We[1] are a group of diverse students, some of whom have experienced the entire period of Germany’s repressive tactics since October 7, 2023, and some of whom are just starting out at the university. This text has been written collectively, anonymously, and with a hint of fear. It reflects on and denounces the current situation at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK Berlin), one of the many cases of repression and criminalization that have taken place after October 7, 2023, against those in Germany expressing their solidarity with Palestine. This wave of persecution has reached many spheres: protest, academia, politics, art. Nothing has been spared. In light of the escalating restrictions on discourse in Germany we felt the urgency to create a counter-archive. This text may be our first step towards it. To protect ourselves as students and our teachers, especially those who are international and rely on visas, as well as others in precarious social and economic situations, we have decided to write anonymously.[2] This counter-narration centers around the events that unfolded after October 7, 2023. Not all voices and experiences can find a place here, but where possible, they will be referred to for context. We encourage those facing similar struggles to reach out to us and exchange ideas for counter-archiving.
We aim to show how the institution repeatedly failed to engage in meaningful dialogue with its students, who were (and still are) protesting the war and genocide in Gaza. Instead of fostering open conversation, the university publicly condemned and misrepresented actions by those students and affiliated teachers, perpetuated harmful stereotypes and instrumentalized accusations of anti-Semitism against them. This pattern of silencing and miscommunication ignored students’ calls for reflection and understanding, deepened the divide between the institution and its student body, and undermined legitimate grievances. As the protests have continued, the UdK Berlin has chosen to surrender its academic freedom and introduce authoritarian methods of surveillance into its structures, with the aim of suppressing the voice of Palestine solidarity movements.
While thousands of people around the world took to the streets, occupied universities and disrupted airports, here where “Arts and sciences, research and teaching shall be free,”[3] we witness how solidarity with the Palestinian people is criminalized, persecuted, suppressed and erased during the unfolding genocide in Palestine. The discursive atmosphere in Germany has intensified, becoming an explosive mix of distorted and dangerous perspectives on anti-Semitism, German guilt, Islamophobia, the far-right, (neo-)colonialism, and the criminalization of the ‘other’—a lethal combination. How do we confront this? Where do we place our anger? Or our dignified rage? How do we ensure that in future times it will be clear that many of us were aware of the genocide perpetrated by Israel, while German society, once again, remained (complicit) in its silence? They did not care to act, nor did they intervene.
We are writing this article as there is no space for critical discussion of this topic either within universities, or in the broader German discourse.[4] It is an unwanted subject that is rejected, censored and criminalized in popular discourse as in the (public) cultural institutions, state funded and private media, in particular Axel Springer Presse. It embodies this society’s unrecognized pain and fear. The lack of empathy and care in the German debate is striking. Counter-narratives are, therefore, essential. In writing this testimony, which challenges the distorted 'narration' of the anti-Semitic protester, we have drawn on our expertise, developed through the last years of collective teaching and learning. This text is a continuation of that work: an invitation to write, read, archive and connect, not just for the sake of documentation, but as a means of mobilisation. We write because it is our way of resisting fear, silencing and censorship. Palestinian refugees, both inside and outside the occupied territories, describe their ability to resist and endure life in camps as Samoud (صمود), a steadfastness that is not mere endurance but an act of defiance. We write because we want to honor their Samoud.
Does it help to put things down on paper? Today, everything feels confusing and frustrating, but years from now we will understand the significance of having written this. Of having put our voices on paper. Of releasing the burden we carried. The fear we have lived with. What is fear? What are we afraid of? Red-painted hands? The color of blood? The smell of death? A flag? Are we afraid that the dead will become seeds that take root and that our words will speak the truth? Fear is a methodology of fascism. Fear hides behind symbols. It infiltrates everything. It is embedded in norms and laws, it becomes a landscape. It seeps into culture. It amplifies guilt. Fear is multidimensional and multifunctional. It adapts and changes over time. Does it make you feel uncomfortable? Or comfortable? Do you feel safe?
At its core, this counter-archive addresses the challenge of absence, compiling a fragment of the missing narrative. In a need of spaces of dialogue, interviews were conducted with the students of UdK Berlin from different perspectives. Some of the interviewed students have been studying for several semesters at the University of the Arts, collecting experiences, while others only recently started at the university. In the following you can read quotes from these interviews. For context, the winter semester of 2023 began on October 16.
Three days after October 7, the university’s presidium published a statement titled “The UdK Berlin declares its solidarity with Israel”,[5] accompanied by a photograph of an Israeli flag.[6] The state of Germany and its institutions routinely express unwavering support for Israel, and this support is rooted in a moral obligation tied to the Holocaust/Shoah,[7] a principle now central to its Staatsräson (raison d’état) [8]. This declaration, made on behalf of the entire university, sparked strong reactions among students. Many felt alienated by the institution’s decision to express solidarity with the state of Israel rather than with the Israeli victims of violence. The statement made no mention of the victims in Gaza, nor did it acknowledge the broader context.
“As a Palestinian, the Israeli flag triggers a lot in me—it’s the flag I see at checkpoints with soldiers, associated with occupation, with repression of my people. That connection is strong because I’ve lived most of my life under Israeli occupation. And with everything happening in Gaza…we all saw how intense the bombardment was, even by the second day. I have friends and distant family there, so being at the institution felt too heavy”
The presidium’s unilateral decision to take a public stance for Israel ignores the everyday reality of people living in Germany who are deeply affected by the genocide in Gaza.
“I met other students who cared about the issue. In my first seminar, three people wore the Palestinian keffiyeh, and that was a relief. Still, the atmosphere was tense—you had to censor yourself, unsure of whom you could trust or what you could say. It was awkward, even with allies. But seeing people angry and organizing gave me some hope”
In response to the presidium’s statement, students and staff organized counteractions. One of these was a student group—AG Intersektionale Antidiskriminierung—founded in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 to address discriminatory structures at the university”. They initiated a discourse amongst students, published an article8 and collected signatures against the university’s stance on October 30, 2023. Despite these efforts, the university leadership doubled down on its position. In a follow-up email, the president justified both the initial statement and the display of the Israeli flag, stressing the importance of supporting Israel’s right to exist without mentioning Palestine or Palestinians:
“As the presidium, we are responsible for assessing whether acts of the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression jeopardize the freedom and dignity of others and endanger the peace of the university. Should a danger arise here, we will prevent it on a case-by-case basis in order to ensure the protection of all university members”[9]
Since the beginning of the protests, the president has openly threatened to attack the demonstrators’ freedom of expression.
On November 13, 2023, around 100 students gathered in the foyer of UdK Berlin’s main building at Hardenbergstraße for a protest performance. They sat around a banner that read “More than 10.000 people were killed in Gaza by Israel”, listing some of the victims’ names. The students painted their hands in red to symbolize complicity in the genocide and read out the names of children under six who had been killed.
“We decided on the red hand symbolism to visually emphasize that the blood of Palestinians is on our hands, first as we are situated in Germany, which provides weapons to Israel to bomb Palestinians, and second, we are part of 'the knowledge and cultural productions that legitimize this and the self-understanding of Germany as not guilty anymore of the Shoah—in one of the most elitist universities for art”.
One reference for the students’ usage of red hands[10] was an action by Jewish Voice for Peace, who staged a red-hand protest in the U.S. Congress, October 18, 2023. This symbolism has previously been applied globally, e.g., at anti-war movements in the U.S. and the UK.
This protest performance built on the tradition of student activism, which has a long history in Berlin. During the 1960s protests against the Vietnam War and authoritarian university structures, students at Freie Universität famously occupied lecture halls for days, organizing "critical universities" with alternative curricula. In 1988, Humboldt University students staged a months-long occupation against education reforms, creating self-governed learning spaces. Like these historical precedents, our use of hall occupations and teach-ins continues this legacy of using institutional spaces to raise awareness and challenge academic power structures.[11]
“It was a peaceful, silent demonstration. I participated alongside Jewish students, professors, international students and German students. As soon as the president arrived he immediately framed the protest as a justification for Hamas’ actions, sparking anger among the students. They confronted him about the university’s colonial and Nazi past, its failure during the Black Lives Matter protests, and its resistance to change. The president asked why the students were so worried, and people raised concerns about freedom of speech, sharing concrete examples of why they felt afraid”[12]
Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, the media misrepresented it. For over a week, there was no public reaction to the protests. Then, the university president reached out to a journalist from Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), feeding him the story and framing the protest as anti-Semitic and violent. Only after the publication of this initial piece did other media outlets pick up on the story, which eventually became a DPA item and was copy-pasted across dozens of newspapers. The article, titled 'Politik der Verdammnis: Akademischer Antisemitismus' (The Politics of Condemnation: Academic Anti-Semitism), echoed the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, framing criticism of Israel as inherently anti-Semitic.The journalist who wrote the initial article later even confirmed this sequence of events in an interview. It also inaccurately labeled the symbolism of the protestors’ red hands as anti-Semitic, falsely linking it to an incident during the Second Intifada in 2000.[13]
“I was there when the incident [the papers mentioned] in Ramallah happened, and it did not cross my mind. As a Palestinian, I was surprised that someone could link the red hands with something that happened in Ramallah”
Media coverage of the protests at the UdK Berlin shows how the symbolism of the students’ red hands was presented without context as anti-Semitic, and the protesters were stigmatized as “Jew-haters”. This highlights the need for a nuanced discussion of anti-Semitism at the UdK Berlin, taking into account both the IHRA and Jerusalem[14] definitions and addressing the instrumentalization of anti-Semitism to silence voices critical of Israel. It also raises questions about the university and its role in ensuring a critical discourse, and about the university as a place where these definitions can be honed and made actionable for those affected. By bypassing these opportunities for dialogue and presenting a one-sided portrayal of the protests as anti-Semitic to the press, the president endorsed this narrative and lent it legitimacy through his authority as an academic. Several individuals with structural power within the university perpetuated the narrative in major national media. Representatives of the institution put immense pressure on professors of postcolonial theory, who were vilified as the protest’s initiators.
In response to all the media attention, a major German weekly newspaper then interviewed three students and the president about the protests. One of the students would later become the interim officer for anti-Semitism prevention.
“All the articles written about UdK Berlin and what happened during the protests reference each other. None of the reporters were actually present or took the time to listen to the students. Essentially, the narrative kept circling back on itself, with no one bringing new information to the table. This created a huge wave of attention, and that wave is still present a year later. They’re still talking about it, but everyone only focuses on the event itself—not on the broader context, why we did what we did, or anything like that”
In this atmosphere of false accusations and the slandering of student protests as anti-Semitic, of censorship of protests and restrictions on freedom of speech, the president of the UdK Berlin stated:
“With the statements made on November 13, the protesters left the democratic ground. The university space became a combat zone. With this demonstration, we have reached a low point of university coexistence. And we are all well-advised not to see this escalation as a protest that only affects the UdK Berlin”[15]
The email exemplifies the university’s language in defaming its students and its unwavering support for Israel’s ‘right to exist’ by claiming that protesters had “left the democratic ground”. The university draws a stark line between ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegitimate’ actions, framing dissent as undemocratic or threatening. This rhetoric positions the UdK Berlin as a defender of democratic values while discrediting the protests. The description of the university as a “combat zone” militarizes the discourse, evoking imagery of violence and chaos to portray the demonstrations as an existential threat. The term “low point” further dramatizes the situation, suggesting moral decline and a rupture within the university community. Finally, the universalization of the protests—framing them as part of a broader political issue—aligns the UdK Berlin with Israel, extending the discourse beyond its local context.
By now, it has become abundantly clear that the university refuses to engage in dialogue with the students, positioning itself as the moral, legitimate and legal authority while framing the protesters as disruptors of order. This stance was highlighted when the presidium denied students access to the main building’s foyer during a planned strike. The students had intended to organize talks, film screenings and unlearning sessions as part of their program.
“We felt pushed to the edge, not supported by the school and pushed to defend a peaceful protest in front of our professors. Journalists came to our weekly strikes to investigate the scandal, to write about us but not about Gaza. It felt very alienating. We know the history of the Springer press. We know how they write about our comrades in the streets, so we felt resentment towards the press”
In the months following the protests, positions within the university hardened with far-reaching institutional consequences. In the aftermath of the protests several individuals faced direct repercussions. These decisions disproportionately affected BIPoC guest professors by defamation and contract termination. The narrative pushed the idea that the movement was infiltrated by leftist extremists, with one leftist framed as the extremist organizer and a professor falsely portrayed as having the power to lead these protests. History seems to be repeating itself—Black people, Jews and communists were the first to be targeted.
This pattern highlights the disproportionate burden on those with the least institutional protection. Similarly, a long-standing, self-organized student group that provided equipment for student projects was defunded by the university. The justification was that they allegedly supported the protesters, even though they had always lent equipment to various student actions and projects. Their funding was only restored a semester later, highlighting the institution’s punitive approach to dissent.
After the protest—where we aimed to highlight a concerning issue, namely the pain of the Palestinian people that went unacknowledged here—a second letter was issued by UdK Berlin professors and staff on February 8, 2024, condemning anti-Semitism and signed by 196 staff members. The statement[16] criticized Palestine solidarity activism on campus as violent and anti-Semitic. It also rejected the use of terms like “apartheid” and “settler colonialism” in relation to Israel, framing the genocidal military aggression on Gaza as a defensive war.
This statement, however, was met with strong opposition. The UdK Jewish Solidarity Collective (JSC), composed of Jewish students and staff, issued a counter-response. They criticized the original statement for generalization and misdirection, noting that anti-Zionist Jewish Voices had been excluded from the drafting process. The JSC emphasized the need for an intersectional understanding of anti-Semitism, one that addresses Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of discrimination.
“By labeling the protest as anti-Semitic, the statement not only overlooked the presence of Jewish individuals at the protest but also perpetuated anti-Semitism by ignoring Jewish voices standing in solidarity with Palestine”
The JSC emphasizes the need to recognize Jewish identities as pluralistic and to understand anti-Semitism in the context of other forms of discrimination, highlighting another critical aspect of the IHRA definition: “As the IHRA-definition of Antisemitism conflates Jewish identity with the Israeli state, [It] trivialize[s] anti-Semitism ... leading to non-Jewish Germans holding the sovereignty of interpretation”. The JSC affirmed the protestors’ use of red hands as part of a non-violent protest movement and rejected its misrepresentation in the media.
For the first time, a more substantive, but still internal, discourse emerged within the institution. Some signatories of the original statement withdrew their support, and the JSC’s response highlighted the structural and personal consequences already faced by dissenting voices. The collective’s decision to remain anonymous further underlined the risks of repression and severe consequences of speaking out against the UdK Berlin’s stance of unconditional support for Israel—even as Jews. The university’s leadership repeatedly emphasized its commitment to protecting Jewish students, even claiming that the president had shared his personal phone number with all Jewish students in October 2023. However, the Jewish voices who openly positioned themselves as anti-Zionists were met with disinterest. The president repeatedly refused to meet them. By now, it’s becoming obvious that this is not about the protection of all Jewish life but about the fostering of a specific political agenda.
The appointment of the interim process officer for anti-Semitism prevention by the president in the summer of 2024 is another example of the escalation of abuse of power at the UdK Berlin, hidden behind the veil of anti-discrimination and student protection.
The JSC and other student groups, such as notinourname_udk, criticized this process for violating Germany's Framework Act for Higher Education (Hochschulrahmengesetz), and for its lack of involvement of Jewish students. These laws explicitly require transparent appointment procedures for such positions.[17] The university leadership circumvented every one of these democratic safeguards. In addition to the process officer’s newly appointed role at the university, this individual publicly defamed the student protests before assuming the position, giving interviews to national news outlets and fueling an escalating narrative. Before their official appointment, they independently documented the weekly strikes, photographed participants and monitored whether protesting students complied with university guidelines.
“I noticed the day she [the future process officer] came in during the [red hand] action and started filming. When I asked why she was filming she didn’t answer—just kept taking pictures. Later, we saw those pictures in an article. I didn’t understand how the university allowed this. She also filmed during the weekly strikes hosted by notinourname_udk”
“Indeed, the individual appointed to this position is not Jewish and lacks any special qualifications in the subject matter; she is a white German. This [appointment of the officer] was never transparent or communicated to the students or the staff. We all thought the person was a student finishing their studies. There were rumors that she would teach after she’d finished her studies at the university. We never were informed about the process officer’s job to monitor us as student representatives in formal governance bodies—including the Students Union (Allgemeiner Studierendenausschuss), Fachschaftsräte (departmental student councils), and the university senate— we were deliberately excluded from these decisions”[18]
The president personally tasked this appointee with documenting facts, establishing reporting and communication channels, supporting those affected and identifying suspected dissenting students to report back the incidents to the presidium. The process officer’s role extended beyond education to surveillance, which illustrates the role of intimidation that the commissioner has. The (leaked) contract states that a significant part of this person’s job is to develop a concept for monitoring students. We don’t exactly know what that entails, but the contract includes terms like ‘Täterinnen’ (perpetrators).
The presidium was clearly not concerned with preserving freedom of research but focused on defending the state’s interest in siding with Israel, pushing the presidium to further implement authoritarian, restrictive strategies to suppress student protesters. Students organized a disruption of the university’s annual exhibition by hanging posters next to their work expressing solidarity with Palestinian students of Gaza and universities in Gaza[19] and by dismantling the university’s involvement in the genocide.[20] There was an immersive sound installation chained to the pillars of the foyer, carrying the sounds of Israel’s drones above Gaza into the main entrance of the school, where the protest in November 2023 also took place. Several protest performances happened, and banners that condemned the genocide were hung, stating the assumed death toll of 185.000 Palestinians in Gaza by Israel by the summer of 2024. After the Rundgang (yearly exhibition), the students organized and wrote letters to the university’s legal department demanding to know why they were photographed, how their data was collected and for what it would be used.
The pressure from students eventually led to the dismissal of the then process officer for anti-Semitism prevention. However, over the past 16 months, what began as an improvised monitoring project has gradually been institutionalized through continuous systematic violations of Germany's Framework Act for Higher Education (Hochschulrahmengesetz) and Berlin's university statutes. The interim process officer’s position was subsequently filled by an officer appointed by the university president. Again, without an official job posting, suitability evaluation, or consultation with Jewish students. This marked the second consecutive appointment that ignored the Hochschulrahmengesetz provisions mandating faculty and student participation in personnel decisions affecting campus life. This disregard for academic self-governance is particularly alarming for a position that claims to protect campus democracy.
When the Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin (MFFB)[21] was subsequently brought in as a partner at the start of the winter semester in October 2024, the pattern repeated itself, and all of the very accountability principles such programs purport to uphold were violated.[22]
While efforts to combat discrimination, including anti-Semitism, are commendable, the instrumentalization of anti-Semitism claims to legitimize Israel’s military occupation, ethnic cleansing and racist narratives must be rejected.
“There’s a full-time position for the equal opportunities officer. There’s a part-time position for a representative for students with disabilities and chronic illnesses, and there have been constant demands that these positions should be increased. The excuse was always that there was no money. Then all of a sudden this position, [the process officer for anti-Semitism prevention], got created, with triple the budget of the Diversity Officer with zero involvement of Jewish students”
In December 2024 a general students assembly took place. The quorum was met and the assembly voted unanimously against the cooperation with the MFFB. The vote legally obliged the presidential board to publicly release all partnership documents, disclose the decision-making process that led to the collaboration, allow independent review of the MFFB's curriculum materials and establish transparent grievance procedures. Yet six months later, no such disclosures have been made, continuing a pattern where the university administers anti-discrimination initiatives through precisely the opaque, top-down practices they purport to combat.
“The Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin [being present on campus] has severe consequences for all of us. They’ve set up an entire seminar structure. It’s shifted from a lack of spaces to more propagandistic spaces. And the contract states that a significant part of this person’s job is to develop a concept for monitoring students”
Following the appointment of the commissioner, the diversity officer, members of the JSC and a professor initiated a re-evaluation of the university’s anti-Semitism strategy in the academic senat.[23] The UdK Berlin’s collaboration with Zionist anti-Semitism agencies reflects a broader trend in Germany, where such offices are established to monitor and intimidate those advocating for Palestinian human rights.
Half a year has passed since the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. Images of catastrophic destruction in northern Gaza show displaced families returning to the remnants of their homes, while hundreds of bodies are recovered from the rubble by grieving relatives. Meanwhile, our politicians, institutions and media shout “Never again is now”, but what do we make of it when there has never been a never again? This is not about us, but about the responsibility we bear together. This narrative of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (coping with the past) sidelines diverse voices and experiences that do not conform to it, particularly those of immigrants or Germans from diasporic families It becomes a tool to include or exclude individuals from discourse, silencing critiques of Germany’s unconditional support for Israel’s government.[24]
“while the world praises its culture of contrition, some Germans—in particular, Jews, Arabs and other minorities—have been sounding the alarm that this approach to memory has largely been a narcissistic enterprise, with strange and disturbing consequences”[25]
This hegemonic perspective, or Deutungshoheit, is evident in how Jewish voices critical of Israel are delegitimized as is the case at UdKs stance towards the Jewish Solidarity Collective. The absurdity peaks when even Jewish individuals on the political left are labeled anti-Semitic.3 It makes it abundantly clear—what is being protected here is not a specific group but a specific viewpoint.
On February 7, 2025, American artist Fareed Armaly declined the Käthe Kollwitz prize awarded by Akademie der Künste. In a letter to the institution, he explained how he has observed “a highly politicized, reactionary shift in official cultural policies, aimed at silencing advocates for Palestinian rights under international law”.[26] Armaly remarks:
“in such a context of intimidation, liberal cultural institutions appear to adopt complacency and self-censorship. All this … structurally performs the ongoing dehumanization of Palestinians by obscuring and abstracting their agency and voice”[27]
The fascistic methodologies implemented by the UdK are not isolated phenomena. They mirror Germany’s escalating political climate, where academic freedom is being systematically dismantled by centrist parties that are creating allyship with extreme right, fascist movements. This convergence was laid bare when a recent resolution[28] restricting critical scholarship on Israel passed with enthusiastic applause from the party Alternative für Deutschland/Alternative for Germany (AfD).[29] This is the same party whose Thuringia branch was ruled unconstitutional for advocating völkisch[30] education, and that is finally officially considered to be extremist, in other terms fascist. That far-right actors celebrate these measures targeting schools and universities exposes their true function: not protection, but the cultivation of authoritarian structures that serve state repression. When the far-right cheers the silencing of universities, it’s because they recognize their agenda being advanced—the replacement of critical thought with ideological conformity.[31] The UdK’s complicity in this project is evident in its adoption of authoritarian tactics: surveillance of dissent, weaponization of anti-Semitism accusations in order to criminalize Palestine solidarity, authoritarian restructuring of university governance and the pathologization of anti-colonial critique as ‘violence’ .
UdK’s singling out the student protest that used the symbol of red hands, manufacturing a spectacle for the media, made it easy to divert attention from actual problems—namely, a genocide co-financed by Germany, whose denial becomes another act of violence, perpetuating further dehumanization.
For us, making art means bearing witness to truth in the world. As students and artists, we object to art that has the sole purpose of serving consumption. In documenting, questioning, and testifying to reality we refuse to cater to mere escapism. Collectively, we will take action, resist and dream of the next world. Palestine will be free within our lifetime, and the empires will fall.
This article was written from an activist stance, driven by a sense of urgency—in this case, the urgency to finally counter the official narrative and tell the truth after countless exhausting struggles. This has meant that we sometimes couldn’t take our time and had to work more quickly than we would have liked to. Some of our sources and statements are based on internal knowledge and leaks, and we do not have the same resources as a state institution. As a result, this text may sometimes lack the correct forms of quotation and reference. As individuals and as students, being part of different student organizations, we all oppose the university’s stance and act in our own way; with this positioning, we represent a minority in school.
We have deliberately chosen not to disclose specific details at various points throughout this text — such as the titles of radio programs or newspaper articles, the names of individuals in positions of structural authority, or the name of the newspaper — in order to protect those involved. In the current climate, public criticism can lead to tangible professional and bureaucratic consequences. Some members of the group are on temporary contracts or in the process of renewing visas, and there is a real concern that speaking out openly could endanger their employment or residency status.
“ Arts and sciences, research and teaching shall be free. The freedom of teaching shall not release any person from allegiance to the constitution.” https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_gg/englisch_gg.html
In a recent podcast Shai Hoffmann and Nadia Zaboura discussed the growing tensions within editorial boards and upcoming studies about the one-sided represantation of the war in Gaza. https://www.podcast.de/episode/687554868/was-fehlt-medienkritikerin-nadia-zaboura-ueber-die-medienberichterstattung-zu-israel-und-palaestina. In this article, a number of journalists describe how editorial boards dismiss expertise, apply double-standards to reporting about Gaza in comparison to Israel and actively sideline, minimize or exclude critical and dissenting voices from reporting about the topic. https://uebermedien.de/104131/journalistinnen-kritisieren-doppelstandards-bei-berichten-ueber-israel-und-gaza/
Kai Hafez, a professor for politics and media, points out the recurring patterns of misrepresentations in media coverage of the genozide, starting long before October 7th 2023 https://journalistik.online/en/edition-2-2024/the-war-in-gaza-german-media-and-the-wrong-side-of-history/
Since its release, the statement has been worked over [on 21.05.2024]. The title changed from “Declaration of solidarity of the UdK Berlin with the victims of the Hamas terrorist attack,” the content was also slightly changed, and the Israeli flag vanished. https://www.udk-berlin.de/en/home/news/declaration-of-solidarity-of-the-udk-berlin-with-the-victims-of-the-hamas-terrorist-attack/
Both terms refer to the same historical event—the systematic genocide of European Jews during the Second World War by Nazi Germany. However, “Shoah” is often used as a more specific, respectful term that focuses on Jewish suffering. “Holocaust” comes more from a Western, even non-Jewish context and has a broader meaning. We use both terms since the Holocaust is used exhaustively in Germany.
Germany’s special relationship with Israel is a cornerstone of its raison d’état (Staatsräson). Rooted in the historical responsibility for the Holocaust and the crimes of the Nazi regime, this relationship has shaped German foreign policy since World War II. It has manifested in reparations to Israel, the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1965, and a steadfast commitment to Israel’s security. In a 2008 speech to the Knesset, Chancellor Angela Merkel emphasized: “Israel’s security is non-negotiable for me as German Chancellor. It is part of my country’s raison d’état.” This principle continues to guide Germany’s political, economic, and military support for Israel.
It feels necessary to at least draw out a partial history of the red hand being used as a protest symbol and to defend it as such against revisionist tendencies that have flooded the media since the start of the many Palestine Solidarity protests. The red hand as iconography stems on one side from Gaelic culture and was used to denote the Irish province of Ulster. It was later used as a symbol during the Nine Years’ War against imperialist English rule in Ireland. The red palm print, painted over the mouth, was and still is being used to voice solidarity with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement, finding its way into mainstream imagery and becoming widely understood as a direct statement—“You have blood on your hands!” It was used to convey the same message in several anti-war protests in the 60s. To this day, it is a statement indicating culpability and tragedy, such as in the ongoing case of student-led protests across Serbia as a response to corrupt infrastructural projects that took the lives of 15 people when the roof of a public building collapsed. The red hand became the unifying protest symbol of the anti-government protests that followed. Once the red hand was put in the context of the war and even more the systemic decades-long oppression of Palestinians, the protest sign was seemingly stripped of its meaning and started being falsely associated with the image from the second Intifada in 2000 and the incident in Ramallah. The press articles, mostly in German and English, which were claiming to historicize the symbol and tie it to violent anti-Semitism were all published after the outbreak of the protests, with none of them referring to the usage of the red hand symbol in a greater context. The Red Hand Day, internationally recognized as the day against the use of child soldiers, has been commemorated for more than 15 years, without the media drawing the same connections as it did with the Palestine-solidarity movement. That is to say, the symbols of resistance are being denied by revisionism as a strategy to undermine what they stand for and to deny the voices the right to speak.
In Berlin, a hub of political movements, students repeatedly organized protests addressing international conflicts. In the 1970s, they held vigils, rallies, and events to highlight the plight of Palestinians, often criticizing Israeli occupation policies and calling for a just resolution to the Middle East conflict. These protests not only shaped solidarity with Palestine but also influenced the broader anti-war movement, bringing issues like colonialism, imperialism, and human rights into focus.
The concerns of the students demonstrating were pushed by an email sent a week before the protest, warning that the university would take action against any expression that “jeopardizes the freedom and dignity of others.” The president assured: “[e]xercising your freedom of expression within the law can never lead to exmatriculation; this is prevented by the Berlin Higher Education Law.” a promise that would later be broken when Berlin changed its higher education law to allow the expulsion of politically active students.
See footnote 10.
The Jerusalem Declaration emphasizes that symbolism and criticism of Israel are not inherently anti-Semitic unless they rely on anti-Semitic stereotypes. See: Jerusalem Declaration on anti-Semitism
“[J]ews, Israelis and people critical of anti-Semitism, including students and lecturers at the UdK Berlin [have] been discriminated against and threatened since the Hamas massacre of civilians in Israel on October 7, 2023. We oppose narratives circulating at the university that present anti-Semitism and racism as opposites, classify Israel’s war of defense as a colonial mission and Israel as an apartheid regime by means of a reduction of post-colonial theory, and disguise Hamas’ terror as a struggle for freedom. We welcome a critical exchange about events in the Middle East based on respectful interaction and knowledge of historical facts.”
Including public job postings with clear qualification criteria, selection committees comprising faculty representatives and at least 25% student participation, and final approval by the elected academic senate.
These elected bodies exist precisely to ensure democratic oversight in matters affecting campus life, from appointments to curriculum partnerships. Their systematic bypassing reveals how the administration’s performative anti-discrimination measures contradict their actual erosion of participatory university structures.
“This artist stands in solidarity with the students of Gaza, who no longer have a place to study. All universities in Gaza have been destroyed.”
Germany is complicit in its ties with Israeli institutions—universities are no exception. Our university is partnered with Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art in Tel Aviv & Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Since its founding, Israel has limited Palestinian citizens’ access to education, and universities have restrained and conditioned their enrollment. University administrations continue to curtail Palestinian presence and learning on their campuses and persistently collaborate with the Israeli government in repressing their Palestinian students, particularly student organizers. Palestinian universities have been governed by the Israeli military on illegally occupies territories, as Palestinian education has long been understood as a threat to Israel’s rule and has been a target across all the territories that it governs. Now, Israel has devastated every single Palestinian university in the Gaza Strip. Not one Israeli university administration has called on the Israeli government to cease the bombing of Palestinian universities and the intentional decimation of Palestinian higher education.
The Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin’s executive director, Michael Spaney, co-authored Mythos #Israel 1948, a pamphlet funded by the Berlin State Center for Political Education, intended for distribution in schools in Neukölln, a district with a large migrant population. The pamphlet controversially claims that the displacement of 600,000–750,000 Palestinians during the Nakba was partly due to “voluntary resettlement as a consequence of Arab propaganda,” downplaying Israeli military violence as “isolated cases.” Spaney further argues that land acquired after the 1948 and 1967 wars, including settlements, was not unlawfully obtained, asserting that accusations of “land theft” demonize Israel and stem from antisemitic motives. These claims contradict international law, which considers the occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights since 1967 unlawful and Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal.
no disclosure of selection criteria, no student consultation, and no transparency about the organization's political affiliations or curriculum approval process.
The Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin (MFFB) is funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Justice and Anti-Discrimination since 2022 under its ‘Democracy Promotion’ program (Senatsverwaltung für Justiz, 2022). In 2024, the German Left Party and Jewish Voice for Peace filed formal complaints about MFFB’s blacklisting of BDS-supporting scholars.
The discourse around German memory of the Holocaust / Shoah and ongoing discussions about antisemitism reveal a deeper, often unacknowledged layer of imperialist interests. As noted in the text Undeutsch by Fatima El-Tayeb, maintaining a narrative of moral purity allows Germany to sustain its position of power, including weapon production and sales, while claiming a moral high ground. Also Daniel Malwecki emphasizes that a central aspect of this relationship is the reparations that Germany paid to Israel and Jewish organizations after the Second World War. These reparations were not only a moral gesture, but also a strategic step towards reintegrating Germany into the international community. The payments to Israel were an important part of this effort, as they showed that Germany was willing to take responsibility for its past.
https://www.adk.de/de/akademie/pdf/2025/KKP_Letter_Fareed_Armaly_EN.pdf
See link above.
Die Resolution »Nie wieder ist jetzt – Jüdisches Leben in Deutschland schützen, bewahren und stärken«. The resolution “Never again is now - protect, preserve and strenghthen Jewish Life in Germany”
A party officially classified as gesichert rechtsextrem (officially designated as right-wing extremist) by Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).
Völkisch is a term that is used to describe a belief system that is focused on the cultural and biological superiority of one's own ethnic group, and the belief that one's ethnic group is under threat of annihilation.
Prof. Dr. Michaelis, Bundespressekonferenz, 30.01.2025: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmIq8iKRDmQ