The Left Berlin News & Comment

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Category: Campaign of the week

Activestills

Documenting Israeli colonial violence and Palestinian resistance


09/12/2025

Activestills was formed by activist photographers who wanted to document and support Palestinian popular resistance. What started as a small group has grown into a larger collective of Palestinian and international photographers, as well as Israelis who reject Israeli settler colonialism, while understanding their position as being part of it. The collective sees its work as part of the struggle against all forms of oppression, racism, and violations of the basic right to freedom.  Activestills’ constantly evolving online archive consists of more than 60,000 photos documenting life and death under Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid.

Since 2005, the Activestills collective has been documenting Israeli colonial violence and Palestinian resistance. The exhibition Documenting Life, Death, and Resistance in Palestine presents a visual narrative that spans two decades of struggle, shedding light on continuities of violence culminating in Israel’s present-day genocidal war on Gaza – while also portraying moments of Palestinian resistance and everyday resilience amidst incessant oppression and dehumanisation. 

The exhibition, last shown in the Finnish Museum of Photography and now coming to Berlin, includes documentation of attacks on Gaza and the current genocide, the ongoing ethnic cleansing across Palestine, as well as the remains of villages depopulated by Zionist forces in 1948.

Activestills’ work strives to portray Palestinians not only as victims but also as individuals and a diverse people with political agency in their struggle. The collective perceives its continuous practice of documentation and archiving as a form of counter-narrative, as well as decolonial memory and knowledge production. Hence actively challenging dominant media representations and hegemonic historiographies, while resisting the delegitimisation, silencing, and erasure of Palestinian lives and heritage. 

In the German context, Activestills – Documenting Life, Death, and Resistance in Palestine plays a vital role in destabilising the often tendentious discourse within the dominant political and media landscape by centering Palestinian perspectives and experiences.

The exhibition further seeks to pay tribute to and demand justice for the ever-increasing number of Palestinian journalists, photographers, and media workers killed since October 2023, honouring their vital role in documenting and disseminating truth in the face of targeted assaults. 

An extensive event programme will accompany the exhibition, including panel discussions, artist talks, a film screening and guided tours.

Afghan Mothers’ Kitchen

Support Afghan women living in Berlin and their families


02/12/2025

Since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021, they have enforced a strict interpretation of sharia law, and there have been numerous human rights violations, particularly against women and girls. Corporal punishment has been brought back, especially in the form of public floggings. Girls are banned from attending school beyond the sixth grade. Women cannot access many businesses, government offices, and other public spaces without an approved male escort and are increasingly limited in the types of work they can engage in. Child marriage rates have increased. Journalists working with diaspora media outlets face harassment and arrest, and the vast majority of female journalists have been forced to leave their jobs. Looking at the overall Afghan economy, over half a million jobs have been lost, with unemployment doubling. As of 2024, three-quarters of the population did not have sufficient food and other basic amenities considered necessary to survive.

Due to these harsh conditions, some Afghans have attempted to flee the country. Most of the thousands of Afghans who have immigrated to Germany since 2021 previously worked with the German army or German aid agencies in Afghanistan. However, when they arrive in Germany, the refugees are often not able to work with the same or similar organizations, due to lack of German language skills and other qualifications. They therefore struggle to make a living and support their families, both in and outside Germany.

Afghan Mothers’ Kitchen آشپزخانه مادر is a women empowerment initiative focused on providing Afghan women an opportunity to raise funds and simultaneously share their culture with others in Berlin. It is a space where Afghan women in Berlin can come together and cook specialties from their homeland to raise money to help cover their families’ basic living expenses. In this way, they can support their family members, not only in Berlin, but also those who are still in Afghanistan and in dire need of assistance. And of course, this project is also about introducing other Berliners to the unique, delicious Afghan cuisine.

Migrant Worker and Student Canteen

Affordable warm meals and legal support


25/11/2025

The Migrant Worker and Student Canteen is a space where migrant workers and students can enjoy a warm meal and access essential services that support newcomers in the city. These include networking opportunities, useful information, and personalised counselling.

When and where does it happen?

The canteen takes place over two consecutive lunch days each month. The next sessions will be held on November 28 and 29, from 12:00 to 15:00, at Wildebruchstr. 24 in Neukölln.

What can one expect to receive?

Participants can enjoy a warm lunch on both days. In addition, there are opportunities to learn about the Berlin job market, receive personalised counselling on migration law, and practice speaking German in a patient, non-judgmental environment.

Is this all free?

Donations are welcome, but you can receive all these services free of charge.

Why are we doing this?

This initiative grew out of our work with food delivery workers in Berlin, many of whom hold South Asian “student” or “job-seeker” visas. Like many migrants, this community faces significant barriers in meeting basic livelihood needs including accessing decent jobs, language education and skills training, worker representation and solidarity networks, fair housing, and social insurance.

These barriers weaken their position in both the labour and housing markets, often pushing them into unfair or precarious conditions. The Migrant Worker and Student Canteen aims to help address these challenges by improving access to networks of solidarity, useful information, and personalised counselling. In doing so, it seeks to contribute to more equitable working and living conditions overall.

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.

Women* for Gaza

Mobilising small, women/FLINTA-led grassroots fundraisers for Palestine


11/11/2025

Women* for Gaza is a decentralized, women- and FLINTA-led initiative. Through grassroots fundraisers—community dinners, clothing swaps, film screenings, and circles of solidarity—we raise funds and create spaces for education, connection, and collective care. We want to empower everyone to know that every action matters. While we continue to pressure political systems, we do not wait, we mobilize now and support organizations working directly on the ground.

Who We Support—Revive Gaza’s Farmland—APN (Arab Group for the Protection of Nature)

APN is a women-led Palestinian organization with over two decades of work protecting land, farmers, and food sovereignty. Their campaign helps Gaza’s farmers replant fields, rebuild wells, and access seeds and tools so families can grow food again under siege.

Farming in Gaza is more than survival—it is dignity and hope. Supporting APN means standing with women, farmers, and families whose futures are rooted in the land.

This fundraiser is strictly humanitarian; no funds support weapons or armed activity.

Women* for Gaza is solidarity beyond borders—reclaiming agency, raising awareness, and reminding our friends in Gaza: you are not forgotten.

How You Can Help

  • Join our Telegram community for toolkits and support: DM us via Instagram 
  • Donate
  • Share our project in your communities, online and offline