Tonight (Thursday), the Rosa Luxemburg stiftung invites you to a discussion with the Palestinian Knesset member Aida Touma Sliman under the title “We will not be silent and we want to resist this war”. Aida is a member of Hadash. the democratic front for peace and equality. The subject is the escalating situation in Gaza and the region and the impact of the plans of the extreme right wing Netanyahu government for a continuous war and a renewed occupation of the Gaza strip. The meeting starts at 7pm in the rls buildings, Straße der Pariser Kommune 8A. If you want to attend, please register here.

On Friday, it’s our next Palestine Reading Group. This week we will be talking about the effect of the collapse of the USSR on Palestine. You can find the recommended reading here. The Palestine Reading Group takes place every week on either Friday or Sunday. Check the page of Events we organise for the coming dates and discussion topics. If you’d like to get more involved in the group you can join our Telegram group and follow the channel Reading group. The Reading Group starts at 7pm, and there is a meeting for Moderators at 6.30pm open to everyone who’s interested.

On Saturday evening the Irish Bloc Berlin is organising a Soli Céilí for Gaza to raise money for Connecting Humanity, an initiative set up to buy and disseminate eSIMS to the people of Gaza. A céilí is a community dance event, so be prepared to give your best attempt at a jig. We will have instructors but it’s mainly about having the craic so no experience necessary. The Event starts at 5pm at LARK Berlin Holzmarktstraße 15-18. No Irish dancing experience is necessary. The Irish Bloc Berlin is our Campaign of the Week.

Also on Saturday evening, the Jüdische Stimme is showing the film Tantura. Named after a Palestinian village conquered by Jewish forces during the Nakba in 1948, Tantura centers how Tantura residents were massacred and buried in a mass grave. Using archival footage, as well as further conversations with survivors and scholars, the film explores the racism, ethnic cleansing, and repression of memory, which are central to Israel’s founding myth. The film will be shown at the Spore Initiative at 5pm with English subtitles and at 7pm with German subtitles. The second screening will be followed by a discussion panel and Q&A.

On Sunday at 2pm, it’s our latest Political Walking Tour. This month, we will be looking at 71 Years since the East Berlin Uprising. “Risen from ruins,” the anthem starts, “and facing the future.” The German Democratic Republic was founded in 1949, and collapsed almost exactly 40 years later. East Germany left behind some amazing architecture, starting with the broad avenue once called Stalinallee. We will start at the spot where a bronze statue of Stalin stood — today, only Stalin’s ear remains. Our tour will be meeting at U-Bhf Strausberger Platz, at Andreasstraße 46. We will meet at 14:00 and leave by 14:10. The tour will end two hours later at U-Bhf Magdalenenstraße.

On Tuesday at 7pm, in the Museum Neukölln, Dr. Fazila Bhimji will be looking at Namibia in Films. How is Namibia portrayed in movies and what do cinematic images teach us about stereotypes and colonial legacies? During this interactive workshop, participants will view film clips representing Namibia and South West Africa. The overall aim of the workshop in conjunction with the exhibition BURIED MEMORIES is to raise awareness to concepts of stereotypes, ethnocentrism, colonial legacies and self-representation through film. You can read the interview we carried out with Fazila here.

There is much more going on in Berlin this week. To find out what’s happening, go to our Events page. You can also see a shorter, but more detailed list of events in which we are directly involved here.

For your calendars, on Sunday, 23rd June, we are organising the German premiere of the new film Where Olive Trees Weep. From the filmmakers: “Where Olive Trees Weep gives background to the current crisis in Israel/Palestine and brings to light the lives of people we met on our 2022 journey in the occupied West Bank. Their universally human stories speak of intergenerational pain, trauma and resilience.  We hope they touch your heart, stir compassion and understanding, and give rise to a pursuit for justice. For without justice, peace remains an empty slogan.” Entry is free, but places are limited so you should reserve a ticket in advance, you can reserve a ticket on this page but you must be there 10 minutes before the film starts to claim a reserved ticket.

If you are looking for Resources on Palestine, we have set up a page with useful links. We will be continually updating the page, so if you would like to recommend other links, please contact us on team@theleftberlin.com. You can also find all the reading from our Palestine Reading Groups here.

In News from Berlin, Berlin votes more for the CDU and less for the SPD and Greens in the EU elections, TU president refuses to resign for supporting Gaza, and more money for Berlin cinemas.

In News from Germany, AfD trebles its vote amongst young Germans, pollution leads to more dead fish on the Polish border, crop failures in Southern Germany, and further delays to Stuttgart’s controversial new railway station.

Read all about it in this week’s News from Berlin and Germany.

New on theleftberlin, Nathaniel Flakin asks what is to be done with Die Linke?, in an article written before last Sunday’s French elections, John Mullen looks at the relationship between Macron and Le Pen, John Puntis looks at Labour’s plans for the NHS, we interview Israeli activist Nimrod Flaschenberg about the recognition of Palestine, Ilya Kharkow remembers Tolstoy, Colin Falconer calls for radical unity against the French fascists, Rafael Sergi remembers the Italian Communist Enrico Berlinguer, who died 40 years ago, and Swaggy analyses the Indian elections.

Our video of the week is the trailer for Where Olive Trees Weep, which we are screening on 23rd June in oyoun. Reserve your ticket here.

You can follow us on the following social media:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• We also support the Berlin LINKE Internationals facebook page.

If you would like to contribute any articles or have any questions or criticisms about our work, please contact us at team@theleftberlin.com. And please do encourage your friends to subscribe to this Newsletter.

Keep on fighting,

The Left Berlin Editorial Board

Tonight (Thursday) sees the pre-release of Hader Halal zine which will be happening as a part of When The Jackal Leaves The Sun, a decolonial feminist infrastructure for memory politics, art, and transformative justice. We will gather around Hader Halal zine and Fehras’ archival collection of the quarterly magazine Lotus: Afro-Asian Writings (1968-1993). We will be reading, listening, and lively activate a spirit of solidarity memories together, histories which shaped the cultural and the publishing work behind this magazine and beyond. The event takes place in Am Flutgraben 3, behind the Festsaal Kreuzberg, and starts at 8pm.

On Friday, at 7pm its our next Palestine Reading Group. This week we will be looking at the novel Saeed The PessOptimist Books 2 and 3. You can find the recommended reading here. The Palestine Reading Group takes place every week on either Friday or Sunday. Check the page of Events we organise for the coming dates and discussion topics. If you’d like to get more involved in the group you can join our Telegram group and follow the channel Reading group. The Reading Group starts at 7pm, and there is a meeting for Moderators at 6.30pm open to everyone who’s interested.

On Saturday, there’s a demonstration Stop Right Wing Extremism. We stand for a democratic, open, and diverse society, for peace and freedom, diversity and human rights, the preservation of human dignity, economic security, and social justice. All of this is attacked by the AfD and other right-wing extremists. The wave of protests against the AfD that has swept our country encourages us. Now we want to ensure that the extreme right also loses at the ballot box. Before the local and European elections, we will take to the streets in hundreds of places from 23 May. The climax of the demonstrations is Saturday, 8 June. In Berlin the demo starts at 2pm at the Siegessäule. The organisers of the demo, Rechtsextremismus Stoppen, are our Campaign of the Week.

Saturday also sees a demo Jabaliah, Rafah, Jenin, Ramallah – Take Your Hands of Palestine. From Berlin To Palestine 🇵🇸 Let us be loud together! The demonstration starts at 4pm at U-Bahn Schönhauser Allee.

On Sunday we are organising a day of Events at Oyoun. Doors open at 2pm, with food served from 3.30pm. At 5pm, we will be screening the Film Jews Like Me, a self-produced film in which Sabby Sagall narrates his childhood and family story as he explains the Zionist mentality historically situated through his own experiences and his path to becoming a life long supporter for the Palestinian cause. Sabby and Jewish socialist from Barcelona, Steve Cedar, will be joining us for a discussion after the film. At 7pm there will be a Dabke workshop, and at 8pm we will be watching the results of the EU elections together. Admission is free, but throughout the day we will be collecting donations for Gaza and for the organising of more activities in Berlin.

On Monday, there will be a screening of Larissa Sansour’s science fiction trilogy and a discussion with Irit Neidhardt and Rabih El Khoury on the challenges of producing, distributing, and screening Arab/Palestinian films in the face of German censorship. Palestinian filmmaker Sansour’s three films A Space Exodus (2008), Nation Estate (2012), and In the Future They Ate from the Finest Porcelain (2015) use the language of sci-fi and glossy production to present a dystopian vision of a Middle East on the brink of the apocalypse. It all takes place at Karl-Marx-Straße 28. Doors open at 8pm, and it starts at 8.30pm. Entry is by donation on the door.

On Wednesday, there is a soli screening of the film Not Just Your Picture. This Film by Anne Paq and Dror Dayan tells the story of the Kilani family, a story whose roots lie between Germany and Palestine/Gaza. It follows the struggle and political activism of the Kilani siblings Layla and Ramsis, who live in Germany. It is a tale of loss and pain, resistance, and fight for justice. We reviewed Not Just Your Picture for theleftberlin here. The film will be followed by a Q&A with director Dror Dayan. It all starts at filmArche, Lahnstraße 25 at 7.30pm.

There is much more going on in Berlin this week. To find out what’s happening, go to our Events page. You can also see a shorter, but more detailed list of events in which we are directly involved here.

If you are looking for Resources on Palestine, we have set up a page with useful links. We will be continually updating the page, so if you would like to recommend other links, please contact us on team@theleftberlin.com. You can also find all the reading from our Palestine Reading Groups here. You can also visit the Palestine film evening every Wednesday at 8.30pm in Al Hamra. The title of the film is usually released too late for us to name it in this Newsletter, but you can stay informed by following Al Hamra on Instagram and facebook.

In News from Berlin, thousands demonstrate against unaffordable rents, CSD organisers threaten to disinvite mayor Kai Wegner, and academics support HU president and academic freedom.

In News from Germany, large increase in residents being granted German citizenship, one in five Germans want more white players in the national team, remembrance for politician Walter Lübcke on the fifth anniversary of his murder by right wing extremists, initiative started to research a police murder, and fatal knife attack in Mannheim.

Read all about it in this week’s News from Berlin and Germany.

New on theleftberlin, we interview Dr. Fazila Bhimji about her workshop on Namibia in Film, Roser Garí Pérez looks at further repression of Palestine supporters by the German police, Ilya Kharkow tells an anti-war conference about conscription in Ukraine, and Irish photographers withdraw their work from a German exhibition in response to the call by STRIKE GERMANY.

You can follow us on the following social media:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• We also support the Berlin LINKE Internationals facebook page.

If you would like to contribute any articles or have any questions or criticisms about our work, please contact us at team@theleftberlin.com. And please do encourage your friends to subscribe to this Newsletter.

Keep on fighting,

The Left Berlin Editorial Board

Tonight (Thursday), experience the electrifying synergy where ART intertwines with MUSIC, and EUROPE converges with the ARAB REGION. KÄF unites talents from both regions to celebrate diversity & foster unity through shared passions. The event offers culture feating world-jazz trio NOON & cognitive installations and paintings by STUDIO APELBAUM. Doors open at 6 PM, show starts at 7:30 PM. Tickets are available at the door, cash only. KÄF takes place at Panke Culture, Hof V, Gerichtstraße 23 in Wedding, and is curated by Asper Casper, one of the performers at the recent Palivision concert.

Tomorrow (Friday) there’s a School and Uni Strike for Gaza and against Repression. The strike has the following demands:

• Stop the falsification of history in the news and educationals institutions.
• Stop the restriction of our rights.
• Stop the repression against school students and students.

There will be a demonstration at Sophie-Scholl-Schule, Elßholzstraße 34-37, at 10am.

Friday evening alse sees our next Palestine Reading Group. This week we will be asking Palestine and Climate Change. You can find the recommended reading here. The Palestine Reading Group takes place every week on either Friday or Sunday. Check the page of Events we organise for the coming dates and discussion topics. If you’d like to get more involved in the group you can join our Telegram group and follow the channel Reading group. The Reading Group starts at 7pm, and there is a meeting for Moderators at 6.30pm open to everyone who’s interested.

We recently had a poll on future subjects to be discussed at the Palestine Reading Group, and decided on the following:

• Friday 7th June – Saeed the PessOptimist, Books 2 and 3
• Friday 14th June – Effect of the Collapse of the USSR on Palestine
• Sunday 23rd June – Antisemitism: Definitions and pitfalls
• Sunday 30th June – Mental Health as a Colonial tool
• Friday 5^th July – Economics of the Israel-Palestine conflict
• Sunday 14^th July – Pan-Arabism

On Saturday, there’s a demonstration for better education. Education crisis meets democracy crisis. 15 million people experience the German education system every day – a system that is suffering from considerable deficiencies across the board. There is a lack of 10,000 educators and teachers as well as hundreds of thousands of kita places. 50,000 young people leave school every year without any qualifications. Urgently needed investments in the ramshackle system are skimped everywhere. The education crisis affects us all and we say “enough”. The demo starts at 11am at Dorothea-Schlegel-Platz.

Also on Saturday, there’s a demonstration: The Rent is too high! Rents and other housing costs are exploding. Wages are stagnating. Every day people are being evicted from their home. Rented accomoation is being transformed into private property. People are being evicted because of “Eigenbedarf” (personal need of the landlord). Homelessness is massively rising. Whole neighbourhoods are being destroyed. Social centres and small businesses cannot find affordable space. Second homes and holiday apartments are changing whole districts into ghosts towns. If you want to stop this happening, join the demo at Potsdamer Platz at 2pm.

All day on Saturday, which is International Children’s Day, you can join the vigil organised by Honouring the Children of Gaza. The vigil is in memory of over 14,000 children who have been killed in Gaza by reading out their names. Many more children have been injured, orphaned, or are suffering starvation. The action will be accompanied by the display of some 10,000 children’s shoes, aiming to materialise the shocking numbers of innocent victims. The action will be taking place between 9am and midnight at the Neue Wache, Unter den Linden 4. Honouring the Children of Gaza is our Campaign of the Week.

On Monday at 7pm, it’s the next coordinating meeting of theleftberlin. This month, we will be hearing report backs from recent Events, like the 1st May and Palivision, making the last preparations for Events we have already planned, like the film “Jews Like Me“, discussing future activities for Palestine and against the AfD, and deciding what we want to organise in the future. At the end of the meeting we will be electing a new coordinating committee and decide on future financial projects like t-shirts, stickers, and a banner. These meetings are open to anyone who is interested and take place in Ferat Kocak’s office, Schierker Straße 26.

There is much more going on in Berlin this week. To find out what’s happening, go to our Events page. You can also see a shorter, but more detailed list of events in which we are directly involved here.

If you are looking for Resources on Palestine, we have set up a page with useful links. We will be continually updating the page, so if you would like to recommend other links, please contact us on team@theleftberlin.com. You can also find all the reading from our Palestine Reading Groups here. You can also visit the Palestine film evening every Wednesday at 8.30pm in Al Hamra. The title of the film is usually released too late for us to name it in this Newsletter, but you can stay informed by following Al Hamra on Instagram and facebook.

In News from Berlin, police beat a journalist when they were clearing the HU occupation, demonstration against rent rises on Saturday, Berliner Senat admit mistakes when policing the banned Palestine Conference, 75,000 people subscribe to the new Berlin €29 ticket, mayor Wegner questions the statue against sexual violence in Japan, and Berlin transport secretary resigns.

In News from Germany, video of celebrating racists goes viral, and CDU bans vote on greener transport after vast majority votes for banning combustion engines.

Read all about it in this week’s News from Berlin and Germany.

New on theleftberlin, Phil Butland and Aubane Décobert explain how they and others organised the Palivision concert within 4 weeks, Dave Gilchrist asks how socialists should react to the forthcoming British elections, Roser Garí Pérez looks at Spain’s continued arms sales to Israel, we publish the first part of the new manifesto by the Bloque Latinoamericano, Ilya Kharkow considers returning to Ukraine, Negro Matapacos looks at the links between Palestinian Liberation and Climate Change, Nathaniel Flakin has a simple solution to the number of car deaths in Berlin, and we publish an open letter to the world from academics in Gaza.

This week’s Video of the Week is the first ever English-language video by anti-racist activist Ferat Kocak. On the 75th anniversary of Germany’s constitutions, Ferat looks at recent bans on activities for Palestine.

You can follow us on the following social media:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• We also support the Berlin LINKE Internationals facebook page.

If you would like to contribute any articles or have any questions or criticisms about our work, please contact us at team@theleftberlin.com. And please do encourage your friends to subscribe to this Newsletter.

Keep on fighting,

The Left Berlin Editorial Board

Tonight (Thursday) at 6pm, Spore Initiative hosts the second Film Forum of Solisur, a grassroots organization of the Latin American Bloc Berlin. Tonight’s film, The Panama Deception, focuses on reflecting on the relationship between neoliberalism, militarization, violence, and drug trafficking in Latin America. After the film, we will open a dialogue that will address other cases of US military interventions in Latin America such as Plan Colombia and the Mérida Initiative or Plan Mexico. What do these interventions teach us considering current contexts like that of Ecuador? Is violence the answer to violence? Solisur is our Campaign of the Week.

On Saturday, also at the Spore Initiative, the Jüdische Stimme is showing the film Arna’s Children. Juliano Mer Khamis tells the story of a theatre group which was founded by his mother Arna Mer Khamis. Arna came from a Zionist family and married a Palestinian Arab Saliba Khamsis in the 1950s. In the West Bank, she opened an alternative education system for children whose normal life had been disturbed by the Israeli occupation. The film starts at 7pm and will be preceded at 5pm by a reading with clarinet accompaniment. Leila Boukarim and JK Langford read poems and statements from children and young writers from the Gaza strip.

On Sunday from 1pm, there’s a Solifleamarket for repression costs of Palestine struggles. We invite you to the Solifleamarket at the Infoladen Schererstr.8. The money raised will be used for repression costs of the Palestine struggles. You are welcome to bring your well-preserved treasures for the flea market, from clothes and children’s toys to books. There will be several tables with recommended donations, after which the items will be sorted. Delicious snacks, cakes, and cool drinks will be provided.

On Sunday at 3pm, the LINKE Neukölln is organising a rally Hands off Tempelhofer Feld! – Against Building and Privatisation. The CDU-SPD local government wants to push through the building development of Tempelhofer Feld. This contravens the referendum against building on the Feld when a clear majority of 64.7% voted for keeping ThF and against building. At the rally, let us clearly say: “No! Berlin belongs to us! For a free Feld – as a place of recreation and green area which is available for all Berliners”. The rally will be in the park near the Herrfurthstraße entrance.

Also on Sunday at 6pm, in Treptower Park, Die Linke Tempelhof-Schöneberg and Mitte are organising a rally Wages Up, Weapons Down! As the wealth of the five richest Europeans has risen to €5.7 Million per hour, millions of people no longer know how they can pay for rent, electricity, and the daily shopping. At the same time, as part of the “changing times”, billions are being invested in armaments as EU militarisation proceeds. We say No to rearmament, weapons export, and wars. Speakers at the rally include Özlem Alev Demirel MEP.

Finally, on Sunday, it’s our latest Palestine Reading Group. This week we will be asking Who Are the Antideutsche? You can find the recommended reading here. The Palestine Reading Group takes place every week on either Friday or Sunday. Check the page of Events we organise for the coming dates and discussion topics. If you’d like to get more involved in the group you can join our Telegram group and follow the channel Reading group. The Reading Group starts at 7pm, and there is a meeting for Moderators at 6.30pm open to everyone who’s interested.

There is much more going on in Berlin this week. To find out what’s happening, go to our Events page. You can also see a shorter, but more detailed list of events in which we are directly involved here.

If you are looking for Resources on Palestine, we have set up a page with useful links. We will be continually updating the page, so if you would like to recommend other links, please contact us on team@theleftberlin.com. You can also find all the reading from our Palestine Reading Groups here. You can also visit the Palestine film evening every Wednesday at 8.30pm in Al Hamra. The title of the film is usually released too late for us to name it in this Newsletter, but you can stay informed by following Al Hamra on Instagram and facebook.

In News from Berlin, Die Linke Neukölln opposes a brochure containing lies about the Nakba which the local government wants to distribute in schools, police arrest 25 people on the Nakba demo, the queer housing project Tuntenhaus will not be forced to close after all, and Tesla is given the green light to expand its controversial plant.

In News from Germany, 16 and 17 year olds may now vote in the EU elections, and AfD’s #2 candidate in the EU elections is raided by the police following accusations of money laundering and bribery.

Read all about it in this week’s News from Berlin and Germany.

New on theleftberlin, Nathaniel Flakin looks at Berlin mayor Kai Wegner’s contempt for democracy on ths housing questions, Phil Butland argues why Berliners should demonstrate on Nakba Day, we publish a video gallery of all the speeches and acts at Palivision, Johanna Rothe criticise Germany’s dialogue about Palestine, Steve Cedar in Barcelona analyses a setback for the Left in the recent Catalonian elections, there’s a photo gallery from the Nakba Day demonstration, Ilya Kharkow asks how much does freedom cost?, Hari Kumar visits an exhibition of DDR art in Dresden, and Colin Falconer in Paris looks at the ongoing uprising in New Caledonia.

This week’s Video of the Week is the speech from Palästina Spricht at last Saturday’s Nakba demo.

You can follow us on the following social media:

• Instagram
• Twitter
• We also support the Berlin LINKE Internationals facebook page.

If you would like to contribute any articles or have any questions or criticisms about our work, please contact us at team@theleftberlin.com. And please do encourage your friends to subscribe to this Newsletter.

Keep on fighting,

The Left Berlin Editorial Board