The Left Berlin News & Comment

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Category: Campaign of the week

Association of Palestinian and Jewish Academics

Countering the Repressive Discourse on Palestine/Israel


29/01/2025

We are Palestinian and Jewish academics with personal, professional, and institutional ties to Germany and other German-speaking countries. We are organized to counter the development of repressive discourses, policies, and actions related to Palestine/Israel. Our association includes scholars of the histories, religions, laws, cultures and politics of the region, as well as of Palestinian and Jewish diasporic cultures. Our collaboration is built upon our lived experiences, professional expertise, and ethical commitments. Please see our statement for a full explanation of our principles.

We came together in early 2024 with a commitment to building a sustainable organizational structure within which we could foster critical academic research, teaching and advocacy in a climate of increased threats to academic freedom, particularly in relation to Palestine solidarity. Inspired by student campus activism both in Germany and internationally and disturbed by the silences and limited interventions of colleagues, we committed ourselves to working in solidarity with each other at bringing Palestinian and critical Jewish academic voices to bear on scholarly and public debates.

Abolish Frontex

Stop all deportation! End detention!


22/01/2025

Frontex is the personification of the EU’s repressive migration and border policies. The agency plays a leading role in EU border security and control work, deportations, cooperation with third countries and contacts with the military and security industry. In the last few years its powers, budgets and number of employees have rapidly increased. It can now give binding advice to EU member states to strengthen border security efforts and can even intervene in their border security affairs, when the Council decides to do so upon a proposal by the European Commission.

While part of Frontex’ new mandate is the building of its own standing border guards corps and equipment pool, it nevertheless depends on EU member states making personnel and equipment available to run its operations. Member states also usually request Frontex assistance, in the form of operations or otherwise.

NGOs legitimising Frontex

Frontex has a Consultative Forum, which “brings together key European institutions, international and civil society organisations to advise the European Border and Coast Guard Agency in Fundamental rights matters.” Instead of having a serious role in addressing Frontex’s role in human rights violations, this forum acts as a tool to legitimize the existence of Frontex and these violations, by providing the agency with the appearance of approval and in-house control mechanisms.

What we’re calling for:

  • Abolish Frontex
  • End all Frontex operations and remove all Frontex presence currently deployed
  • Stop the push-backs and the pull-backs
  • EU member states refuse to participate in Frontex missions – logistically (contribution of equipment and assets) and personnel-wise
  • EU member states stop requesting Frontex support for border operations and deportations
  • Cut Frontex’s budget and reject any proposed expansion
  • Disband the Frontex standing corps
  • Stop hiring new Frontex staff
  • Redirect spending on border protection towards services and resources for migrants, social services, welfare, health, education and transitioning towards a low-carbon economy
  • NGOs: leave Frontex’s Consultative Forum

More information here

Remembering means Fighting

19th January. Day of solidarity with antifascists in Russia, Ukraine and other post-Soviet republics


15/01/2025

January 19, 2009 – the day our anti-fascist comrades Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova were murdered in cold blood by Nazis in the center of Moscow. This date has become memorable and symbolic for all those fighting fascism in Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet republics.

Today, we, Russian-speaking migrant anti-fascists, are witnessing in Germany the problems we know well: the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment, right-wing violence, and the fascization of public life. Even according to official data, 2024 was a record year in terms of right-wing, radically motivated crimes in Germany, more than a thousand of which were violent. The tragedy in Hanau on February 19, 2020, when racism motivated the murder of nine people, vividly demonstrates what ignoring such threats can lead to.

Right-wing resentment has contributed to the acceptance of an imperialist war against Ukraine in Russian society. This war, in turn, influences the legitimization of violence both outside and inside the country, as well as the rise of right-wing sentiment and militarism around the world.

We believe that our experience in the anti-fascist struggle can be important for our German comrades!
On January 19th, we will honor the memory of Anastasia, Stanislav, and all comrades who died in Russia at the hands of right-wing extremists: Timur Kacharava, Alexander Ryukhin, Ilya Borodaenko, Alexei Krylov, Fyodor Filatov, Ilya Dzhaparidze, and Ivan Khutorsky. We will also remember victims of far-right anti-migrant violence, such as Shamil Adamanov and Khursheda Soltonova.

Our action will take place on a street named after Silvio Mayer, an anti-fascist killed by right-wing militants in Friedrichshain in the early 90s. In St. Petersburg, the city where musician and anti-fascist Timur Kacharava was killed in 2005, an action in 2011 symbolically renamed a street in his honor. We hope that someday this gesture will also become a reality.

The procession along the street named after Silvio Mayer will be a reminder of all victims of right-wing terror and a call for international solidarity in the fight against fascism in all its forms.

To remember means to fight!

The struggle continues. ¡No pasarán!

Demo in Berlin. 19th January 2025, 1pm, Silvio-Meier-Straße (near U-Bahn Samaratinerstraße)

The Wall

Browser plugin to help you boycott Israel


08/01/2025

The Wall is a browser plugin to detect and block more than 19,000 Israeli-related websites and their social accounts. Privately, automatically and on all browsers! They hold Palestinians behind walls, so let’s put their economy behind our own walls!

Install once, works forever

All you have to do is Install the Addon and anytime you open a website of an Israeli-connected company you will see “the wall” instead.

Works everywhere!

Works on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, Opera and soon Safari. It also works on mobile browsers like Firefox mobile and Kiwi browser!

Smart detection

Detects websites and also their related LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook accounts. More platforms coming soon!

Trusted data

The main source of the data is the latest Crunchbase list of companies with headquarters in Israel. Also companies with a founder or investor from Israel. More data, like the BDS list, will be added soon. The addon will show the reason for the block.

Click here to download for Chrome

Click here to download for Firefox

Click here to join our Telegram channel for updates

Berlin Insoumise

Action Group for the French abroad


01/01/2025

You might have come across us at our ‘stand du 1er mai’ on Mariannenplatz, or during one of the numerous demonstrations organised in front of the French Embassy, for instance to protest Macron’s socially unjust and unjustified pension reform in 2023, or the latest racist immigration law in 2024. Every year, the approximately 30 active members of Berlin Insoumise organise events ranging from a ‘Horrors of Capitalism’ Halloween Party to a feminist pub quiz. Rotating through Berlin’s neighbourhoods, we hold our monthly Stammtisch, to which all Berlin-based francophones are welcome. The next meeting is set for the 5th of January at 6pm, Brotfabrik, Caligariplatz 1, 13086 Berlin.

Berlin Insoumise is one of more than 5,000 Action Groups of La France Insoumise (LFI), the French movement who arrived third and gathered 22% of votes at the last presidential elections in 2022. As in the rest of Europe, France sees a dramatic rise of the far-right, and merger of the far-right and neoliberal blocks. Yet, LFI resists and gathers more and more votes from one election to the next.

LFI is organised as a network, meaning each Action Group sets its own focus and agenda, as long as it fits with the programme l’Avenir en Commun. In Berlin, our thematic focus is on climate justice, social justice, respect of democracy, the promotion of peace, and the protection of minority rights such as LGBT+ rights. Linking social and societal struggles is core to LFIs political programme: all contribute to the equality of rights and general human interest. They cannot be played out against each other, just as environmental and social struggles must go hand in hand.

Berlin Insoumise’s activity runs high even when there are no presidential or legislative elections (the French abroad are represented by 11 Members of Parliament) ahead. Indeed, the Action Group understands itself as a local political collective. It joins forces in struggles such as demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine, or to protest budget cuts for culture and education in the Berliner Haushalt. Events are organised together with German workers unions and Podemos Berlin, amongst others. Last in date, the Hiver Solidaire series was organised for the first time in December 2024 with the goal of ‘surviving together through the endless Berlin winter’, and funds collected for the Berliner Obdachlosenhilfe.

You can find all upcoming meetings and events on our social media from facebook to bluesky, under ‘Berlin Insoumise’.