The Left Berlin News & Comment

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Month: May 2021

Against State Violence – in Sheikh Jarrah, Gaza and Berlin

For the last time, it’s not “too complicated”. Why the German Left must finally make a stand on Palestine


14/05/2021

On Wednesday, 12th May, as Israeli bombs were falling on Gaza, the Jüdische Stimme (German equivalent of the Jewish Voice for Peace) and Palästina Spricht organised a rally to mourn the Palestinian victims of these attacks, and to protest the murderous actions of the Israeli State. At the beginning of the rally we were told that some Palestinians on the rally had just lost family members.

The event was necessary given the prevailing atmosphere in the German media. As a German journalist based in Britain reported:

“I listened to the German news today, it mentioned 7 Israeli fatalities twice, it mentioned “thousands of rockets” being fired on the Palestinian side. It didn’t mention any Palestinian victims. I’ve been following the news for more than 20 years, half of that time I have worked as a journalist myself. None of this should be a surprise. This is how they’ve always reported on Palestine. It still makes my blood boil.”

Although the bombing of Gaza is acknowledged, it is generally reported as retaliation, or as counter-strikes to Hamas missiles. There is barely any mention of what came before – the Israeli lynch mobs which have been terrorising Palestinians throughout Israel for weeks, encouraged by the Israeli government’s decision to expel the Palestinian inhabitants of Sheikh Jarrar in East Jerusalem.

It is true that Ali Abunimah, the co-founder of the Electronic Intifada was allowed a short interview on Deutsche Welle. But it didn’t take long before Deutsche Welle removed the interview, and issued a grovelling apology, claiming that the interview contained antisemitic statements. Watch the interview for yourself and see if you can find anything which is remotely antisemitic.

Police intimidation

Despite the legitimacy and necessity of the rally, it was surrounded by an intimidating number of tooled up RoboCops. The police made announcements over their tannoy telling us that flag burning and the presence of Hizbollah symbols were illegal, although there was no sign of anything of the kind. This was just the first sign that they did not intend to let this rally go ahead without disruption.

A number of speakers had planned to address the hundreds of people stood in front of the Rathaus Neukölln, but few were able to speak. Whenever anyone started to say anything, they were interrupted by a police loudspeaker warning of Corona regulations. The people who were silenced in this way included someone who was explaining how 6 of his relatives – aged between 3 and 20 – had just been killed.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/fe8979_483ea3b7fb0d433a80a3831841b8beb7/720p/mp4/file.mp4

Random arrest of a young Arab boy

Fanny-Michaela Reisin, who was able make a speech for the Jüdische Stimme, despite repeated interruptions from the police, reports:

“I am still annoyed. The demonstrators did indeed stand together and listen with concentration, which is the point of a rally. But the police were not prevented from persistently and massively disrupt the meeting! The provocative – and, I presume intentionally misguided – orders (above all, Hizbolla and flag burning) were unseemly and abusive. In view of further rallies, all this should not remain uncommented.

(emphasis in the original)

A statement, jointly signed by this website, explains what happened next: “After less than an hour, police violently disrupted the gathering on the thinnest of pretexts in what was a clear show of racism. As police charged into the diverse crowd, they beat, punched and smacked demonstrators indiscriminately and picked people of colour out at random for arrest. In the end, over 20 people were arrested – predominantly people of colour.”

Everyone was wearing a mask, and the only time that social distancing was endangered was during the many incursions by aggressive police. They regularly sent snatch squads into the crowd to arrest individual demonstrators – exclusively young men with Middle Eastern appearance. It is a wonder that everyone attending the demo maintained their cool and did not respond to police provocation.

Lawyer, Ahmed Abed, who was present at the rally said:

“From the very beginning, the police were not interested in a peaceful process. The contact man wanted their announcements to be read out in Arabic and German. But there was no Arabic translation. As the announcement were to be read out in German, the police said that they’d do it now. Then they went without warning into the crowd. Why couldn’t the police not simply speak? Instead, they shoved people, held them in an arm lock and threw them to the floor. Without warning. And all the time. The police did not want a peaceful demonstration.”

Screenshots from a video of an arrest. Note how the person was apprehended from behind and was not resisting, got violently put in a chokehold and their arms twisted. They were lifted up out of a sitting position by the chokehold on their neck

Racial profiling in action

Majed Absusalama from Palästina Spricht said:

“This brutal experience with the German Police expands the Israeli oppression to Berlin. It is very clear that the policemen were targeting Arabic looking men, this racial profiling of us is exactly what the Israeli Colonial Army is doing in Jerusalem against the Palestinians protesters.

I feel angry, very angry at the German state arming the Israeli army with weapons that are used to kill us. I am angry at the systematic violence and silencing that the Palestinian and the Palestinian solidarity is experiencing in Germany.

And now some German municipalities in Berlin are raising the Israeli flags in solidarity which is disrespectful and humiliating to more than 72 Palestinians who were murdered by the Israeli army, 17 of them are children and 6 of them are women. I was afraid to live in a country that police you, surveil you and control you. I left Palestine to not be besieged and now the German state is besieging me and my community.”

It is slightly ironic that people protesting against state violence in Gaza were themselves victims of violent attacks by agents of the German state. It would be too far to say it was unexpected – we are now used to the level of policing and of the paucity of discussion of Palestine in Germany – but it is astounding how sure that the police were that they could get away with this.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/fe8979_3fd0a6f1fced4067a52a75ade8f98c9b/720p/mp4/file.mp4

On the left of the screen you can see two cops shoving the same person twice for no apparent reason

What a contrast with the demonstrations of “Coronaleugner” (Corona liars) which have been regularly allowed to take place without either masks or social distancing, even when the demonstrators violently attack journalists. Here the police are reported as being “overwhelmed and uncoordinated”. Well, on Wednesday they were very coordinated. Some have said they were out of control – maybe, but they knew exactly what they were doing.

We are heading into elections on national and local level, where both the CDU and SPD will be running on law and order platforms. Berlin’s Interior Minister Andreas Geisel is an SPD member who has presided over heavy policing, particularly against anti-Nazi protestors and most recently against the Migrants’ Block on the 1 May demo.

Why Palestine is still the issue – especially in Germany

But this is about Palestine just as much as it its about the police. On the demonstration there were possibly more Israelis than there were white Germans. German guilt about what their grandfathers may have done to Jews means that although many people are distressed at what is happening to Palestinians, they find it difficult to critcize the Israeli State, let alone go on a demonstration.

This has got to stop.

In 2014, during the last sustained bombing of Gaza, radical Israelis organised a demonstration through Kreuzberg under the slogan “Deutsche Linke Wach Auf!” – “German Left wake up!” It had some effect. A couple of weeks later we managed to organise a demonstration which attracted 1,500 Germans, Palestinians and Israelis. This doesn’t seem much compared to the 150,000 who were marching at the time in London, but was a significant breakthrough in activating white Germans to march alongside other groups against the oppression of the Palestinians.

Since then, the dominant discourse on the white German Left has returned to its default position – the Middle East is “too complicated” and while most people do not support the Israeli state, many are reluctant to get involved. But after 17 children were killed in Gaza this week, and demonstrators were arrested in Berlin because of their background, the time for neutrality is over. As Howard Zinn was keen to say “you can’t be neutral on a moving train”.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/fe8979_56bce03fb4344c8c855deb6714a5fcbd/360p/mp4/file.mp4

Video of the police attack on Wednesday’s rally

The left knows about media bias, about police violence and about racial profiling. Yet when it comes to Palestine, too often for too many people the discussion becomes “too complicated”. This is simply not good enough. Blaming “violence on both sides” has become the equivalent of saying All Lives Matter. It is not a good look.

Heavy policing of a demonstration for Palestine is the precursor for further repression, and while we will all suffer from this, some will suffer more than others. As Rohit – a member of the Berlin LINKE Internationals who was at Wednesday’s rally says “I personally as a POC didn’t feel comfortable around them even in a place where I just want to show my solidarity towards a cause I believe in.”

Glimmers of hope

There have been some good statements from the Left – from the LINKE working group on a Just Peace in the Middle East, from the LINKE Neukölln and from the SDS student organisation. These are to be welcomed and to be built on, but there is still a way to go.

We did see the start of a breakthrough 2 weeks ago, when Palestinian flags and banners led the revolutionary 1st May demonstration. The Palestinian presence was possible because of the intervention of Migrantifa and the experience of Black Lives Matters which have made the everyday life of Palestinians and other PoC more visible to white Leftists.

The police assault on the migrant/Palestinian block on the demo, was also consistent with their racist policing elsewhere. If BLM is building the links and calling for unconditional support for Palestine, the white Left must follow.

Tomorrow is “Nakba day”, the anniversary of the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948. Palästina Spricht have organised a demonstration which starts at Oranienplatz at 4pm. Especially because of Wednesday’s police violence, a high turnout is more important than ever – and not just from Palestinians. Do not leave our Palestinian brothers and sisters on their own.

As Sophia Deeg, long-standing campaigner for Palestinian rights who was at Wednesday’s rally, says

“I was proud that together we had managed so well. At the same time I am worried. This Saturday’s rallies on Nakba day in Berlin and in other cities will probably be used again by the police/the state to create images of ‘a violent crowd’ that has to be controlled by police intervention.”

The extent to which the police will be able to criminalize Saturday’s demo depends in part on our ability to mobilise people who don’t fit their racist stereotypes.

If you don’t want to go on your own, feel free to meet up with the Berlin LINKE Internationals who will be meeting at 15.30 at Hermannplatz, then at 15.45 in front of the Babylon Kino near Kotbusser Tor (Dresdener Straße 126). If you don’t want us to leave you behind, send us a mail at lag.internationals@die-linke-berlin.de

Discussing Palestine in Germany

After the practise, the theory. On Monday, Haneen Zoabi, Susan Neiman and Christine Buchholz MdB will be talking about Discussing Palestine in Germany. This will be an opportunity not just to understand why we are where we are, but to plan how we can get to

somewhere better. Over 500 people have already registered to attend. Why not join them?

More photos from the rally

NOTE: if you know of anyone who was arrested at Wednesday’s rally, Palästina Spricht is trying to coordinate help. See the Palästina Spricht statement here, or contact them at info@palaestinaspricht.de

Phil Butland is the joint speaker of the Berlin LINKE Internationals and the Commisioning Editor of the website theleftberlin.com. Many thanks to the countless number of people who were on Wednesday’s demo and shared their experiences with me. See you all at Oranienplatz on Saturday.

[zait wa: zaʕtar] Festival

Revealing the beauty of Palestinian culture


The [zait wa: zaʕtar] Festival presents Palestinian culture less known to audiences in Germany and elsewhere. Its events reveal the beauty of Palestinian culture – a diverse and vibrant culture as it is alive in Palestine and its diasporic communities today; in everyday life as much as in high culture. The festival aims to contribute in a meaningful and positive way to the image of Palestine and Palestinians that exists in many places in an incomplete and biased way. Palestinian culture is shown from all kinds of angles, and in a way that makes audiences ‘feel’ Palestine.

The [zait wa: zaʕtar] Festival for Palestinian Arts & Culture presents an opportunity to meet to talk about films, exhibitions, literature, music and much more. We are presenting narratives less explored, like the vital role Palestinian literature plays in preserving diasporic as well as Palestinian identities. Like the importance of archives and memory for preserving a collective identity. The meaning of food for constituting and expressing one’s identity (although, due to Covid, the cooking workshops have had to be postponed to the next season). How performing parkour is an acrobatic, artistic and meaningful way to claim one’s right to freedom of movement.

In this season, which has been dominated so much by covid-related regulations, digital audiences in Berlin and elsewhere have the opportunity to expand their imaginations and thoughts on Palestine and Palestinians. We are showing the exhibition Eyes of Gaza عيون غزه from May 18 to May 22nd in Forum Factory Berlin, visiting the exhibition is possible by personal appointment and according to the covid regulations in place during that week. Different workshops and panels will also be screened live from Forum Factory, please check our website or our facebook page.

We were hoping to receive a film from Amjad Al Fayoumi, a photographer and our partner in Gaza, to show via online screening during the next week. This has now become practically impossible, especially since his office and studio have been hit by the bombs on Gaza in the last days. The building, which housed mainly offices of media and film productions, was destroyed; Amjad is alive, but all he could save was a camera and a lens.

  •  Support our [zait wa: zaʕtar] Festival for Palestinian Arts and Culture here.

  • Read an interview here with Cora Josting, curator of the festival, and Nahed Awwad, Nahed Awwad is the curator of the exhibition Eyes of Gaza عيون غزه  which is part of the festival and opens on 18th May.

News from Berlin and Germany: 15th May 2021

Weekly news roundup from Berlin and Germany


Compiled by Ana Ferreira

 

NEWS FROM BERLIN

Bavaria and Berlin easie Covid rules for vaccinated people

Bavaria and Berlin have announced they are lifting some Covid restrictions for fully vaccinated people – ahead of the federal government’s schedule. It came after the government held a summit on vaccination and its rights. Meanwhile, people in Berlin with Corona-immunity also no longer have to go into quarantine if they come into contact with a Covid-infected person. From now on they only have to self-isolate if they show symptoms after contact. Other federal states (such as Lower Saxony, Thuringia and Hesse) are introducing similar rules on vaccination rights, too. Source: thelocal

NEWS FROM GERMANY

Soldier claims Hitler salute was inspired by hip hop

At a troop party, a soldier gave the Hitler salute on the dance floor. The soldier denied this and explained it with his affinity to hip-hop. The Federal Administrative Court did not want to accept this. It has decided for the reduction of a soldier’s pay by one-twentieth for a period of twelve months and affirmed the soldier intentionally violated his duty to “stand up for the observance of the free democratic basic order through his entire conduct”. According to a witness, the regular soldier, a midshipman, took up the basic position on the dance floor at a party and clearly showed the Hitler salute at least once. Source: spiegel

Greens insist that die LINKE support NATO

No one has been elected yet, but “die Linke” has already turned down “die Grünen” as far as the conditions for a possible left-wing alliance are concerned: there will be no commitment to Nato, according to party leader Janine Wissler, recalling that the Greens were founded as a peace party. Nato, however, represents a “war alliance”. Robert Habeck, from “die Grünen”, has already said the Left Party would have to prove to a “that it is capable of governing and willing to take responsibility for this country”. This includes foreign policy responsibility and a commitment to Nato. Source: spiegel

Green mayor calls black footballer racist while using N-word

A Facebook comment by the mayor of Tübingen, Boris Palmer (Grüne), is causing sharp criticism, and the politician could now even face expulsion from his party. On Thursday evening, Palmer wrote on his Facebook page about the ex-national football player Dennis Aogo: “Aogo is a bad racist. Offered women his ns**.” This quote is based on a screenshot that suggests that social media user accused ex-footballer Aogo of harassing a girlfriend many years ago by saying she could have his “big n*** cock”. There is no evidence for Aogo’s alleged statement. Source: welt

Left accuses CSU of “clan criminality” in mask procurement

More than €30 million are said to have flowed to the daughter of former CSU secretary-general Gerold Tandler alone in dubious mask deals. “Die Linke” demands repayment of the sum. Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) also had personal contact with Tandler during negotiations on mask supplies. The Federal Ministry of Health alone bought masks from Emix for 712.5 million euros at unit prices of up to 9.90 euros. Left-wing politician Fabio De Masi demanded that CDU leader Armin Laschet and CSU leader Markus Söder should put pressure on Tandler to donate the commissions in full to the federal budget. Source: spiegel

End the violence – stop the evictions and expulsions

Statement on the most recent violent confrontation in Israel and Palestine

Coordination group of die LINKE national working group Just Peace in the Middle East


13/05/2021

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is heading towards a new war. But it is not the missiles which are being fired from the Gaza strip to Tel Aviv that are provoking the new escalation of violence, as most German media insinuate. It is the unchecked robbery of Palestinian land, which wants to destroy the livelihood of the last Palestinians in East Jerusalem. It is the refusal to grant Palestinians in East Jerusalem the right to vote, thus preventing the Palestinian elections. It is the Israeli security forces, which since the beginning of Ramadan have been restricting Muslims freedom of movement and worship at the Haram Al Sharif/Temple Mount – in violation of international law. It is the extreme right wing Zionist thugs, which have been provoking people in the old town with the toleration of the Israeli police. Who can expect Palestinians to remain calm during this latest stage of escalation of violence by the occupation force? When no state supports them, who can expect that they do not resort to their last impotent weapon – their missiles?

It is not acceptable to criticise these missiles as breaking international law without simultaneously condemning the war crime of Israel’s fresh plans to dispossess houses in Sheikh Jarrah and to banish their Palestinian occupants. Israel claims that before 1948 these houses belonged to Jewish families, who just want their property back. But after the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, East Jerusalem was in a different country – it should have been the capital city of an independent state of Palestine. After the war of 1967, the West Bank – together with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip – were illegally occupied by Israel. Since then humanitarian and human rights have been disregarded.

There are no Jewish property rights there, and dispossessions from occupied territories are forbidden under the Geneva Convention, as are the settlements. The International Court of Justice has recently made this politics of dispossession and settlements the subject of its inquiries because of possible war crimes. This is why we call on the German government to accept its responsibility for the preservation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and to call on the Israeli government to stop the illegal evictions.

The national working group Just Peace in the Middle East of the party DIE LINKE severely condemns the actions of the Israeli government and their security forces and demands the end of the illegal policy of occupation and settlements, which makes the life of Palestinians intolerable and repeatedly leads to violence and war. At the same time we demand that the government stops its one-sided support of Israeli politics, as was once more expressed in the statement of the German foreign minister of 10th May 2021. They must exercise serious pressure on the Israeli government with the aim of ending the occupation and expulsion of the Palestinian people, thus creating a basis for human rights.

The national working group Just Peace in the Middle East also calls for an end to the Israeli aggression against Palestinian demonstrators and against places of worship and for an end to the Israeli bomb attacks of the Gaza strip, as well as an end to the rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel.

Reproduced with permission. Translation: Phil Butland

May 1: The lies of the police

What our rulers are afraid of

Press release of the Alliance for the Preparation of the Revolutionary First of May Demonstration


12/05/2021

The Berlin police’s account of the dispersal of the Revolutionary First of May demonstration amounts to a political fairy tale, which serves primarily as a justification for the arbitrary but targeted dispersal of the demonstration.

Here are some facts and corrections about the demonstration and its violent dissolution by the Berlin police.

Already in the run-up to the first of May, police spokespersons indicated that they expected a possible escalation, and also suggested possible scenarios for the dissolution of the demonstration. This was despite the fact that the demonstration alliance repeatedly emphasized the political goal of encouraging the residents of Neukölln and Kreuzberg to join the demonstration. Even before it began there were initial problems, such as late cordoning off of the streets so that the opening rally could not begin on time.

The alliance and the participants tried from the beginning to observe the rules of the Infection Protection Act. In fact, everyone wore masks. The demonstration leadership, the stewards and the loudspeaker trucks pointed this out again and again and were able to ensure compliance with the rules to a large extent, especially as soon as the demonstration began to run.

As also reported by journalists and representatives of the media – for example, by RBB in the Abendschau – the demonstration was loud, militant, anti-capitalist, but also relaxed, peaceful and according to the RBB reporter’s own statement, 99 percent of the participants wore a face mask and tried to maintain distances from each other.

Nevertheless, without prior warning and without informing the assembly leadership, the Berlin police split the demonstration in half around 20:00 in Karl-Marx-Strasse, encircled several blocks and groups of people and pushed them further together in a space that was already cramped due to construction sites. After the police leadership rigorously rejected the parking bans urged by the organizer during the cooperation meeting that would have allowed better compliance with the hygiene rules, the police themselves prevented compliance with the Infection Protection Act by separating and encircling large sections of the participants.

The police obviously wanted to drive a wedge between “good” demonstrators in the first block and “bad” participants in the following ones. We did not get involved in this attempt to divide – and we will not get involved in the future.

The alliance and the assembly leadership stopped the demonstration after they learned about the separation of half of the demonstration participants and demanded that everyone could rejoin the demonstration. The police, however, refused to discuss the matter and effectively deprived thousands of people of their right to freedom of assembly.

Instead, police forces began to maltreat and assault participants. Demonstrators were intimidated, arbitrarily arrested, and the entire demonstration was threatened with dispersal by the police because onlookers and residents had difficulty keeping their distance on the narrow, parked streets. Only after the police attacks on various parts of the demonstration, the situation escalated.

During this period, the inexperienced and obviously overwhelmed police liaison officers also “disappeared” without a trace, something that had never happened in the many years before. The alliance and the assembly leadership wanted to de-escalate the situation and continue the demonstration without repression by the police for the well-being of all participants. However, liaison officers and operations management were no longer available to the assembly leadership until the end of the demonstration.

The police began to attack the waiting demonstration procession from 20:30 and arrested hundreds of people. Police units brutally attacked bearers of banners and flags to prevent the continuation of the procession. By 9pm, the demonstration had effectively been broken up by the police. Only then did the organizers dissolve the demonstration.

The Berlin police chief ultimately spread the false report, adopted by numerous media without further verification, that the leader of the assembly had declared the demonstration over after he himself had been attacked by the crowd. This claim is simply false. The alleged attack never took place and the leader of the demonstration only learned about it from the media.

How this hoax was fabricated is beyond our knowledge. But its political purpose is clear. About 25,000 people who took to the streets against racism and sexism, against exploitation and housing shortage, against capitalism and imperialism, are to be politically defamed and discredited as irresponsible – and with them the class-struggle and revolutionary goals they represent.

The actions of the police show that they never intended to let the demonstration go all the way to Kreuzberg. They deliberately forced an escalation in Neukölln in order to discredit our message by dividing us before the eyes of the population and the press. It is clear there is nothing the rulers fear more than our unity and our solidarity. Therefore, they want to specifically prevent us from uniting in struggle, within the left and with the population. They will not succeed. Now more than ever: Yallah class struggle!

This article first appeared in German on the Website of the Revolutionary 1 May alliance. Translation Dillon C