Every week, on alternate Fridays and Sundays, The Left Berlin hosts a reading group on different topics related to Palestine. This is a collection of the topics and readings that we’ve covered so far, which we are continually updating.
For more information on the next reading group, check the updates on our Instagram and the events page on our website. To help organize or moderate, join our Telegram channel.
What is Zionism?
Suggested Reading
- We Are Conquerors Adam Shatz, London Review of Books- (review of David Ben Gurion’s biography, background on Zionism and the founding of Israel)
- Ilan Pappé, The Idea of Israel, Chapter 1 “The ‘Objective’ History of the Land and People” p 14- 21
- Ilan Pappé, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, chapter 2 ‘The Drive for an exclusively Jewish State’, p 10-29
Supplementary Viewing
Supplementary Listening
Palestinian Resistance
Suggested Reading
- Hamas_Contained_-_Tareq_Baconi (Chapter 1: The rise of Islamic Palestinian Nationalism)
- The_Making_of_a_Human_Bomb_An_Ethnograph, Chapter 6 (The Strategies and Politics of Martyrdom in Palestine) and Chapter 7 (Conclusion)
Supplementary Reading
- “Comes a Time We Are All Enthusiasm”: Understanding Palestinian Suicide Bombers in Times of Exighophobia (Ghassan Hage)
- Israeli Control and Palestinian Resistance (Fouad Moughrabi)
- Hamas Contained (see link above) (Chapter 2: Military Resistance Comes Undone, Chapter 3: The Politics of Resistance, and Conclusion: Containment and Pacification)
Supplementary Listening
- The Dig Podcast – Hamas with Tareq Baconi
German Memory Culture
Suggested Reading
- Bad Memory by Jewish Currents editors
- The German State and the Creation of Un/Desired Communities by Nahed Samour and Hannah Tzuberi
- Palestine, Feminism, and the Pitfalls of Liberalism—in Germany and Beyond by Noor Blaas and Anna-Esther Younes
Supplementary Reading
- Minor Citizens? Holocaust Memory and the Un/Making of Citizenship in Germany by Sultan Doughan
- It’s not about boycotting, but about transparency: What are people with a Nazi background? Two artists explain it on Instagram and give an example that polarizes: a queerfeminist bookshop”: an interview with Moshtari Hilal and Sinthujan Varatharajah (Very worth reading with free DeepL translation app for non-German speakers!)
- The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, Palestinians by Sa′ed Atshan and Katharina Galor, Chapter One: “Trauma, Holocaust, Nakba”
- The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, Palestinians – review by Anna-Esther Younes
- Freedom for the one who thinks differently: an open letter from a group of Jewish artists, writers, and scholars in Germany
- Once Again, Germany Defines Who Is a Jew by George Prochnik, Eyal Weizman & Emily Dische-Becker Part I and Part II
- Fighting Anti-Semitism in Contemporary Germany by Anna-Esther Younes
Supplementary Viewing
- Selection of videos (especially “Radical Solidarity” and “Menschen mit Nazihintergrund”) from This is Germany (Instagram account with videos also available on YouTube, about one third of them in English)
- Jewish History Matters podcast: We Are All Implicated in Violence and Oppression, Both Historical and Present-Day: A Conversation with Michael Rothberg
The One State and Two State Solutions
Recommended Reading
- Ghada Karmi The One-State Solution: An Alternative Vision for Israeli-Palestinian Peace
- Tanya Reinhart Israel-Palestine – How to end the war of 1948 (PDF attached). Appendix: The Oslo Apartheid
- Zach Beauchamp In defense of the two-state solution
Short articles
- Galia Golan The History of the Two-State Solution
- PLO official: Alternative to two-state solution is ‘painful bloodshed
- One Democratic State Campaign One Democratic State in Historic Palestine: Fears, Hopes, Concerns and Questions
- Areej Sabbagh-Khoury “But if I don’t steal it, someone else is gonna steal it” – Israeli Settler-Colonial Accumulation by Dispossession
- Lana Tatour Why calling Israel an apartheid state is not enough
- Ellen Isaacs Could a One-State Solution Eliminate Racism Without Getting Rid of Capitalism?
Recommended Watching
- Ghada Karmi One State: The Only Democratic Future for Palestine-Israel
- Ilan Pappe / Pawel Barsa A Case for One State Solution in Israel/Palestine
Recommended listening
- +972 Podcast The Other Two-State Solution: Confederation
Supplementary Reading
- Peter Beinart Yavne: A Jewish Case for Equality in Israel-Palestine
- Khaled Meshaal Hamas accepts Palestinian state with 1967 borders
- Ali Abinumah The Battle for Justice in Palestine. Chapter 3 Israeli Jews and the One State Solution
- Haidar Eid The urgent need to revitalize the Palestinian Left
- Phil Butland Why the Two State Solution for Palestine is Impossible
And if you really want to follow the discussion, we recommend this book
- Edward W. Said The End of the Peace Process. Oslo and After
The Arab States and the Arab Street
Suggested Reading:
- Zachary Lockman: The Palestinians, the Arab States and Israel
- Jonathan Guyer: How the Arab world sees the Israel-Palestine conflict
- Giorgio Cafiero: How Arab states could respond to an Israeli invasion of Gaza
Supplementary Viewing:
Who are the Agents who can bring about change?
Suggested Reading:
- Omar Barghouti – For Palestine, it’s BDS or Bust
- Toufic Haddad and Ilan Pappe – Interview: Israel’s crisis and the Palestinian resistance
- Jeff Halper Decolonoizing Israel, Liberation Palestine, Chapter 9: Towards Post-coloniality
Supplementary Reading:
- From the River to the Sea – Essays for a Free Palestine
- Chapter 22: “Bread, freedom and an Arab Palestine“, Nihal El Aasar
- Chapter 26: “Three new realities for American Power after 7 October“, Noah Kulwein
- Chapter 23: “Ink, gas and water: Jordan’s peace with Israel“, Samar Saeed
- Tamer Qarmout: A roadmap for the future of Palestine
Why do the US and Europe fund Israel?
Suggested reading:
- Jonathan Cook How Israel helped to revive Europe’s ugly ethnic nationalisms
- Lisa Strömbom The two-state impasse in Israel/Palestine—The EU caught between egalitarian norms and expansionist realpolitik
- Lance Selfa: Israel: The U.S. watchdog
- Hannah Arendt: Born in conflict, Israel will degenerate into Sparta, and American Jews will need to back away
Post-colonialism, colonialism and settler colonialism
Suggested reading
- Jeff Halper Decolonoizing Israel, Liberating Palestine Part 1: ZIONISM AS SETTLER COLONIAL PROJECT
- Rashid Khalidi Israel: ‘A Failed Settler-Colonial Project’
- Ahmad Amara, Yara Hawari
Countering common narratives
NOTE: these are pro-Israel texts which we want to answer
Recommended Reading
The Israel Project’s 2009 Global Language Dictionary
- Chapter 3, How to talk about Palestinian self government and prosperity, pp. 22-32
- Chapter 4, Isolating Iran-backed Hamas as an obstacle to peace, pp. 33 – 38
- Chapter 6, Gaza: Israel’s right to self defense and defensible borders, pp. 45-58
- Appendix 1, The toughest questions, pp. 103-106
Examples of Brand Israel
- Maryan Toledano, The defiant femininity of Israel’s female soldiers,
- Elizabeth B. Solomont, San Francisco festival to showcase Israel’s gay culture,
Matti Friedman, An insider’s guide to the most important story on earth,
Creative Community for Peace, The truth about the BDS movement
Hillel Neuer, The Jew Among nations – Israel and the UN, 2022 – YouTube or podcast
Yossi Klein Halevi, What Israelis fear the world does not understand
Howard Jacobson, The founding of Israel wasn’t a colonial act,
Hamas Raped Me Too website [content note: images of bound and gagged woman in blood soaked trousers in distress in video on home page]
Deborah Lipstadt and Michèle Taylor, Israeli women and girls have suffered horrific sexual violence from Hamas. where is the outrage?
Reading in German (please use DeepL or another online translation service if needed)
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Nahostkonflikt in der Schule – Düzen Tekkal will Spaltung durch Dialog überwinden
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Michaela Dudley, Die Lüge vom Genozid in Gaza
Additional resources
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Israel’s project global language dictionary
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Chapter 14, Talking about Arab-Israelis, p. 83
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Chapter 17, Talking to the American left, pp. 90-98
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Nick Hopkins, The Israeli Defence Forces: first for women
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Elizabeth B. Solomont, In Haiti: ‘this is the spirit of the IDF’
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PM Netanyahu comments on the decision of the International Court of Justice
- Howard Jacobson The founding of Israel wasn’t a colonial act – a refugee isn’t a colonist
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Scroll through headlines on the Israel21c website homepage which works with the Israeli Foreign Ministry to focus attention on ‘the 21st century Israel that exists beyond the conflict’ so that by ‘promoting positive images of Israel and Israelis, people will come to view Israelis as more like themselves and understand the relevance of Israel to their own lives’
For a (perhaps unnecessarily) deeper dive
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Dan Diker, BDS unmasked – radical roots, extremist ends,
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Dan Diker ed. Israelophobia and the West
How other Colonies were liberated
Recommended Reading
- Michael Collins, Decolonization
- South African History Online The fight against colonialism and imperialism in Africa
Further Viewing
- Die verstörende Überheblichkeit der Ignoranz (Documentary in German)
Further Reading
- Aimé Césaire Discourse on Colonialism
- Achille Mbembe On the Postcolony
Violence of the Oppressed
Suggested Reading:
- Jonah ben Avraham Support Palestinians when they fight Not just when they die
- Isabel Ringrose Free Palestine: Why we say by any means necessary
- Barnaby Raine Total Solidarity With Palestine is the Only Anti-Racist Position: Palestinians have a moral right to self-defence
- Frantz Fanon Concerning Violence
Supplementary Reading: –
- Malcolm X: The ballot of the bullet (text or audio)
- Amilcar Cabral The Weapon of Theory
- Paulo Friere Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Chapter 1
Text Summaries:
- Frantz Fanon: The Wretched of the Earth
- Paulo Friere Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Chapter 1
Supplementary Viewing:
The Israeli “Left”
Suggested Reading
-
Ilan Pappe What is Left of the Israeli Left?
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Matan Kaminer and Joel Beinin Splintered but not broken: A history of Israel’s independent left
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Diana Buttu Israel’s So-Called Left Has Aided the Far Right’s Rise
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Judith Sudilovsky What is the future of the Israeli Left after the Hamas massacre?
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Al-Jazeera Staff ‘Now isn’t the time’: Israel’s left conflicted on future after Hamas attack
Supplementars Listening
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Jewish Currents The Loneliness of the Israeli Left
Supplementary Reading
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Phil Butland How should we respond to the new Israeli protest movement?
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Zachary Lockman The Left in Israel: Zionism vs. Socialism
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Ilan Pappe The Righteous Fury of the Israeli Left
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Amira Hass The Israeli Left Never Learns
Palestinians in the Diaspora
Suggested reading:
- Palestinian Refugee ResearchNet: Palestinian refugees: An Overview
- Salman Abu-Sitta: The implementation of the right of return
- Noura Erakat, Ahmed Moor, Noor Hindi, Mohammed El-Kurd and Laila Al-Arian What does it mean to be Palestinian now?
- Ali Younes: Palestinian diaspora divided over right to return
Supplementary Reading on the Palestinian diaspora in Germany:
- Diaspora Mapping Working Group: Palestinian Diaspora: Germany
- Gouri Sharma: ‘Complete censorship’: Germany’s Palestinian diaspora fights crackdown
- Nora Jasmin Ragab and Katharina Koch The Palestinian Diaspora in Germany
- Nora Jasmin Ragab and Katharina Koch Mapping and Study: The Palestinian Diaspora in Germany
Recommended viewing:
Recommended listening
Supplementary Reading
- Salman Abu-Sitta: The feasibility of the right of return
- Salman Abu-Sitta: The right of return the only future for Palestine
- Anaheed Al-Hardan: The Right of Return Movement in Syria: Building a Culture of Return, Mobilizing Memories for the Return.
- Sama Alshaibi, Memory work in the Palestinian Diaspora
- Taher Labadi The Palestinian Diaspora and the State-Building Process
- Naseer Aruri, Seif Da`na, Karma Nabulsi and Sherene Seikaly Roundtable on Palestinian Diaspora and Representation
- Hebh Jamal In Berlin, a fight for Palestinian identity — and a place to call home
Books (longer read, not for the Reading Group):
- Mourid Barghouti: I saw Ramallah
- Edward Said: Out of place
Reading Kanafani
Suggested Reading
- Returning to Haifa (1969) – in English and Arabic
- Letter from Gaza (1956)
Suggested Viewing
- Ghassan Kanafani and the era of revolutionary Palestinian media
- Interview with Ghassan Kanafini’s wife (The video is in Arabic, but the interview is in English)
- Ghassan Kanafani’s Letter from Gaza read by John Berger
Pinkwashing and purplewashing
Suggested Reading
- Sa’Ed Atshan QUEER PALESTINE AND THE EMPIRE OF CRITIQUE | CHAPTER 2 Global Solidarity and Politics of Pinkwashing
- alQaws Beyond Propaganda: Pinkwashing as Colonial Violence
- DecolonisePalestine Purplewashing
- Yara Hawari, Patriarchy in Palestine
Supplementary Reading
- Sarah Schulman A Documentary Guide to Pinkwashing
- Nadia Elia (co-author) Palestine as a Queer Struggle
- Ronit Lentin Race and gender, Jewish supremacy, and refusal in the Israeli racial colony
- Sarah O’Neal Gaza’s Queer Palestinians Fight to Be Remembered
- Wikipedia LGBT history in Israel
Supplementary Viewing
- SFU History Pinkwashing: The Queer Critique of Israel’s Pro-Lesbian and Gay Politics in Historical Perspective (from minute 15)
Supplementary Listening
- Podcast: Palestine Liberation is a Queer Issue (featuring guests from Palestinian organisation AlQaws)
Militarism and How Israel Exports its Occupation
Recommended Reading
- Baruch Kimmerling – Patterns of Militarism in Israel (European Journal of Sociology )
- International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network – Israel’s Worldwide Role in Repression
Supplementary Reading
- Alys Samson Estapé – Exporting oppression: Israel’s profitable arms industry
- Sophia Goodfriend – How the Occupation Fuels Tel Aviv’s Booming AI Sector
Supplementary Listenting
- Palestine As Showroom – Interview with Antony Loewenstein
Manufacturing global Islamophobia
Suggested Reading
- Edward Said, Orientalism Reconsidered
- Mohammed El-Kurd Western Journalists Have Palestinian Blood on Their Hands
- Kimberly Rooney 高小荣 and Saba Keramati Why are newsrooms manufacturing consent for Palestinian genocide?
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Kalpana Wilson, Giti Chandra and Lata Narayanaswamy Contested development imaginaries: Hindutva and the co-optation of ‘decolonisation’
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Interview with Deepa Kumar We Can’t Understand Islamophobia Without Recognizing Its Roots in Imperialism
Supplementary Reading
- Khaled A Beydoun The world of inconsistencies between Ukraine, the Middle East and beyond
- Isis Naucratis Orientalising Palestine: A Digital Archive
- Adam Johnson Coverage of Gaza was in the New York Times and Other Major Newspapers heavily favored Israel, Analysis shows
- Murtaza Hussain Study: U.S. Newspapers are more than twice as likely to cite Israeli sources in Headlines than Palestinian Ones
- Hatem Bazian Islamophobia, “Clash of Civilizations”, and Forging a Post-Cold War Order! Section 2
- Eviane Leidig The Far Right is Growing
Supplementary Viewing
- Four Minute Books Manufacturing Consent Summary (Animated) — Why We Can’t Trust the Media & How They Became Corrupted
- Chomsky’s Philosophy Noam Chomsky – Manufacturing Consent
- Democracy Now “Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire”: Deepa Kumar on How Racism Fueled U.S. Wars Post-9/11
- Al Jazeera Islamophobia Inc | Al Jazeera Investigations
Feminist Perspectives on the Occupation of Palestine
Suggested Reading
- Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian Palestinian Feminist Critique and the Physics of Power: Feminists Between Thought and Practice
- Fidaa Zaanin Feminist Protests in Palestine
- Dina Hecht and Nira Yuval-Davis Ideology without revolution: Jewish women in Israel
Suggested Listening
Supplementary Reading
- Ronit Lentin Race and gender, Jewish supremacy, and refusal in the Israeli racial colony
- Rahila Gupta Women in the Shadow of Hamas
Supplementary Listening
Supplementary Viewing
The ICJ ruling and the limitations of international law
Suggested Viewing:
- Highlights of South Africa’s genocide case vs Israel at ICJ
- Highlights of Israel’s arguments at ICJ
- ICJ Order in the case of South Africa vs Israel
- Experts weigh in on ICJ Genocide case
Suggested Reading:
- Noura Erakat, John Reynolds: South Africa’s Genocide Case Is a Devastating Indictment of Israel’s War on Gaza
- Al-Jazeera A quick guide to South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel
For reference: full ICJ documents:
Socialist perspectives on Palestinian liberation
Suggested Reading
- Anne Alexander Palestine: between permanent war and permanent revolution
- John Rose Zionism or Socialism?
- Ali Abunimah Reclaiming Self-Determination
- Phil Marshall Palestinian Nationalism and the Arab Revolution
Supplementary Reading
- Leila S Kadi Basic Political Documents of the Armed Palestinian Resistance Movement – Historical Background
- Haneen Zoabi Palestine Needs a New Unified Strategy of Liberation
- Hossam el-Hamalawy The rise and fall (and rise and fall) of the Egyptian Left – Part 3 Palestine
- Naomi Klein The Unshakeable Ethnic Double
Supplementary Viewing
- Leila Khaled Interview: Palestine is an International Liberation Struggle
- Ghadi Kardi The Future of Palestine