The Palestine Conference was to take place from 12-14th of April in Berlin. The German state showed the international community once and for all that it will silence voices against its complicity in the genocide at any cost: through a smear campaign by ruling politicians and media; by the police storming the Palestine Conference, by deporting the eyewitness to the genocide in Gaza, Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah; by banning Yanis Varoufakis, Dr. Salman Abu Sitta and Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah from political activity in Germany; and finally by banning the Palestine Conference on the pretext that someone might say something criminally relevant.
We will not allow ourselves to be silenced by this clear repression of basic democratic rights. The German state is complicit in a genocide through its military and political support of the Israeli state. It proved this once again over the last weekend.
With this letter of support we condemn this criminalization and banning of the Palestine Conference and hold the German government accountable for aiding and abetting genocide in Gaza
Letter of support
Germany provides critical military, economic and diplomatic aid to Israel, and is therefore complicit in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza as well as the ongoing perpetuation of colonial oppression.
We have witnessed overwhelming attempts to suppress voices critical of German policies towards Palestine - reaching new heights in political, media and police repression that should be nonexistent in democracies. In this context, a broad front of civil society organisations and advocates for the liberation of Palestine decided to organise the Palestine Conference 2024 in Berlin to:
Raise public awareness about the ongoing violations of international law by the Israeli military in Gaza;
Highlight German complicity in the ongoing genocide against the Palestinians; and
Provide an organising platform to further strengthen civil society actions for a free Palestine.
The conveners of the conference have however come under significant pressure. They have been subjected to a potential ban of the event by the Berlin Senate, multiple police raids, confiscation of equipment, arrest and detention of activists, exceptionally intense attack by corporate media and possible visa bans of invited guests. Worryingly, the bank account of one of the organisers, Jüdische Stimme (Jewish Voice), has been frozen due to their support of the conference, with the bank, Berliner Sparkasse, demanding a list of names and addresses of the Jewish organisation's members! These are all clear threats to the freedom of expression and assembly.
And let's be clear - the organisers of the conference are being targeted for simply being critical of Germany's role in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians through:
Providing diplomatic cover by supporting Israel in the ongoing case of genocide at the International Court of Justice in The Hague
Ignoring international law obligations arising from the Arms Trade Treaty to review arms exports in such circumstance - in fact increasing exports of weapons to Israel by 1000%
Creating significant harm by halting financial support for humanitarian aid to the Palestinian
It is thus crucial to break the silence and highlight how Germany, like many other western governments, is fully complicit in the horrendous, brutal and savage onslaught being waged on Palestinians.
Our support
The Palestine Conference 2024 in Berlin represents an attempt at resisting curtailment of fundamental rights, and in this sense, it is very important that its convening is guaranteed. The attempts to criminalise and politically repress it represent a direct threat to civil liberties, free speech and democratic principles. We declare our support for the broad coalition of Palestinian, Jewish, German and international activists that are organising it, and denounce the attacks on the conference.
Signatories
Clare Daly
Member of the European Parliament
Owen Jones
Journalist, Author and Activist
Andrew Feinstein
Former ANC MP under Nelson Mandela in South Africa
Author"The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade"
Ada Colau
Former Mayor of Barcelona
Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela
MP South African Parliament
Traditional Leader
Irene Montero
Former Minister of Equality
Podemos Candidate for the European Elections
Gerardo Pisarello
Former Barcelona Vice-Mayor
Member & First Secretary of the Spanish Parliament
Yanis Varoufakis
Former Finance Minister of Greece
Economics Professor and Author
Pablo Iglesias
Former Vice President of Spain
Director of CanalRedTV
Ione Belarra
Member of the Spanish Parliament
General Secretary of Podemos
Ali Abunimah
Director of electronicintifada.net
Author
Miguel Urban
Member of the European Parliament
Bookseller and Author and Activist
Katie Halper
Host of the Katie Halper Show
Co-host of Useful Idiots
Mick Wallace
Member of the European Parliament
Manu Pineda
Member of the European Parliament
President Delegation EU Parliament in Palestine
Ramzy Baroud
Author, Journalist, Editor of palestinechronicle.com
Carlos Lattuf
Brazilian political cartoonist
Adam Broomberg
South-African artist, art educator and activist
Co-founder of the NGO Artists + Allies x Hebron
Judith Butler
Professor at the Department of Comparative Literature
UC Berkeley
Sophia Hoffman
German Cook/Author/Restaurateur
Indya Moore
American actress and model
Craig Mokhiber
American former United Nations human rights official