Today Thursday, December 19, 2024 ~ Israel has dropped more bombs on Gaza than London, Dresden and Hamburg combined suffered in the entirety of the Second World War. Over 160,000 buildings have been flattened. Gaza is now and will be for years to come a land of grey rubble: broken concrete mixed with the decaying corpses of the innocent. DON'T STOP TALKING ABOUT GAZA & LEBANON ~ WE ASK: ACCOUNTABILITY + JUSTICE. WE ASK: A POLITICAL SOLUTION WHICH NOT ONLY STOPS THE GENOCIDE BUT ALSO BRINGS APARTHEID AND OCCUPATION TO AN END ~ OUR GOVERNMENTS, INSTITUTIONS AND COMPANIES HAVE BEEN COMPLICIT IN SO MANY WAYS AND FOR SO MANY YEARS ~ THIS STARTED LONG, LONG BEFORE OCTOBER 7, 2023.
The street is empty
as a monk’s memory,
and faces explode in the flames
like acorns—
and the dead crowd the horizon
and doorways.
No vein can bleed
more than it already has,
no scream will rise
higher than it’s already risen.
We will not leave!
From: Exodus by Taha Muhammad Ali ~read the entire poem here.
The tonic to go with the Djinn of the social media feed
"If only our timelines could be replaced by timedials, in a metaphorical coding sense, could social media platforms generate more recursive, less-linear experiences? If this is asking (or expecting too) much from the US centric corporate owned platforms, then could a tonic, the tonic to go with the Djinn of the social media feed, be the parallel readings of Palestinian historians, writer and poets who invite us to longer term conjectures and durations?" From "Timeline Palestine" a text by Harun Morrison (DAI, 2020) published on the 30th of October 2023 by Nero
It’s really no surprise that resistance and literature go hand in hand:
5 Palestinian Poems that’ll Reshape Your Understanding of Belonging:
Fadwa Tuqan, Mahmoud Darwish, Ibrahim Tuqan, Noor Hindi and Hanan Mikha’il Ashrawi.
Palestine Festival of Literature
WOMEN POWER
DEAR MEMBERS OF THE EXTENDED DAI COMMUNITY ARE SHARING LINKS
YOUR suggestions are most welcome as well, send them to: WORLD@dutchartinstitute.eu
See also DAI's 2023-2024 PALESTINE TEACH-OUTS page
Court orders Netherlands to halt delivery of fighter jet parts to Israel.
INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE
The Hague, 26 January 2024 ~ ICJ ruled that accusation of genocide against Israel is credible, that Palestinians face urgent, catastrophic situation & that Israeli leaders express genocidal intent. It ordered Israel to immediately halt killing and all other prohibited acts under the Genocide convention.
URGENT LETTER FROM 'DUTCH SCHOLARS FOR PALESTINE' TO ALL DUTCH HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS:
"In light of this ruling, it is the duty of third-state governments to immediately implement the orders of ICJ. Concretely, this also means that third-state institutions that uphold the principles of international law are required to prevent complicity in acts of genocide, which has included the wanton and deliberate destruction of all universities and most schools throughout Gaza and the killing of 4327 students, and 231 teachers and school administrators."
"For publicly-funded Dutch higher education institutions, this means we no longer have the choice whether to cut ties with Israeli institutions and corporations aiding and abetting genocide. We are morally bound by the broad remit of the ruling and order by the International Court of Justice, the world’s highest judicial authority on international law."
READ THE FULL LETTER HERE (IN ENGLISH AND IN DUTCH)
THE HAGUE, 29 December 2023 ~ The Republic of South Africa institutes proceedings against the State of Israel and requests the International Court of Justice in The Hague to indicate provisional measures (No. 2023/77)
Download the tell-all report here
Well known actors have come together to read the case files out loud. Palestine Festival of Literature presents over 50 clauses of the comprehensive case South Africa lays out, charging Israel with genocide.
More than 900 popular movements, unions, political parties, and other grassroots organizations have signed an open letter to support South Africa's case.
“We urge national governments to immediately file a Declaration of Intervention in support of the South African case against Israel at the International Court of Justice to stop the killing in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” ADD YOUR NAME
January 18, 2024 ~ Boston Review: The Silencing of Fred Dube ~ Forty years ago, the exiled South African activist dared to teach Zionism critically. A furious backlash ensued.
13 January 2024, a media release from the Namibian Presidency:
Namibia rejects Germany’s Support of the Genocidal Intent of the Racist Israeli State against Innocent Civilians in Gaza. On Namibian soil, Germany committed the first genocide of the 20th century in 1904-1908, in which tens of thousands of innocent Namibians died in the most inhumane and brutal conditions. The German Government is yet to fully atone for the genocide it committed on Namibian soil. Therefore, in light of Germany’s inability to draw lessons from its horrific history, President Dr Hage G.Geingob expresses deep concern with the shocking decision communicated by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany yesterday, 12 January 2024, in which it rejected the morally upright indictment brought forward by South Africa before the International Court of Justice that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
NOT IN OUR NAME
Artists and Curators Call for Israel to be Excluded from the Venice Biennale
An open letter notes that apartheid South Africa was banned from participating between 1968 and 1993.
It Is Our Duty To Speak Out When Our Governments’ Policies Are Wrong.
February 2, 2024 ~ Transatlantic Civil Servants’ Statement on Gaza: coordinated by civil servants in European Union institutions and bodies: The Netherlands, United States. Also endorsed by civil servants in: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.
EUROVISION ~ Art washing Israel's Gaza genocide:
"We, Palestinans and Israeli's, based in the Netherlands,
call for action from the part of the Dutch Government". In a collectively written Open Letter to Dutch newspaper Het Parool, the group of around 70 people, urges the Dutch government to demand for an immediate ceasefire.
READ THE LETTER (IN DUTCH) HERE.
Palestinian Students’ Urgent Call to Students Around the Globe:
Stop the Genocide and End Complicity with Israeli Apartheid
Statement Birzeit University
issued by the Birzeit University Union of Professors and Employees in response to the ongoing genocide of Gaza perpetrated by the state of Israel. (Birzeit is a public university based in the West Bank, in Palestine).
Jewish Voices for Peace
Suspend Israel from International Sports
With a few notable exceptions, our governments and elected representatives continue to toe the official line of Israel – even increasing diplomatic, financial and military support to it despite countless violations of international laws, international humanitarian laws, and UN resolutions. The International Olympic Committee, FIFA, UEFA, FIBA, and other sports organisations are complicit as they allow a continuous participation of the occupying apartheid regime in their events. Following a swift response and an instant suspension of Russia, it is now difficult for them to justify turning a blind eye to the Israeli government’s actions.
We must however take heart from history and support the liberation of Palestine as generations before us brought apartheid to an end in South Africa. That struggle took on all possible dimensions, with one of the earliest being suspension of sporting ties – which aided in peacefully isolating the South African regime, demonstrated a global rejection of apartheid and changed domestic perspectives in the country.
READ MORE and sign if you agree!
Silence is Complicity
"We call on all European institutions and governments to break from their inaction and make every effort to prevent the continued massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and their arrest and intimidation in the West Bank".Institute of Radical Imagination/ Foundation for Art Initiatives. SIGN THE PETITION HERE.
Open Letter from the Art Community to Cultural Organizations
Open Letter from the Art Community to Cultural Organizations & and a RESPONSE
We demand the resignation of European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen
who violated the European Union‘s legal framework and disregarded basic moral decency. While condemning attacks on civilians in Israel, she has supported the sealing off of civilians in Gaza from water, food and electricity and the bombing of the people of Gaza under the guise of “defence”. This unilateral action disregards international law and the democratic mandate of EU member states. SIGN THE PETITION BY DIEM25
Dutch Scholars for Palestine
PETITION BY Dutch Scholars for Palestine ~ network of academic and cultural workers committed to solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for liberation and self-determination.
Cancellation and censorship in times of war:
The transnational CIMAM Museum Watch committee is following with concern the dreadful situation in Gaza and its repercussions in the worlds of art and culture—more specifically, its consequences for artists and curators who express their support for the Palestinian people.
MEANWHILE IN GERMANY
Archive of Silence - Cancellation & Silencing Public List
March 25, 2024 Message from Cultural Center Oyoun in Berlin:
"We are delighted to announce that the Berlin Regional Court has ruled in Oyoun’s favour in the preliminary injunction proceedings against the Tagesspiegel. This decision represents a victory for credibility and sends a clear signal about the dangers based on unfounded allegations. The court ruled that the Tagesspiegel may no longer publish three of the claims it stated in an article dated 20 February 2024. In particular, it found that the allegation that the Senate favoured Oyoun due to family ties was unfounded. The allegations regarding alleged antisemitic incidents at Oyoun were also found to be unfounded. This decision confirms the integrity of Oyoun and marks an important victory against defamation.
In light of this court decision, we would like to emphasise that Oyoun has always sought an open dialogue with the media and promoted fair reporting. Although Oyoun has been exonerated of false accusations, it will take some time to fully restore its reputation. This decision emphasises the importance of a fair and impartial legal system that respects the presumption of innocence and delivers just verdicts. We would like to thank our lawyers – Laaser law firm for arts and creative sector – for their successful and conscientious legal representation and look forward to continuing our work without the shadow of defamation."
February 27, 2024: Yannis Varoufakis: "Official Germany's practice of labelling criticism of Israel as 'antisemitic' is absurdly totalitarian. If it is not stopped by progressive Germans, it will not be long before the Federal Republic descends into a rabbit hole leading to a state indistinguishable from fascism."
The number of incidents is now amplifying with such speed that we, on this page, can no longer keep track, but we do however want to quote prize winning Israeli filmmaker Yuval Abraham, being one the latest critics of Israel to be called out as "antisemitic" by the German powers that be: Yuval: "As my grandmother was born in a concentration camp in Libya and most of my grandfather’s family was murdered by Germans in the holocaust, I find it particularly outraging that German politicians in 2024 have the audacity to weaponize this term against me in a way that endangered my family. But above all else, this behavior puts Palestinian co-director Basel Adra’s life in danger, who lives under a military occupation surrounded by violent settlements in Masafer Yatta. He is in far greater danger than I am. I’m happy our award winning film, No Other Land, is sparking an important international debate on this issue - and I hope that millions of people watch it when it comes out this year. Sparking a conversation is why we made it. You can have harsh criticism of what me and Basel said on stage without demonizing us. If this is what you’re doing with your guilt for the holocaust - I don’t want your guilt."
February 27, 2024 ~ "On December 14, 2023 we, a group of students at Freie Universität Berlin, occupied a lecture hall in an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people. The occupation was the first of its kind in Germany. It was peaceful although a group of counterprotesters tried to disrupt it. The reaction of the university, however, was to call the police to clear the protesting students. Twenty of us were detained, including myself. Although both the police and the university said there were no anti-Semitic attacks or discrimination at the protest, the latter tried to justify its actions in a subsequent statement with its policy of zero tolerance on anti-Semitism. Last week, we received letters from the police notifying us that the university administration has pressed criminal charges against us for “trespassing”. Meanwhile, a petition has gathered more than 26,000 signatures calling for our expulsion." Read the full text: German guiltwashing in times of genocide | Opinions | Al Jazeera
January 30, 2024 ~ Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck: "This morning, I received an email titled 'Different perspectives'. My forthcoming solo 2024 exhibition at a museum in Germany is cancelled. The correspondence of today is to be found in this Instagram post".
January 30, 2024 ~ Read award-winning Bosnian-Serbian novelist Lana Bastašić’s blazing response to yet another act of literary censorship. "Thank you for uninviting me. I would not want to be part of an institution which not only cancels artists, but seems to think silence & censorship is the right answer to genocide."
January 29, 2024 ~ Laurie Anderson Loses German Professorship Over Pro-Palestine Letter. The artist and Folkwang University jointly announced her resignation in light of Anderson’s endorsement of a “Letter Against Apartheid” over two years ago.
January 8, 2024: In Berlin, ‘Art Is Free!’- Unless It’s Standing for a Free Palestine ~ Berlin could become ‘irrelevant for global cultural and artistic discourse.’
January 2024: STRIKE GERMANY is a call for international cultural workers to strike from German cultural institutions. It is a call to refuse German cultural institutions' use of McCarthyist policies that suppress freedom of expression, specifically expressions of solidarity with Palestine.
January 4, 2024: Memory Failure ~ Germany’s commitment to Israel, a brilliant historical analysis by Pankaj Mishra for the London Review of Books.
January 4, 2024: Open Letter to the Berlin Senate Cultural Administration and to Joe Chialo, State Minister for Culture and Social Cohesion. ~ Against the compulsory commitment to the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism as a prerequisite for cultural funding from the federal state of Berlin.
December 18, 2023: "Hannah Arendt would not qualify for the Hannah Arendt prize in Germany today ~ The irony of Masha Gessen almost not being awarded the prize because of their writings on Gaza is almost too thick to cut" ~ article by Samantha Hill, the author of Hannah Arendt, a biography, and Hannah Arendt’s Poems.
December 11, 2023: Eyal Weizman of Forensic Architecture shares that a lecture by Phoebe Walton of Forensis, a nonprofit sister research association committed to counter-investigating violence and repression by state and corporate actors around the world got cancelled by the Dean of the Technical University (RWTH) of the German city Aachen after Forensic Architecture was described as an antisemitic organisation for its human rights work in Palestine. The lecture was supposed to be about the Dutch police killing of a German man in Amsterdam.
December 9, 2023: The German Green Party-affiliated Heinrich Böll Foundation, “in agreement with the Bremen Senate,” is withdrawing from awarding the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought to the Russian-American journalist , Masha Gessen citing Gessen’s recent New Yorker essay “In the Shadow of the Holocaust ~ How the politics of memory in Europe obscures what we see in Israel and Gaza today.” as the reason for the decision.
December 4, 2023, Brief aus Berlin - kritische Wissenschaftler*innen an die deutsche Politik und Öffentlichkeit and Letter from Berlin - On the situation in Germany in the wake of October 7. (The English version of Brief aus Berlin, published in the Boston Review, with an introduction by Harvard University’s Peter E. Gordon).
November 29, 2023: Candice Breitz exhibition in Germany is cancelled over her Middle East views. The artist, who is Jewish, says the “level of German self-righteousness is beyond absurd”.
November 29, 2023 ~ Once Again, Germany Defines Who Is a Jew | Part 2 Conversation beteween George Prochnik, Eyal Weizman & Emily Dische-Becker ~ published in Granta.
November 22, 2023: Human dignity for all: A response to “Principles of solidarity. A statement”, signed by 109 academics and intellectuals.
November 13, 2023 ~ Principles of solidarity. A statement" ~ Nicole Deitelhoff, Rainer Forst, Klaus Günther & Jürgen Habermas.
November 10, 2023: Documenta Resignation Letter ~ Bracha L. Ettinger
November 13, 2023: Documenta Resignation Letter ~ Ranjit Hoskote
Germany is a good place to be Jewish. Unless, like me, you’re a Jew who criticises Israel ~ Deborah Feldman in the Guardian of 13 November, 2023.
Peter Weiss Literature Prize announces award to Sharon Dodua Otoo, then suspends the award.
A STATEMENT from BERLIN CULTURE WORKERS for PALESTINE:"This statement is more than a diagnosis or complaint: we are sounding the alarm".
Freedom for the One Who Thinks Differently ~ An open letter from a group of Jewish artists, writers, and scholars in Germany.
MEANWHILE IN GERMANY: Adiana Shibli
IT IS TIME TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT
Anti-Palestinianism ~ Islamophobia ~ Anti-Arabism
In a new mini-documentary from The Electronic Intifada, Nora Barrows-Friedman explains the difference between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism is a tool to identify, confront and raise awareness about antisemitism as it manifests in countries around the world today. It includes a preamble, definition, and a set of 15 guidelines that provide detailed guidance for those seeking to recognize antisemitism in order to craft responses. It was developed by a group of scholars in the fields of Holocaust history, Jewish studies, and Middle East studies to meet what has become a growing challenge: providing clear guidance to identify and fight antisemitism while protecting free expression.
The Jerusalem Declaration offers a strong, viable alternative to the contested IHRA working definition of Antisemitism.
FILMS and DOCUMENTARIES to WATCH
A WEALTH OF PALESTINIAN FILMS (made available for free): Palestine Films: international institution for serving the Palestinian films and films about Palestine.
Al Jazeera: Ten films to watch about the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict
Released just shortly before 7 October, 2023: Israelism ~ Official trailer When two young American Jews raised to unconditionally love Israel witness the brutal way Israel treats Palestinians, their lives take sharp left turns (see the film's website as well).
Palestine Is Still The Issue (2002) ~ a still completely relevant documentary by renowned journalist John Pilger, who passed away 30 December 2023 at 84. From Palestine to Cambodia, Pilger worked extensively to expose human suffering caused by imperialist governments.
RESOURCES context, history, research, reflection, activism, support.
Seeing Genocide: Read curator, filmaker, scholar Ariella Aïsha Azoulay's seminal text (published December 8): Israel’s weaponization of images since October 7 obfuscates its genocidal campaign against Palestinians. Seminal text by curator, filmmaker, and Professor of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University, Ariella Aïsha Azoulay. Published by the: Boston Review ~ independent political and literary forum
Noura Erakat's incredibly powerful statement "Western Leaders & Media Are Justifying Israel’s “Genocidal Campaign” Against Palestinians" begins with a commendation to Democracy Now! Democracy Now!:
"an oasis in a sea of warmongering across mainstream media".
Democracy Now ! Democracy Now ! continues to offer a platform to those brave voices that are speaking truth to power, while not giving in to chilling, neo-fascist discourses, be they anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic or anti-Semitic (or a mixture of all three). Brave voices such as that of:
Israel's award-winning journalist Amira Hass, Haaretz correspondent for the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the only Israeli Jewish journalist to have spent 30 years living in and reporting from Gaza and the West Bank breaks down as she tries to put into words the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, Israel's plan for even greater slaughter, and the world's indifference. She then decries the marginalization and suppression of the Israeli left, as “extreme fascists” in the Netanyahu government have whipped the Israeli public into one that is “drunk with the will to take: revenge.”
The Vera List Center at the New School in New York generously shares a great list of resources by artists and activists, weaving essays, films, poetry, programs, and sounds that draw on its 30-year archive of critical conversations on Palestinian resistance—essays on BDS, co-resistance, allyship, and decolonization by among others Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, Yazan Khalili, Joshua Simon, Ann Stoler, Eyal Weizman, Kareem Estefan, Emily Jacir, Khalil Rabah, Rasha Salti and Ella Shohat.
Extensive hour-to-hour covering: Aljazeera English
Aljazeera shares: What’s the Israel-Palestine conflict about? It’s killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions. And its future lies in its past. A simple guide.
The Electronic Intifada is regularly hosting a LIVE STREAM with news and well-informed, sharp and in-depth analyses from the perspective of the resistance.
What Does “From the River to the Sea” Really Mean?
Dutch Court Rules ‘From the River to the Sea’ Protected Speech and Not Antisemitic.
The Palestine Poster Projects Archive
The Institute for Palestine Studies ~ the most reliable source of information and analysis on the Question of Palestine.
Read The Ten Myths About Israel and watch a brief, yet highly insightful conversation between its author, the brilliant, exiled Israeli historian, political scientist and brave human being Ilan Pappe, and journalist Max Blumenthal about how the mere presence of the Palestinians threatens the dominant Israeli narrative. About how settler colonialism and Zionism are completely entangled and how the international racist and anti-semitic extreme right came to embrace the State of Israel. Link: Youtube: 30th of March 2017
BRILLIANT CONVERSATION: The myth of Israel's 'democracy' with Ilan Pappé | The Chris Hedges Report
The Palestine Chronicle: A Wall and a Watchtower: Why is Israel Failing?
Breaking the Silence ~ an organization of veteran soldiers who have served in the Israeli military since the start of the Second Intifada and have taken it upon themselves to expose the public to the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories.
B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
Novara Media is an independent media organisation ~ driven to build a new media for a different politics.
DDN ~ DoubleDownNews: "WE SERVE PEOPLE NOT POWER ~ In an ever increasingly divided world, our job isn’t to drive people further apart with fear and fiction but bring them together with empathy and evidence."
Mondoweiss is an independent website devoted to informing readers about developments in Israel/Palestine and related US foreign policy. It provides news and analysis unavailable through the mainstream media regarding the struggle for Palestinian human rights.
The Balfour Project: acknowledging Britain’s historic and continuing responsibilities, works through education and advocacy to advance equal rights for all in Palestine/Israel, regardless of race or creed.
The Vital Role of Afro-Palestinians in the African Diaspora
Amnesty International Israel's Apartheid Against Palestinians
Amnesty International has created a free 90-minute course called “Deconstructing Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians”. To learn more about the crime of apartheid in international law, what apartheid looks like in Israel/OPT, and how it affects Palestinians’ lives, sign up their course on Amnesty International’s human rights education academy.
BAK (Utrecht) offers:"75 years of dispossession ~ 56 years of occupation ~ 16 years of blockade", assembled under the title To Read the War on BAK’s digital forum.
DAI's statement page (including many resources) of May, 2021.
FOLLOW THE MONEY
Gaza's gas, China's New Silk Road, shaping the world to come
These two, above mentioned, passionately delivered online-seminars by independent journalist and researcher Richard Medhurst are substained by a wealth of online articles in business-journals and on policy platforms worldwide, reporting on older to very recent (until the beginning of October)deliberations and contracts or contracts-in-the-making between various heads of states, companies and Israel as well as the Palestinian Authority (who is not in charge of Gaza).
Search for Gaza Marine (natural gas field off the coast of the Gaza Strip) and the Ben Gurion Canal Project
DONATIONS ~ DO WHAT YOU CAN
January 27, 2024: If there was ever a time to donate to UNRWA, it is now. When 9 Western countries - led by the US - have decided to cut their funding in a dystopian retaliation for the ICJ ruling, and therefore cut Palestinians' main source of humanitarian assistance.
Be the beacon of hope for Palestine refugees. Giving to UNRWA today will help provide vital food, and cash assistance to thousands of Palestine refugee families. Give now!
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Esim Donors for Gaza
All around the world, thousands of people are donating eSIMs to Gaza to make sure that Palestinians stay connected with the world.
Since October 7th, Gaza has faced big internet connection problems.
Communication towers have been targeted and there are very limited areas where internet connection is still available. So, how are Palestinians sharing photos and videos of
what is happening in Gaza? The answer is: through eSIM donations. https://www.esimdonorsforgaza.org
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Palestine Red Crescent Society
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MAP ~ Medical Aid for Palestine
(note that all profits from sales on e-flux Shop will now be donated to Medical Aid for Palestinians to support emergency relief in Gaza).
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Doctors without Borders in Palestine
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Buy Palestinian products (in the Netherlands):
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