Dear Germany, your repression of Palestine solidarity will not be victorious

Dear Germany, your repression of Palestine solidarity will not be victorious
Germany continues in its attempts to censor & repress Palestinians & Palestine solidarity whilst extending endless support for Israel & its apartheid practices. But these tactics will not stop people mobilising & speaking out, argues Hebh Jamal.
5 min read
28 Apr, 2023
German news agencieshave fired Arab & Palestinian journalists, censored news interviews that does not align with Zionism & exhibited overwhelming bias in favour of Israel, writes Hebh Jamal.

Dear Germany,

As a Palestinian journalist living here, I have witnessed the reprehensible efforts that you have made in an attempt to silence and sideline Palestinian voices. I am here to tell you it will fail.

In 2019, when your Bundestag classified the BDS movement as inherently antisemitic, organisations and Palestinians that support the boycott were barred from accessing public funds and public spaces. Despite its unbinding status, universities, state governments, and public institutions have successfully Palestinians the right to freedom of speech.

''Despite all of this, however, we are not victims. It is the very fact that you try so hard to erase our existence that proves that the Palestinian liberation movement is alive, well, and thriving in this country.''

In some cases the word “Palestine” has been in your classrooms due to your efforts in spreading pro-Israel propaganda within the education system. You to Israel to train them, and are seemingly unbothered by the internationally categorised Israeli apartheid system. You have created commissions that to “bring Germany and Israel closer together” and saw that changing textbooks is an “important tool to achieve this.” Your students are paying the price for the dangerous pro-Israel bias you impose on their education. Of course, Palestinian students get the shortest end of that stick.

You also our right to assembly. We are apprehended if we express our anger, frustration and sadness over the plight of our people, and even restrict what we can say in the seldom moments we are allowed to protest.

Even our you are unable to name. For the last three decades, the question of Palestinian statehood has regularly been addressed by German administrative courts in decisions on applications for asylum. On 2 November 2020, the Freiburg Administrative Court reconfirmed the finding that there was neither a Palestinian State nor a Palestinian nationality: “It must first be noted that there is no Palestinian nationality and that it is therefore irrelevant whether the plaintiffs are regarded and treated as nationals of a Palestinian State by the Palestinian Authority or by other States.”

Despite all of this, however, we are not victims. It is the very fact that you try so hard to erase our existence that proves that the Palestinian liberation movement is alive, well, and thriving in this country.

Take last year’s , the biggest art exhibit in Europe, for example. Your news reporters, politicians and political pundits’ and categorise pro-Palestinian artists as antisemitic to get them disinvited was a failure. Instead, it the artists involved against anti-Palestinian slander in a true act of powerful defiance. Over 700 thousand people attended the exhibit, exceeding the expectations of everyone involved.

And in the summer of 2021, the aggressive Israeli assault against Palestinians in Gaza drew demanding an end to Israeli violence. In Cologne there were around 800 protestors, while in your capital, Berlin, over 6,500 protestors took to the streets all chanting that Israel is an apartheid state.

While your news agencies, , and exhibit overwhelming , people in Germany are still actively talking about the occupation of Palestine.

, at the Hijacking Memory Conference in Berlin, Palestinians such as Tarek Baconi delivered a riveting speech on how a colonised Palestine isn’t the answer both Germany’s and the rest of the world's guilt. He outlined the hypocrisy your country routinely exhibits:

“In Germany, Palestinians wearing a keffiyeh and commemorating the Nakba are for questioning, losing their jobs, being vilified, and even being — all while the actual neo-Nazi AfD party not so long ago one of the largest opposition parties in the Bundestag.”

And this year, again in Berlin, the conference which is a yearly leftist internationalist gathering, has an entire program on Palestine for the first time. Israeli historian and staunch Palestinian advocate, Ilan Pape is expected to speak at the event.

As you can see, this is a losing battle. You have based your entire memory culture, which is about atoning for the Holocaust, on unconditional support for Israel, even making Israel’s security your The more you cling on to Israel’s propaganda and uncritically back apartheid and a brutal occupation, the sooner Germans will realise its facade.

Nonetheless we aren’t standing idly by, waiting for you to acknowledge us. We exist today, are present today and will continue to fight for Palestinian liberation today despite the rampant anti-Palestinianism that takes place daily. We are only awaiting the day that Palestine will be free - from the river, to the sea.

Sincerely,

A Palestinian in Germany

Hebh Jamal is a Palestinian American journalist based in Germany.

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