration of the “Antisemite of the year” contained a picture of a donkey’s arse on which you could see the logos of Amnesty International (!) and BDS.

The event was eventually withdrawn “to de-escalate the situation” following protests by Jewish activists. Justice senator Lena Kreck said that the Event “was not a good contribution to the important engagement against antisemitism. Nonetheless, the organisers, Solidarisch gegen Hass, continue to receive money from Berlin’s State Programme against Right-Wing Extremism, Racism, and Antisemitism.

Police Attack Flash Mob

As a reaction to the bans, Palestinians and their supporters organised a flashmob on Hermannplatz on Sunday afternoon. Flashmobs are a perfectly legitimate form of protest which are increasingly used by activists denied a voice in the mainstream media. Yet few flashmobs receive the excessive and violent police response as yesterday’s, with reportedly over 100 people being arrested, some violently.

Within 5 minutes, the flashmob was broken up by police, and all participants were kettled. One Palestinian activist, Ramsy Kilani, was not part of the action, but was aggressively thrown into the kettle by police. The police then strode across Hermannplatz making arrests. People were taken away for individually shouting “Free Palestine” or for simply asking what was going on. We can assume that they used racial profiling as they disproportionately picked up people who looked like they had an Arab background.

After being kept in the kettle in hot weather for 1-2 hours, all protestors had to give their details to police and were banned from Hermannplatz for 24 hours. Eventually, they cleared all of Hermannplatz, even telling the people eating ice creams on the square that they must leave. According to BZ, 1,100 police were deployed, at taxpayers’ expense. After questioning from protestors, police said that they had come from Karlsruhe and Saxony.

Reactions to The Police Attacks – Voices From The Kettle

Former Member of the Bundestag Christine Buchholz was at the protest. She expressed outrage that “the grief for the Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, murdered by the Israeli army on Wednesday was criminalised.” Buchholz continued: “the demonstration ban is a scandal and the criminalisation of this flashmob is absolutely disproportionate”.

“…the Nakba demonstration ban was in practice extended by the Berliner police to a ban of any Palestinian visibility in the Berlin public space…”

Pawel Wargen was also in the kettle. He said: “German remembrance has been reduced to the treatment of fascism as some kind of aberration, carefully obscuring the long-standing tradition of colonial violence that shaped it. Germany’s efforts to whitewash Israeli settler-colonialism and silence its critics today is proof that the lessons of the past are not only being ignored — they are actively suppressed.”

Majed Abusalema from Palästina Spricht, who was hospitalised after being manhandled by the police tweeted: “From supporting people who experienced police violence to being a direct the victim. The German police presence in Berlin was terrorising. They almost dislocated my shoulders, I can not move it for 2 weeks. I could not think ever I would be stopped for wearing my Pali Keffiyeh.”

Majed told me this morning: “I just come back from the hospital. They were so violent as if they know the target. I now have a sling for my arm and shoulder. Those idiots went too far, they copy Israeli soldiers. I am now in medicine.” Majed’s sister Shahd, a respected activist in the UK said: “I cannot count how many things have gone wrong here morally and legally. I wish I could hug him [Majed] but being miles away, all I can do is tell the world about this crazy world we live in”-

Ramsy Kilani said “the Nakba demonstration ban was in practice extended by the Berliner police to a ban of any Palestinian visibility in the Berlin public space. Already, wearing clothing in the colours of the Palestinian flag – red, green, white or black – or a Keffiyeh, a so-called Palestine scarf – results in police checks, arrests and in some cases police violence.”.

Rohit, a British-Indian protestor, was another person in the kettle. He said: “after providing my ID to the police and giving my personal information, I refused to get my picture taken. One of the cops told me that I don’t have a choice and responded that ‘even if I have to physically hold to make you do it, you will have to get your photo taken’. The police presence was personally terrorising for me and made me feel very unsafe.”

Liad Hussain Kantorowicz, an artist, activist and member of the Jewish Bund, was also on Hermannplatz. She stated:

“what we experienced in Berlin yesterday is a de-facto ban on wearing a Keffiyeh or any traditional Palestinian embroidery, or carrying the Palestinian flag – none of which are illegal. At this moment Palestinians and supporters of their struggle aren’t allowed to demonstrate, mourn, express joy. They’re very close to not being able to breathe in the public space. It’s a dangerous regression in freedom of speech and democracy in Germany, and unfortunately it’s parallel to a process we’ve seen over the last few days in Palestine, where Israeli police arrested and beat people for carrying a Palestinian flag during Shireen Abu Akleh’s funeral. It is ludicrous to call such acts as anti-semitic, particularly when corona deniers and querdenkers who are much associated with antisemitism were given a green light to demonstrate for months.”

Future Bans to Come?

Writing in the Berliner Zeitung last week, lawyer Ralf Michaels said: “As the Federal Court stresses: the ban and breaking up of an assembly can only be considered as a defence against dangers to elementary legal interests. The prohibition of an assembly can only be considered as an Ultimata Ratio if the damages cannot be stopped in any other way”.

Michaels is clear that this is not what happens in practice, causing him to ask “are all Muslims now under general suspicion? And what about the Jewish-Israeli participants? A solidarity rally for Abu Akleh registered by Jewish organisations was also banned.”

And yet the Berlin CDU’s reaction was to call for more and wider bans. Rbb reports that the CDU are demanding a reduction in the threshold needed by the authorities to ban demos. We can only presume that the banned demonstrations will disproportionately be those of migrants, Palestinians and the Left. Indeed the CDU paper specifically said that it wanted to ban “demonstrations against the state of Israel”.

Wieland Hoban from the executive of the Jüdische Stimme said “the state’s excessive, repressive response demonstrates its anxiety over support for Palestine, which makes it all the more important not to back down.”

The European Legal Support Centre reports that the police justified the bans by saying “gatherings that critically discuss the fate of Palestinians in Israeli-occupied territories are thus likely to mobilise people who, in specific cases, may be tempted to take actions or make statements that are not compatible with German legislation”.

In other words, the ban on Palestinian demonstration goes hand-in-hand with manufactured stories of “imported Antisemitism” which try to make dark-skinned Muslims responsible for past crimes of the German state.

What Do We Do?

In reaction to Sunday’s events, Wieland Hoban from the executive of the Jüdische Stimme said “the state’s excessive, repressive response demonstrates its anxiety over support for Palestine, which makes it all the more important not to back down.” This means that the Left in Germany and Berlin, particularly the non-Palestinian Left, has a great responsibility.

As Michael Sappir from Jewish-Israeli Dissent (JID) argued in an article we published on theleftberlin yesterday “The real and current balance of power between Israelis and Palestinians could not be clearer, but this is rarely mentioned in public debate in Germany. This must urgently change.”

Opposing the criminalisation of Palestinians in Germany is not just about fighting colonialism and racism (although this alone should be second nature to us). Do we really want a repressive and violent police to be given more powers to control our right to assembly? Do we want a crackdown on flashmobs, where participants are hospitalised?

If we don’t then it is time for the German Left to take a stand. I don’t believe that most German socialists support the murderous Israeli state – more that because of their country’s history, they are hesitant to say anything at all. But heavy policing used against Palestinians now will be used against us later. To misquote Pastor Martin Niemöller, first they came for the Palestinians – do we really want to have nobody on our side when they come for us?

There is some room for hope, and I think it lies with the younger generation of Germans, who are not all bogged down in old debates and can see the violent suppression of the Palestinians for what it is. Last Wednesday, a public meeting on the role of the Left in supporting Palestine was supported by SDS Berlin, the LINKE student group, and solid Nord-Berlin, the party’s youth wing.

Regarding the demo bans, Fridays for Future tweeted “Fridays for Future condemns @polizeiberlin for their decision to ban the Nakba commemoration demonstrations this weekend organized by Palestine Speaks. Freedom to assemble is a fundamental human right and we are appalled by this act of repression”, adding “Climate justice means justice for Palestine, solidarity with Palestinian organisers in Germany and across the world!”

There is the potential to overcome the specific problems that the German Left has with Palestine. This may require patient debate from those of us who are already active, but there are no short cuts to building a mass movement. Yesterday’s police actions cannot be allowed to take place again. This requires a movement which doesn’t just oppose police repression but stands clearly and loudly on the side of the Palestinians.