2023-11-29 19:20:14
On Wednesday morning at 11 a.m., a group called Student Collective Berlin called for a strike at the University of the Arts (UdK) on Hardenbergstrasse via their Instagram account, which was only set up in October. There should be demonstrations for solidarity with Palestine – and against the “one-sided solidarity” of the UdK, its “disappointing inaction”. The UdK published a statement on its website on October 10th in which it expressed its dismay at Hamas’ violent attacks on Israel and displayed an Israeli flag on it. At the beginning of November, the Presidium declared that this was about Israel’s right to exist. And further: “We see that many innocent people become victims and enormous suffering occurs.”
At eleven on Wednesday there are only a few young people in the entrance hall, a few journalists and the press spokeswoman, who points out that no photography is allowed in the building. A young man asks whether he didn’t understand the time correctly. But, yes, he is here to support the strike and he criticizes the fact that his university is not taking a position against the genocide in Gaza. Isn’t it at least controversial that this is a genocide? He pulls out his phone to look for a court ruling that says the term can be used in this context.
Protesters show red hands on November 13th in the foyer of the UdK.Student_Collective_Berlin
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This will be the second such event at the UdK within a short period of time. On November 13th, around 100 students gathered in this same entrance hall with banners that read “Condemn genocide” or “Stop colonialism” and “Free Palestine”. At the beginning, the names of killed Palestinian children were read out, a student said on Wednesday. But then the situation escalated. The UdK president, who had wanted to explain his house’s position at the time, was shouted down. The insides of the protesters’ hands were painted blood red.
What kind of sign is that? A slightly older student with a nose piercing says the red palms are linked to the lynching of two Israeli reservists in Ramallah by Palestinians in 2000. At that time, a photo went around the world showing a young man at a window triumphantly holding his blood-stained hands Palms presented. His fellow student, who just spoke about the event on November 13th, doesn’t think that’s safe.
The two are part of a new working group against anti-Semitism that has now been founded at the UdK. The hard core consists of ten students, as they say. They also say that most students at the UdK do not take a clear position, that many said it is complicated. The problem, you can feel it when they speak, comes from the fact that so many people want to be absolutely right. They don’t want to give their names or read them in the newspaper. They would have to discuss this with their group first.
Pro-Palestine strike organizer: “Don’t talk to the press”
Shortly after eleven, two young women and a young man wearing a keffiyeh, a Palestinian cloth, were distributing leaflets. “Join the Strike for Palestine,” it says here in English, “Ceasefire now! – Ceasefire now”. The following demands, all formulated in English, are made to the university: it should show that it considers every life valuable by showing solidarity with the thousands of Palestinian victims; it should strengthen its ties with the Belazel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem and the Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art in Tel Aviv, both partner universities of the UdK, as they support military actions. The UdK should stop suppressing pro-Palestinian activism and protect the rights of students and faculty members to free speech. When asked to speak, one of the women said: “We don’t talk to the press.”
A little later it turns out that the strike program will not take place, not the speeches by students and faculty members, not the joint lunch, not the planned theater performance of “Soundscapes of Resistance & The Gaza Monologue”. There was a discussion with the UdK presidium in the morning and they were forbidden from using the main hall for their strike, explains one of the strike organizers. Instead, there is now a “private event” in the Kubik student café on the third floor. A corresponding note is hung on a pillar. However, press is not welcome in the Kubik. – One thing is clear: The UdK apparently does not want images like the ones from November 13th again and is making use of its house rules.
An art student from the UdK, who will also be present on this day, spoke to journalists from Die Zeit a few days ago. Now she says she’d rather not appear in the next article, saying she’s making herself a target. At that time she criticized that the postcolonial discourse was being conducted in many departments at the UdK in a very one-sided and unscientific manner. She has Jewish friends who no longer want to go to university, so it is important to her to take a stand so that they don’t feel alone in the situation. She does the same this morning. She says: “I hope the university administration takes some of the responsibility off our shoulders.”
But UdK President Norbert Palz announced through his press spokeswoman the day before that he did not want to appear on Wednesday and that he would not be available for a discussion about the situation at his house that day or for the rest of the week. In the FAZ, in connection with the event on November 13th, he is quoted as saying that he had looked into an abyss. The press spokeswoman is on site on Wednesday and draws the attention of journalists to the fact that they are not welcome at the strikers’ event in Café Kubik. This is probably an agreement between the UdK and the strikers, says a student.
UdK president Norbert Palz barely speaks at the protest event on November 13. Student_Collective_Berlin
Florian Schroeder: “Anti-Semitism among student groups at the UdK is unacceptable”
The performance artist Tania Elstermeyer is also standing in the entrance hall of the UdK on Wednesday. She studied at the UdK and will teach there next year, as she says. She reports that her ex-wife, a Jewish Israeli who studies at the UdK, was treated with hostility several times. She was told that Israel was to blame for the Hamas attack.
Cabaret artist Florian Schroeder, who gave a block seminar at the UdK in the summer: “Evil as an artistic force,” also addressed the Berliner Zeitung on Wednesday. He sent a statement: “The anti-Semitism of the student groups at the UdK is unacceptable. The fact that Jewish students no longer dare to go to university is a shocking thing in Germany, 70 years after the end of the war.” In his opinion, these groups do not represent the majority of students. “But they shine a spotlight on a loud minority that has long been trying to suppress everything that is unpleasant. I too have been threatened that the door to my seminar room will be occupied because I am racist – because I laughed in the wrong place in a podcast over three years ago! (…) The art and cultural world, which shrouds itself in indifference and silence regarding the current drama of the Middle East conflict, has a glaring problem with its standards of values.”
In the early afternoon it is quiet again in the entrance hall. A few students are standing outside in the snow and smoking.
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