The Left Berlin News & Comment

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Month: November 2025

Gaza Biennale

An art project rooted in displacement


18/11/2025

“The significance of this project lies in its ability to place art at the forefront of a global awakening, to challenge the art field to reckon with the weight of genocide, and to present a model of resilience, and fulfill a desperate need to recognize that the depth and complexity of human life. The right of a people to exist with dignity on their land is fundamental to the purpose of art itself. The work we present goes beyond breaking news, media coverage, and statistics. Despite the sorrow and pain brought by the circumstances, and amid the scent of death, artists in Gaza plant seeds of hope for humanity, not only in Gaza but across the world, through creativity and innovation.”

Al Risan Art Museum (The Forbidden Museum)

Defying genocide, Gazan artists have continued creating—they resist seemingly endless displacements, bombardments, and forced starvation through their art. The Gaza Biennale, initiated in partnership with the Al Risan Art Museum (the Forbidden Museum) in the West Bank, scatters their messages like seeds around the world, dispersing them through local networks of solidarity to create new hybrids. Transcending geography, the Gaza Biennale expands across a human topography that cannot possibly be besieged.

The Gaza Biennale Berlin Pavilion unfolds with exhibitions at venues including Flutgraben, AGIT, Khan Aljanub, Museum Called Baby and Alternatives Denkmal für Deutschland, and programs hosted at Galerie & Atelier Arabisk, Casino Café Clinic for Social Medicine, Spore Initiative and KM28 among others, as well as around the streets of Berlin. With a collaboratively curated public program, the Gaza Biennale Berlin Pavilion invites people of all ages and backgrounds to join in talks, workshops, screenings and other gatherings to practice listening, healing and mourning; share joy and sorrow; and cultivate a communal strength that will ultimately be the key to dismantling oppressive systems based on fragmentation and extractivism—structural relics that lie at the root of the occupation of Palestine and colonial violence worldwide.

The Gaza Biennale Berlin Pavilion is the product of overwhelming popular support. It is realized solely through the effort and personal engagement of numerous volunteers, exemplifying the power of collectivity to not only overcome repressive official infrastructures but build a new one: made from and by the community, small in its constituent parts, but endlessly expansive in its unity.

The opening weekend events can be found here.

No propaganda in our schools!

Letter to Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family regarding promotion of the Nova Exhibition


17/11/2025

Editor’s Note: On 3 November 2025, the Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Familie (Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family) sent an email to the principals of Berlin secondary schools to actively promote the Nova Exhibition. Mirja Leibnitz and Sabine Bretz wrote this response: “We believe that this constitutes a serious violation of school law, the Beutelsbach Consensus, educational professionalism, and the duty of care towards students. For this reason, we submitted an administrative and professional supervisory complaint to the Berlin Senator for Education on 14 November 2025, on behalf of 53 parents, educators, and other individuals. We are making this text template available for free use and call on others to submit further complaints.” You can find more information on the Familien für Palästina Instagram page.

Dear Senator,

We hereby submit an administrative and supervisory complaint against Mr. Ulrich Hagemann (Department II B 4 – Specialist Supervision of the Social Sciences), his superiors, and the Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family pursuant to Article 17 of the Basic Law and Article 34 of the Constitution of Berlin.

The reason is the email sent on 3 November 2025 to principals of Berlin secondary schools, titled “Info and Support Materials – NOVA Exhibition,” which promoted class visits to the Nova Exhibition. The same email also recommended a “Pedagogical Toolkit for Teachers, School Social Work, and School Psychology” created by MIND-Prevention gGmbH as accompanying material.

Mr. Hagemann’s email (dated 3 November 2025), as well as the accompanying letter and the “Supporting Materials to the NOVA Exhibition” from MIND-Prevention gGmbH, are attached to this complaint.

The promotion of the exhibition and the toolkit via email to the principals of Berlin secondary schools constitutes a serious violation of the following legal foundations and duties:

1. Violations of §§ 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the Berlin School Act

The explicit recommendation of the Nova Exhibition and its pedagogical toolkit violates or disregards key educational policy duties and legal requirements, which are:

  • Violation of § 1 – Educational mandate

The educational mandate of the school is to provide students with a “maximum degree of judgment and thorough knowledge” and to “strive for progressive, peaceful understanding among nations.”

The Nova Exhibition presents a selective depiction of the 7 October 2023 attacks, whose exact circumstances remain unclear due to the obstruction of independent investigations by the Israeli government. (See Human Rights Council Fifty-sixth session, Detailed findings on the military operations and attacks carried out in the Occupied Palestinian Territory from 7 October to 31 December 2023* Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, available here, last accessed on 12 November 2025.)

According to its website, the Nova Exhibition aims to “give visitors the opportunity to responsibly explore and bear witness to the events of 7 October and their consequences.” In reality, however, the exhibition completely omits both the human rights violations committed by the Israeli state in the Palestinian territories prior to 7 October 2023—well documented, among others, by the human rights organization B’Tselem (see B’Tselem Database on fatalities and house demolitions, last accessed 12 November 2025)—and the subsequent response of the Israeli government, which involved severe war crimes and crimes against humanity against the civilian population of Gaza as well as the broader Palestinian population. (See, among others, Al-Haq From the Field; Amnesty International.)

  • Violation of § 2(1) and § 4(2) – Right to discrimination-free education

“Every young person has a right to future-oriented, discrimination-free schooling and education, regardless in particular of any possible disability, ethnic origin, racist or antisemitic ascription, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, faith, religious or political beliefs, language, nationality, or the social and family background of the student or their guardians, or for comparable reasons.”

and

“Schools are obliged to protect pupils from discrimination on the grounds listed in § 2 paragraph 1.”

The explicit recommendation to visit the non-contextualized exhibition—as described under the violation of § 1—violates the right of Palestinian students to discrimination-free schooling, regardless of ethnic origin, racist ascription, or religious or political beliefs. Neither the Nova Exhibition nor the recommended accompanying pedagogical materials address the events before or after 7 October, even in the most basic sense. This concerns in particular—though not exclusively—the crime of apartheid against Palestinians committed by Israel (documented, among others, by Amnesty International, last accessed 12 November 2025); as well as the war crimes against the Palestinian civilian population following 7 October, which have been classified as genocidal.

  • Violation of § 3 (2):

“Students shall in particular learn independent learning, critical use of information, independent formation of opinion, openness toward other opinions, honesty and self-criticism, appropriate use of media, logical thinking, conflict-free resolution and the ability to endure conflict.”

The recommendation of the already described one-sided, non-contextualized exhibition and the accompanying “pedagogical” toolkit is not compatible with the goals of “independent learning, critical use of information, independent formation of opinion, openness toward other opinions and appropriate use of media”

The recommended pedagogical toolkit does not promote any of these aims. It partially relies on unsupported claims rather than facts (e.g., Supporting Materials, p. 2: “Thousands of armed terrorists”—since the events have not been independently investigated, this vague number lacks any empirical basis). It claims that the Nova Exhibition teaches “facts” without specifying which facts or in what context (Supporting Materials, p. 2). It pre-empts independent opinion formation by interpreting the attack as purely antisemitic while excluding the political-historical context (e.g., Supporting Materials, p. 11: “October 7 was a crime against people because they were Jews”). It undermines critical information use and appropriate media literacy by providing one-dimensional definitions as the only option (e.g., Supporting Materials, p. 5: “Zionism: recognition of the existence of Israel and the right of Jews to their own state”), and by citing a Spiegel article as its source.

  • Violation of § 3 (3):

Education shall enable students, among other things, to develop respectful, equal, and nonviolent relationships, justice for all, understanding of their own and other cultures, peaceful coexistence, and intercultural competence.

The exhibition and the recommended accompanying pedagogical material— as already explained—contradict the goals of “peaceful coexistence,” “intercultural competence,” and “justice for all.”

2. Violation of the Beutelsbach Consensus

The recommendation to visit the Nova Exhibition fundamentally violates the principles anchored in the Beutelsbach Consensus: the prohibition of overwhelming (no indoctrination), the requirement to address political and scientific controversies in the classroom, and the empowerment of students to analyze their own interests in political situations.

Prohibition of overwhelming:

The aim of the Nova Exhibition is to make the events of 7 October 2023 “immersive” and “emotionally experienceable.” To evoke emotional identification with the events, elements of emotional overwhelming are used—meaning that the emotions generated in participants can no longer be critically reflected upon. The political complexity of the situation is thus reduced to emotional simplicity. (See, for example, The Nova Exhibition – immersive entertainment and deceptive unambiguity, Debate, last accessed 12 November 2025.)

Requirement of controversiality:

By excluding any historical and political context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Nova Exhibition and the recommended accompanying toolkit prevent a controversial engagement with the topic, one that incorporates multiple perspectives and enables students to critically analyze their own interests in a political situation.

3. Violation of pedagogical professionalism

A violation of pedagogical professionalism occurred through the recommendation of the accompanying “pedagogical toolkit” by MIND prevention gGmbH. It must be noted that another project by MIND prevention gGmbH has already been deemed scientifically invalid by three separate expert reviews. These reviews criticized, in particular:

  • the lack of “presentation of empirically verifiable hypotheses,”
  • the “deficit-oriented view of people with migration backgrounds and Muslim religiosity,”
  • and the assumption that antisemitic attitudes are “per se given” in a “Muslim cultural sphere”

Nonetheless, the supporting materials for the Nova Exhibition—showing similar shortcomings—were recommended in the 3 November 2025 letter to all Berlin secondary school principals, without, to our knowledge, undergoing any quality review. It also remains unclear based on which criteria this material was developed, funded, and recommended.

Professional standards were thus ignored, and materials were promoted that do not meet the requirements of critical, differentiated political education.

4. Violation of the duty of care toward students

The exhibition contains explicit depictions of armed violence and sexualized violence that are unsuitable for minors and may trigger (re-)traumatization.
The deliberate emotional overwhelming of students contradicts fundamental principles of mental health and child welfare.

Demands

We demand:

  • The immediate withdrawal of the promotion of the Nova Exhibition to Berlin schools.
  • Disciplinary measures against Mr. Ulrich Hagemann and the responsible staff of the Senate Department.
  • Compliance with the Berlin School Act and the Beutelsbach Consensus, as well as the development of balanced, multiperspective educational materials.

We request an immediate response and the initiation of necessary measures. Otherwise, we reserve the right to consider legal action and to forward the complaint to higher authorities.

Kind regards

Mirja Leibnitz

Sabine Bretz

CC to:

Senate Department for Education, Youth and Family (Administrative Supervision)

Berlin House of Representatives, Committee on Education, Youth and Family

beschwerdemanagement@senbjf.berlin.de (https://www.berlin.de/sen/bjf/service/qu alitaets-und-beschwerdemanagement/)

GEW Berlin, State Committee for Migration, Diversity and Anti-Discrimination (LAMA)
GEW Berlin, Working Group on Peace Education and Peace Policy

State Parents’ Committee of Berlin

The German state’s unconditional support for the genocide of the Palestinian people puts pressure on the Berlin judicial system

With another prosecution of From the River to the Sea, the German state is trying to increase repression


16/11/2025

The repression of the struggle for the rights of the Palestinian people is nothing new in Germany. For decades, this country has been, among many other things, outlawing Palestinian associations, banning demonstrations and dismissing anti-Zionist journalists from its public media. Parliament passed the 2019 non-binding resolution against the BDS movement after accusing BDS of using Nazi slogans. There has been a surge in the cancellation of events involving individuals and associations that support this peaceful movement, all under the umbrella of the fight against antisemitism.

Since October 2023, the German state has intensified its efforts on all fronts to promote a single narrative that portrays Israel as the eternal victim, denying the occupation and apartheid in Palestine and describing the genocide in Gaza exclusively as Israel’s ‘self-defence’.

At the same time, the state and all kinds of private and public institutions repeat, that Germany denazified itself, and purged its institutions of the worst antisemitic criminals. They claim they had re-educated a population that was a victim of Nazism rather than collaborators. Finally they  claim they are now being invaded by irrational antisemitic barbarians importing antisemitism.

To justify all of Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity, the German state and its servile public media and most private media have not only repeated and amplified word for word each and every one of the lies of the genocidal state.

Journalists and German journalists’ associations have spent two years accusing without evidence their Palestinian colleagues of being Hamas, and therefore legitimate targets. This past October, the German public broadcaster ZDF – and most of the German media – betrayed its own journalist collaborator in Gaza, Ahmed Abu Mutair, who was killed along with an 8-year-old boy, Bashar al-Zaanen, the son of his colleague Mohammed al-Zaanen, who was also injured. They accused these journalists – whose names they did not even mention when reporting the deadly attack – of being terrorists, thus justifying their murder.

he German press giant Springer Press, has a right-wing editorial line that is clearly anti-immigration, anti-Islamist, Zionist and in favour of rearming Germany. It  is coordinating with Israel to publish fake news that derailed the negotiations for a ceasefire in September 2024. Springer Press  also accuses Palestinian journalists of staging photos to spread what they classify as fake news, i.e. the well-documented famine in Gaza. For example they claim the work of  Palestinian photojournalist Anas Zayed Fteiha as fraudulent. Seeking truth and justice Anas initiated legal proceedings in Germany against Springer for defamation. Conveniently this was promptly dismissed on absurdly formal grounds, as he could not present an original document or one with electronic certification bearing the signature of the journalist in Gaza.

The press has also defended and justified the actions of the German state, both internally and externally. Germany has fervently supported the genocide, sending weapons, voting against or abstaining from UN resolutions for a ceasefire, repeating and amplifying all of Israel’s lies. Germany was the only country to join Israel in its defence in the genocide trial it faces at the International Court of Justice.

Internally, the German state and its lackey press have demonised the entire solidarity movement with Palestine. The press has published hundreds of articles justifying state repression and violence against pro-Palestinian activists. The latter are branded as “internal terrorists”, making them legitimate targets to be taken down and punished. Several legal attempts in Germany against the media’s smear campaign against the Palestine solidarity movement were systematically dismissed by the country’s courts.

From the river to the sea, the state’s trump card

One weapon of the state, especially in Berlin, to violently attack demonstrations, carry out mass arrests and bring hundreds of activists to trial is the phrase ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’.  Numerous first-instance trials that have determined that this slogan, used for decades around the world, is not exclusive to Hamas. Yet the police arrest those who say it with increasing violence.  The state’s legal team under orders  cannot admit defeat.

This slogan is now on trial in the second instance in the Berlin criminal court. The trial, which will last ten sessions, reeks of irregularities. It includes judges who have previously ruled that they consider this slogan a terrorist symbol. The trial, which is being held in high-security courtrooms, involves sharing photos on Instagram of Hamas soldiers using phrases that make the German state uncomfortable, perfectly portrays the establishment of this country.

An establishment that fiercely defends the psychopathic Zionist soldiers of the IDF. This establishment not only refused to prosecute IDF soldiers as other countries do, but also invites them to speak publicly in this city. For example the guard of the torture prison in Sde Teiman Elkana Federman, was invited to speak at the Nova exhibition on 28 October 2025 and presented as a hero. This exhibition cost Berlin’s coffers €1.4 million at a time of ostentatious austerity and cuts.

This same city persecutes, arrests and prosecutes any show of sympathy or admiration for individuals and groups fighting against the terrorist state of Israel. The right to self-defence of occupied peoples is ratified by international law. Yet Germany, as all colonising powers have done against indigenous populations, has declared Hamas (and several armed groups) a terrorist group and banned all its activities in the country. This effectively denies the right to self-government and self-defence of the population of Gaza. Germany demands Gazans ‘simply’ accept its fate, lay down its arms and abandon the coveted strip.

We witness an  elaborate spectacle in the 10-session trial – over a few photos and a slogan. The  allied press has already practically declared the accused guilty. It is nothing more than a pathetic and costly attempt to justify the increasingly authoritarian actions of the German state. A state in financial and moral decline, which is testing the limits of its institutions and testing its population with propaganda. That state once again divides its citizens into ‘them or us’, with increasingly openly Nazi rhetoric and word choice. It is attempting to emerge from its crisis through rearmament and continued war.

For now, the line of containment has been the courts.  Despite textbook lawfare against pro-Palestinian activism, the activists have remained steadfast, most fighting their cases to the end. They have mostly so far,  won with verdicts in their favour, or with relatively favourable deals. But this may worsen if this case sets a precedent.

This latest trial for ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ is important. But it is just one of thousands and thousands of trials that the movement faces with dignity and using facts and truths. These  the German state lacks, whose ‘Staatsräson’ has portrayed it as what it is: a racist, fascist state rotten with love for genocide.

Antifascist, in solidarity with Palestine, stop the AfD youth group

Statement by the Palestine Action Alliance, Leipzig


15/11/2025

At the end of November, the AfD is founding a new youth organisation.

In doing this, the AfD wants to tie militant Neo-Nazis and their networks closer to the party. The fascists in the AfD are following a strategy of insurrection. They want a leadership of terror in the tradition of the Nazis. The mass deportation of millions of people is only possible with massive violence and terror—against Muslims, against people with a migration background, against queer people, and against all people who do not fit in their world view. That means all of us.

We know that anti-Muslim racism is part of the DNA of the AfD. This is made possible by the racism in the middle of society. Since the start of the genocide in Gaza, state violence against Muslim people has grown immensely.

The AfD is markedly pro-Israel, supports its genocidal government, and dreams of ethnic cleansing of migrants in Germany in the way that Israel carries it out against Palestinians. It is not hard to imagine that if the AfD were to take power, Palestinians and Muslim people would be the first victims of their rule of terror. This makes it even more important that the Palestine movement involves itself massively in the fight against Fascism.

For the end of November, the Widersetzen (resistance) alliance is organising massive protests against the formation of the AfD youth organisation. The Palestine movement is part of this, as consistent anti-fascism is anti-racist.

Two years of genocide have shown what the people in power are capable of. But the last two years have also shown that people striving for justice and will not be silent.

It was the Palestine movement which, despite state repression and massive police violence, was on the streets protesting against the massacre of people in Gaza. It was the Palestine movement, which, despite media sanctions and smear campaigns, stayed on the streets and demanded an end to genocide, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing. It was the Palestine movement which initiated the largest anti-war movement in recent decades. And it is the Palestine movement which has the power to make an important contribution towards strengthening the fight against Fascism and to blockade the AfD, including their youth organisation.

Part of this resistance contains factions whose positions on Palestine we reject. We are convinced that this has got to change. We can achieve this at best by working together with such factions to resist fascism, and as part of this to confidently fight for our positions.

Free Palestine! Stop the AfD Youth!

This statement is supported by the following organisations:

  • Chemnitz4Palestine
  • Free Palestine Bonn
  • Gaza Komitee Köln
  • Erfurt Unsilenced
  • Thawra Hamburg
  • Jena für Palästina
  • Palästina Spricht München
  • Gaza Komitee Berlin
  • The Left Berlin
  • Students for Palestine Freiburg
  • Palästina Solidarität Köln
  • Free Palestine Dresden
  • Palästinaaktionsbündnis Leipzig

This statement was originally written in German. Translation: Phil Butland

 Digital propaganda and Israel’s war narrative on TikTok

How Israel weaponises TikTok to sanitise occupation and sell war as social media content


14/11/2025

TikTok Logo

Scientists and communication strategists within Israel’s armed forces have highlighted the importance of the IDF’s presence on digital media as part of a broader effort to promote and justify its positions and objectives. The digital persona of the new generation of soldiers has become an inseparable and distinctive aspect of their military service. This strategy serves both military communication and psychological warfare, employing posts aimed at shaping public perception of what the Israeli occupation forces describe as a “calling” or “service to the nation.”

Already, numerous videos have surfaced online showing Israeli soldiers bombing while casually smoking shisha, bulldozing cars into apartment buildings, or taking mocking tours titled “This was my home”, ridiculing displaced Palestinians—scenes that no sane person could ever imagine as part of our shared reality.

The official IDF page on TikTok features everything from tank advertisements—“Get to know the jeep model that races across rough terrain at incredible speed, controlled by the driver of the military vehicle through a touchscreen”—to posts with Holocaust survivors, greetings, female soldiers, and young recruits vlogging their “war day routine”.

No, this isn’t an episode of Black Mirror—it is one of the most degrading and hollow moments in modern human and world history.

The short videos are truly shocking, though devoid of explicit violence. Green-uniformed soldiers with state-of-the-art weapons in hand, accompanied by background music and sentimental speeches—by historical or random figures—compose one of the most hypocritical tributes to militarism, nationalism, and authoritarianism.

“When terrorists attack us with rockets—don’t worry! We have the Iron Dome, whose job is to stop them…”

The Israeli army’s profile advertises peaceful and “safe” weapons—weapons that kill, but for a good cause.

“Accidents happen,” a female soldier later informs us, referring to certain “incidents” that took place in Judea and Samaria.

Specifically, Israeli soldiers vandalised local residents’ property, and of course, the IDF’s upper command rushed to contain the situation—presenting it as an isolated event supposedly incompatible with Israel’s moral code.

At the very same time that thousands upon thousands of children, women, the elderly, and civilians are suffering—being maimed, disabled, or killed—TikTok features, unbelievably, a post dedicated to World Autism Awareness Day.

Liri is a young scientist who contributes to a military programme designed to support the participation of individuals on the autism spectrum.

An army that kills—or rather, that massacres—now claims to care about the right of people with autism to participate in war. In other words, the IDF seeks to break down barriers of discrimination within the production of the human war machine.

Meanwhile, the people of Israel are themselves living through difficult times that affect their emotional vulnerability. For this reason, specialised scientists and teachers are involved in programmes that provide emotional support to individuals on the spectrum.

“Everyone can play an important role in defending their homeland…!” a soldier tells us before signing off in the video.

A little later, with a trap track by Gucci Mane playing in the background, he uses a trending format to ask his followers: “I hope you’ve never supported Hamas terrorists?”

The vulgarity and humiliation of human existence—and the hypocrisy—continue with the next trending post: the one we all know as “Never Have I Ever…” They share their experiences with followers, singing, laughing, and dreaming about their future in the most warlike of war industries.

The majority of people on the platform representing the Israeli army are, unfortunately, young—barely reaching thirty years of age. This observation only further highlights the character, moral code, and objectives of the nationalist state of Israel. It shapes generations and citizens with authoritarian, aggressive, and fascistic traits — people who will trample human rights, fight every trace of resistance, and, if necessary (as is already happening), disregard international institutions and laws, holding their heads high, wearing helmets of darkness, and wielding relentless violence.

Surely, humanity has walked—and continues to walk—the path of atrocities many times, including that of ethnic cleansing. Yet today, these conditions are being shamelessly and ideologically legitimised. The rejection of international and universal principles, combined with the tolerance of other states and the active support for Israel’s war machine, constitutes a murder of truth, of democracy, and of the very essence of human civilisation.

Let us not grow used to horror, for what we tolerate in silence will one day come for us too.