Impassioned Students Plea for Palestine
An Interview With the Local Heidelberg SfP Media Liaison in the Aftermath of Rasha's Camp
Around the World
Editor’s Note: The Heidelberg Herald is acutely aware of heightened sensitivity surrounding the topics we discussed with the SfP—a political organization that argues for demands that naturally adopt a certain stance. The Herald found it important to provide a platform for a healthy discussion regarding an important topic. Nonetheless, the Herald remains primarily committed to objective and honest journalism, especially understanding that any stance can be discussed or disputed. To ensure the authenticity of the Herald as well as the claims made in the interview, we diligently conducted extensive research from reliable sources, many of which are linked in the interview itself. We encourage all readers to do their own research.
When did this organization emerge in Heidelberg?
The group was founded officially in mid-May 2024. Compared to other SfP groups our founding was a bit late, that was due to many of us feeling like we were not able to even start the discussion around Palestine in the university due to isolation as well as the general atmosphere in Germany that has only grown more hostile over the last year. Despite this, we were able to connect and find each other. We have been holding on steadfast to break the silence and oppose academic complicity, and general ignorance of German society. Collectively, we want to provide a space where one can openly talk about and oppose the actions of the Israeli regime and freely show one's solidarity with Palestine and its people. We will not accept the university becoming a space of repression and silence when it should be a place for discussion, critical thinking, and exchange.
What does the response look like, from the SfP’s foundation to today?
Since our foundation we have been subjected to harassment, a bombardment of baseless accusations of antisemitism and aggression, flanked by countless smear campaigns by German media outlets. In addition, we experienced discrimination within our faculties at the university as well as invasions of privacy and even personal threats.
At the same time, we have also been rewarded with increasing encouragement and affirmation, which can be seen in the number of Instagram followers and the amount of people approaching us and asking to support us. The fact is, many feel as we have felt before our founding: isolated. Germany suppresses critical voices fighting for Palestine by trying to keep people isolated and in their own bubbles. The university having refused on multiple occasions to address the topic of Palestine officially is an example of enforcing this isolation through silence. Many people feel like they are the odd ones out due to the general treatment of critical voices towards Israel. We are often told by supporters that they are glad to have a group like us here because they finally do not feel alone anymore. They can see that through us existing and doing work they are not alone, and their opinion is not abnormal or unfounded as it is so often portrayed by German media.
We have been floored by the amount of support we have received from people from all walks of life; many students but also professors, doctorates, and the general public. We witnessed this, especially during the camp where we had many people approach us and ask (or even demand) to help us, cook for us, donate various items for the camp, and just generally interact with us daily. We have received an incredible amount of help since our founding and continue to receive more and more supportive voices and warm hands. This too reminds us that we are not alone and are truly on the righteous path.
After our disruption at the “Sommerfest 2024” (en: “summer festival”) we made nationwide headlines and had to defend ourselves against defamations and smear campaigns perpetuated by the German media but also some internal university groups. Despite this, we have also continuously received praise for this and many of our other actions. No matter the defamations, baseless accusations, or repression against us, the solidarity that we have received overshadows all of the negative aspects.
The World Jewish Congress defines antisemitism as indisputably connected to anti-Zionism. Do you reject this claim, if so why? Can you define what the issues with Zionism are?
We have tentatively adopted the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, which explicitly refuses to conflate Anti-zionism and Antisemitism. We consider it, in fact, antisemitic to conflate the State of Israel with all Jewish people everywhere, as it ignores the plurality of Jewish communities around the world and disregards diverse positions and the cultural richness that exists outside of the narrow and racist framework of Zionism. Indeed, there were, have been, and are many Jewish intellectuals who criticized Zionism and the State of Israel from its onset till today. Identifying one political ideology or institution with a particular group of people is utterly racist. We criticize the State of Israel and its active and passive supporters, finding support from not just Christian, Muslim, or secular voices, but also Jewish activists and individuals. The issues with Zionism are manifold. However, the most essential problem is that it is a settler colonial ideology that is determined to colonize the land of Palestine and dispose of the Arab Palestinian population by every means possible for the sake of the State of Israel. As can be obvious from the settler movements in the illegally occupied territories (East Jerusalem, West Bank, Gaza, and Golan Heights) and more recently in South Lebanon, it is an ongoing settler colonial project that incessantly desires territorial expansion and annexation based on expulsion and dispossession of other peoples. (See the answers to the questions below for further context.)
If focusing on the premise that antisemitism is separate from criticism of Zionism, how does a movement like the SFP prioritize rejecting any forms of antisemitism that threaten to corrupt pro-Palestinian movements?
The Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism distinguishes between discriminating against Jewish people for being Jewish and criticizing the state of Israel or its institutions. In the end, there can be no ironclad rule for every single statement without a proper context. We are aware of antisemitic tropes and the long German tradition of anti-semitism and anti-judaism. That being said, we refuse the mystified idea of antisemitism as an all-pervading societal force. One important aspect of antisemitism is that it is unreasonable. Our criticism of Israel follows standards we hold every other state to. We don't want the German State to support what we see as genocide. There has been ample proof for this claim, we are not going to reiterate all of it. We will just point to the UN's report of 70% of the victims being women and children. Israeli government officials identifying every Gazan with Hamas in overt and less overt ways, the media blackout, and many other indicators that should make every single political identity supposedly concerned about human rights very alarmed.
On top of this, we constantly maintain space for open discussions and self-reflection. As all groups of people growing up in biased societies, we ourselves are not bias-free. We therefore strive for continuous growth as a collective by trying to create a so-called “braver space” within our group. We do not believe we are free of fallacy or inherently better educated on discrimination, quite the opposite, which is why we openly and seriously hold each other accountable. We are a very diverse group of people from very diverse backgrounds, we know that not all of us are equally affected by societal discrimination and thus need to be reminded and potentially educated when reproduction of discrimination happens, be it sexism, racism, queerphobia, or yes also antisemitism. This system of collective accountability works because we are a diverse group of people from all walks of life and we all bring our knowledge and life experience into our work. An important basis of this is also acknowledging our own individual humanity and potential fallacy, we have found each other not just for a cause but also to build a community in which we can better ourselves and each other.
We firmly stand against every form of discrimination and hatred towards people due to their ethnicity, religion, or sexuality, and believe in treating each other with respect while preserving the dignity of all. As mentioned above, following the Jerusalem declaration, we see antisemitism as hatred of or discrimination against Jewish people due to their Jewishness, which can show itself in generalizations and prejudices. Zionism on the other hand is an ideology that people choose to adopt. We will try to keep holding each other accountable to uphold this important distinction. We also do not consider Israel a worldwide guarantee of Jewish safety as the state itself has, among many other things, arbitrarily excluded or discriminated against different Jewish people based on their origin, for example, Ethiopian Jewish people. The current government saw it also fit to enter into a political alliance with people like Victor Orban whose antisemitic smear campaign against George Soros was no hindrance to such an endeavor and has been spread by members of Netanyahu's family.
What are your largest criticisms of Israeli state action?
Besides the genocide currently occurring in Gaza, the State of Israel and its armed forces have committed numerous acts of ethnic cleansing like the Nakba in 1948 and several massacres on Palestinian civilians. Additionally, the State of Israel is based on an apartheid regime that strips Palestinians of their rights and prevents them from becoming independent, regularly dispossesses them, and supports the radicalized settler movement in the West Bank. It is based on Zionism, which is a racist ideology that originated in the 19th and 20th centuries and was largely a reaction to the enlightenment, secularization, and racialized antisemitism of Europe during this period. It aimed, from its inception, for the migration of Jewish people into the historical area of Palestine as it saw antisemitism as unresolvable. It has also internalized assumptions about Jewish People being unable to truly exist on their own in other nations. Eventually, it also came to include the aim of a Jewish State, i.e. a Jewish Majority in the land of Palestine. Once it became clear the Palestinian Arabs would not accept this willingly, Zionism was willing to use military force to achieve its goals. While at first relying on British support, Zionism eventually sought a break from it.
During the Nakba (the Catastrophe) of 1948, the Zionist military forces sought to expel as many Palestinians as possible. There is numerous evidence, written as well as oral, that they committed massacres of civilians and rape in numerous villages and towns (e.g. Deir Yassin massacre, Tantura massacre). By the end of the war, the Zionist armed forces destroyed and depopulated over 400 villages and towns, and three-quarters of a million Palestinians were violently expelled from their homeland. Today, thanks to the efforts of many, the history of the Nakba is readily available to the public through history books, documentaries, oral testimonies, and forensic visualizations; however, the Nakba remains shielded from the public discourse in Israel as well as in Germany, since the Nakba directly threatens the Zionist the foundational myth of the miraculous rebirth of the so-called “Jewish State”.
Since its beginning, Zionism saw itself as a colonial project. Not just the “right-wing”, but also Labor Zionists and centrists compared Zionism to other colonial endeavors. Indeed, it was the "left" socialist Zionists who began agricultural settlements in the late nineteenth century in Palestine. Later, the movement sought to wash itself of that association by declaring their fight against the British Mandate to be an “anti-colonial” struggle, a “national liberation” from European antisemitism, or a "rescue and evacuation" of Jews in Muslim countries.
These arguments are very facetious: If we look at the actual political developments, instead of categories like origin, “culture” or “race”, the violent and deeply racist workings of the Zionist project becomes obvious: It is not just the genocidal warfare in Gaza right now that aims at the physical destruction of every aspect of Palestinian life, it is also the forced displacement occurring in Israel and the occupied territories. The celebrated "peace" accords of Oslo are also just another form of racial segregation and apartheid based on military occupation; the current Palestinian Authority has no effective sovereign right as an independent state, as the Israeli authority maintains full control of the land, maritime, and aerial borders surrounding all the occupied Palestinian territories. In this political landscape, the current enthusiastic embrace of openly fascistic political parties is just a culmination of the said process that Zionism entails, rather than a "right-wing" deviation from otherwise sane nationalism–a common view shared by many in Germany and elsewhere.
What societal shift would need to take place within Germany, across the globe, and inside of Israel itself to ensure the liberation of Palestinians?
We have not agreed on any position about how Palestine should be liberated as acting against the ongoing genocide, especially the massacres and starving of Gazan civilians, is our top priority and needs to be addressed before anything else. To remind you: the number of 44.000 dead is only not expanding because there is no one left to verify or count the deaths. The Lancet, an international medical journal, has estimated the actual count to be much higher, more than 120.000 in a conservative estimate, which was made several months ago. Since then the conditions have only deteriorated.
The first change that needs to take place is for Palestinian lives to be taken as seriously as Israeli lives. This will not happen by showing people the facts alone or via reasoned debate. There have been ample opportunities to become informed for most people with basic internet access. Confronting Germans openly about this topic is an important part of our strategy. The disruption at the university’s summer festival is an example of that. We also need to talk about racist and colonialist tropes that inform reporting on this war: The trope of human shields that are supposedly used by the Palestinian Resistance groups can be traced back to at least the Vietnam War in which massacres against civilians were similarly justified.
The stories put out by the IDF, such as the AlShifa hospital housing enemy operations, remain very much unverified, and even if they were, nothing would justify the targeting of civilian infrastructure, and these acts still constitute the definition of war crimes by international law, as historian of genocide, Omer Bartov, clearly explained in our Rasha's Camp. Finally, it is the IDF that has forced Palestinian teenagers to act as their shields. Stories about a school or a mosque housing Resistance Members are, in the light of these facts, a threadbare excuse that is trotted out after another part of civilian life has been destroyed.
We vehemently refuse to have Palestinian people pay the price for German Nazism and fascism and find it disgusting that they, an internationally disenfranchised diaspora, are equated to National Socialists: this is not only a phenomenon restricted to social media. We have found stickers in Heidelberg that call the Palestinian scarf, the keffiyeh, a “hipster’s swastika”.
Talk about the duration of the camp, both in what challenges arose and what surprised you positively.
The camp, which lasted for a week, experienced a few challenges. One of them being a lack of manpower. As students, we face obligations that result in time constraints. When one additionally considers employment, it was not a surprise that we sometimes faced difficulties when it came to mustering the manpower to run the camp. We faced some harassment and had some difficulties when it came to the acquisition of equipment needed to run the camp.
Despite the difficulties, we managed to interact with many Heidelbergers and held constructive conversations. Our team built an excellent camp program, which included many cultural events, lectures, and film nights. The attendants interacted very positively with the program and we take pride in that fact. We are immensely grateful to all the people who contributed to and visited our camp, created a sense of community and belonging, and offered their support, even if they only randomly happened to pass by, and about the incredible amount of food donations we received. The positive resonance and kindness of people exceeded our expectations.
There has been an increase in concerns about the German response to pro-Palestinian peaceful resistance–is the SfP afraid of further escalation and potential brutalization?
We've seen an increased escalation of repression, violence, and animosity from German law enforcement, legislature, and court system. From the utilization of dogs to brutalize protestors in Berlin to the adoption of the so-called “antisemitism resolution” (which we categorically condemn, and view as both an antisemitic and an anti-Palestinian action). The German state, and virtually every major party across the political spectrum, have continuously capitulated to populist, nationalist, and bigoted rhetoric and policies that target the freedom of expression, political organization, and demonstration. Especially when those freedoms conflict with the interests of the government. We see no sign that this trend is facing a decline. The government has not proven itself to be reliable in general, but when it comes to a policy of suppression we feel that we can count on them to continue their hard work. Despite this state-sanctioned barbarism, we remain convinced that our cause is worth working for, and we see no signs of hesitation or wavering morale from our members.
What are your short and long-term goals for this group? Do you feel that both are within arm’s reach?
One of our most urgent and immediate goals is the demand for the rejection of the instrumentalization and abuse of the term antisemitism through the use of the IHRA working definition (in particular by equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism) as well as the promotion of disinformation and propaganda. We deem this goal to be of utmost importance after the adoption of the bigoted and antisemitic "antisemitism" resolution in the Bundestag that has been adopted with the collaboration and endorsement of the AfD, which is by far the most pro-Israel party in Germany–a fact that remains conveniently ignored by many who identify themselves with the left.
Another goal we see as deserving immediate attention is for the university to recognize and condemn the genocide against the Palestinian people. In addition, the disclosure of funding partners of every institution in the university, their review with regards to compliance with international law, and in the case of its breach, an immediate cessation of relations. This includes the termination of cooperation with every Israeli institution of education complicit in the genocide and oppression of Palestinians and the occupation of Palestinian land. There are already numerous universities in Europe that have already cut their ties with Israeli institutions based on the same concern, such as Ghent University, a public university in Belgium, and the University of Barcelona.
We also demand that free and scientific discussion about antisemitism, (anti-Muslim) racism, and colonialism take place at Heidelberg University and Hochschule für Jüdische Studien as well as continuous interdisciplinary seminars on Palestine research and the (historical) realities of Palestinian life. The review and structural reform of university measures against discrimination at educational and research institutions in Heidelberg is essential. Zionism is a very strong political and cultural force in German institutions, and we don't expect enthusiastic cooperation from the administration. Nonetheless, we would not embark on this mission if we did not believe in our inevitable success.
