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.
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Keep on fighting,
The Left Berlin Editorial Board
