Two days ago, the ministry of health in Gaza released the list of over 7000 Palestinians killed. It includes nearly 3000 children! Each name listed with their government ID number to rubbish accusations of fake numbers. A response to Genocide Joe of the USA and those like him who choose to erase the existence of Palestinians both dead and alive.

Germany and the other financiers, enablers and cheerleaders of the Genocide should be haunted both by the magnitude of the statistics and by the individuals that make up the numbers. 

As one twitter user put it, to be haunted:

By the baby YouTuber who wanted 100k subs. 

By the 10-year-old who said she can’t fight she is only 10. 

By that child shaking in a hospital breaking down when the doctor embraced him. 

By the kid who wanted to be an engineer to rebuild his city so tourists will visit.

By the medical staff who refused to abandon their people. 

By the doctors and nurses who found their loved ones in the morgues. 

By nine-year-old Yousuf who was fair and beautiful. 

By the little boy who carried his baby sister in his arms.

By the little girl who embraced her younger siblings when the adults in her home were killed. 

By the toddler who lost her entire family before she even learnt to speak and might never found out what her mom and dad named her.

By Wael Al Dahdouh who lost his entire family and lead their funeral prayer and immediately went back to speaking the truth of his people. 

By the young men who dug out children from the rubble with their bare hands and then embraced them.

By the artist who returned Palestinian children their childhoods for a few moments, mere hours before the hospital they were sheltering in was bombed. 

By the father who carried the limbs of his children in plastic bags.

By the old woman who chose to stay in her house and accept death instead of surrendering her place in this world. 

By the doctors and nurses who sang with their patients. 

By the family whose 88 members were killed in this destruction.

Haunted by humans, not mere statistics.

We are not all from Palestine, but most of us from the Global South know what it is like to have our history re-told and our dehumanization justified by the imperialist regimes that seek to erase our culture, expression and our humanity.

We connect with struggles for freedom and self-determination. We believe the fight for emancipation of Palestinians and marginalized people everywhere is historical and justified. 

For the last two years, NATO has used all the resources in its power; millions of Euros and weaponry to guard the sovereignty of Ukraine. Sadly, the occupation and massacre of Palestinians raises no protest. 

The world watches as Israel carries out a genocide and cuts off the access of millions of Palestinians in Gaza to the most basic of human needs: water, food, medication and shelter.

When Palestinians defend themselves, somehow, they are the oppressors, aggravators and the enemy. We are being conditioned to vilify Palestinians while they are starved and killed for simply existing on their land.

Look at Israel, its occupation, detention and segregation camps, carpet bombing, targeting residential units, hospitals, churches, the families of journalists they would like to silence, use of white phosporous-laced projectiles and you will know who the oppressors are. How can the world see Israel’s ongoing attempt at wiping out an entire population as justified? 

As a country whose history is defined by one of the world’s darkest eras of systematic, state-sponsored persecution and genocides, Germany should call Israel out. Instead, this country is a supporter of the murderous and racist apartheid regime.

This country’s genocidal past disables Palestinian determination in the liberation fight. Today, to Germany we say: ‘Deal with your guilt. Stop projecting your shame on Palestinians’. One Holocaust does not justify another. Criticising Israel is not antisemitism. Enough of the mischaracterisation and weaponization of the movement for freedom for Palestine. 

If you are sick, burnt out and traumatized hearing about the genocide in Palestine, imagine how those experiencing it feel. Germany must stop feeding the genocidal and parasitic Israeli regime.  

We demand the liberation of Palestine. Palestine should and must be sovereign.

Palestinians have a right to exist, right to be free, right to self-rule and self-determination.

Palestinian lives matter. Power to the Resistance of Palestine. 

Cease fire now!

Angela Davis is a political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, author and above all a revolutionary! When we thought about how we would like to mark the 10 years anniversary of the occupation of O-Platz and the start of our movement, we had the courage to dream of having Angela speak to us, many of us at O-Platz. And because dreaming is free, we went ahead and asked her, and, to our joy, she accepted our invitation.

The speech documented in this video is a lesson on the vestiges of colonialism and enslavement, and a reminder of women*’s power and leadership in struggles around the world. It is a speech about hope and our role as activists in transmitting hope, and it is also a speech about about freedom.

As Angela Davis says, remembering the song “Freedom is a constant struggle”, which is a freedom song that was repeatedly sung in the southern United States during the twentieth century freedom movement.

Directed / Subtitles: Denise Garcia Bergt
Produced: Lica Stein
Cameras: Thomas Macholz / Hoda Taheri
Drone: Marco Heinig
Audio: Tsvetelina Valkova
Edit / Post production: Johnny Welch
Music: Carmel Zoum

THIS VIDEO IS ALSO ON > VIMEO,

As part of Oplatz wird 10 – Baustelle Migration, 5-9th October 2022 at Oranienplatz, 10999 Berlin

Exhibition, Performances, Radio, Workshops, Poetry, Music & Talks, open daily 12-10pm. IWS Cinema, open daily 12-10pm. Billboard exhibition at different sites around Oranienplatz, 30 September to 11 October 2022.

See full festival programme here. (Oplatz.net)

Exhibition at OPlatzBox

with the International Women* Space archive, IWS RADIO, Oranienplatz Comic Workshop and contributions by Anike Joyce Sadiq & Judith Hamann & leo & Nino Bulling, Aziza Ahmad, Barby Asante, Clementine Ewokolo Burnley, Nino Bulling, Pungwe Listening, Semra Ertan, Semra Ertan Initiative, Vitjitua Ndjiharine

IWS CINEMA at OPlatzBox

# Kämpfer*innen: Eine Dokumentationsreihe mit Jennifer Kamau & Napuli Langa, Dahye Kim & Haewon Chae, Killa Kupfer & Schokoofeh Montazeri, Sandra Bello, Carolina Belen Espinosa Barrera, Sharuta Alatrash, Natalie Bayer, Angelika Nguyen, Saraya Gomis, Natasha Kelly, Aurora Rodonò | EN/DE. 2021

# How to resist: the refugee movement in Kreuzberg: Jennifer Kamau Tour | EN. 2020

# A black poem of color: Stefanie Lahya-Aukongo | DE. 2021

# Occupation of the tree at O-Platz: Napuli Langa | EN/DE. 2021

# Break the politics of divide and rule: Sanchita Basu | DE/EN. 2021

# Die enorme Resilienz des Refugee Movement: Peggy Piesche | DE/EN. 2021

# Die Gerhart-Hauptmann-Schule: Erinnerungen an ein Symbol des Widerstands: Mit Lica Stein, Alnour Ahmad-Hassan, Adam Bahar, Jan, Kim | EN/DE, 2021

# O-Platz Eviction | EN/DE, 2014

# 9 Days on the Roof | EN/DE, 2014

Public billboard exhibition in Kreuzberg

International Women* Space (Denise Garcia Bergt, Lica Stein, Pippa Samaya), Muhammed Lamin Jadama, Napuli Langa, Sista Mimi, Jennifer Kamau

@ Oranienplatz | Görlitzer Straße geg. 38 | Wassertorstr. 65 | Gitschiner Straße 71 | Görlitzer
Ufer/Görlitzer Brücke

—

Angela Davis, Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Anike Joyce Sadiq & Judith Hamann with leo & Nino Bulling, Aziza Ahmad, Barby Asante, Clementine Ewokolo Burnley, Denise Garcia Bergt, Hanaa Hakiki, International Women* Space, IWS Radio, Jennifer Kamau, Jo’Art, Lica Stein, Memory Biwa, Muhammed Lamin Jadama, Napuli Langa, Nino Bulling, Oranienplatz Comic Workshop, Pippa Samaya, Pungwe Listening, Sarah Imani, Semra Ertan, Semra Ertan Initiative, Sista Mimi, String Archestra, Suza Husse, Vitjitua Ndjiharine, WeAreBornFree! Empowerment Radio

“The Refugee Movement is the movement of the 21st century. It’s the movement that is challenging the effects of global capitalism. It’s the movement that is calling for civil rights for all human beings.” – Angela Davis on her 2015 visit to Berlin in conversation with refugee protesters occupying the
Gerhardt Hauptman school in Kreuzberg

OPLATZBOX is a mobile archive dedicated to the feminist struggle in the Refugee Resistance Movement with a focus on testimonies and visions of women* and queers from Black, Indigenous, migrant and People of Colour communities. Showcasing films, podcasts, publications and ephemera gathered and produced by International Women* Space / IWS across 10 years as well as art works, performances, radio programs, poetry, music and talks OPLATZBOX is a temporary education centre of migrant anticolonial knowledges open to all over a period 5 days.

A monument to the resistance and worldmaking of Black women that shaped the fabric of the Refugee Movement and its enduring legacy, OPLATZBOX is part of the arts and culture festival “Oplatz wird 10 – Baustelle Migration”. Ten years after the beginning of the occupation of Oranienplatz square, the festival organized by IWS celebrates the empowerment histories of the Refugee Resistance Movement in Berlin and makes proposals for a diverse, postcolonial, grassroots democratic, and postmigrant society.

International Women Space was founded as a radical feminist wing of the Refugee Resistance Movement in Berlin, which emerged from the protest occupation of Oranienplatz square in Kreuzberg in 2012. From the beginning, the self-organized making of culture based on the lives, struggles, histories and visions of migrant women, dykes, intersex, non-binary and trans people has been an important focus in the work of IWS.

“Women who had become refugees in their own regions before attempting to reach Europe through the deadly routes available. Women* fleeing war, poverty, environmental disaster caused by corporation’s greed, women* feeling persecution for not conforming to the gender they were assigned at birth. … we needed to speak to each other to understand the paradox of seeking protection in one of the western countries, knowing the roles they play in destabilizing our regions, through wars and neo-colonialism. In a less insane world this would be the last place we would choose.” – (In Our Own Words. Refugee Women Tell Their Stories, ed. IWS, 2015, p. 4)

IWS propose that listening to one another and creating records of survival in the face of violence, erasure, death and deportation are the base for creating strategies for a common struggle, for working on transformation together. A grassroots archive of resilience, achievement and loss, OPLATZBOX amplifies this Black, migrant, queer feminist take on decolonization put into practice through feminist self-organising.

Addressing the violent repercussions of colonialism, the dangerous migration routes, the fortressed borders to Europe, the realities of deeply engrained structural racism in Germany, the testimonies and reflections document migration as a political movement. A feminist anti-racist, anticolonial movement that connects a multiplicity of BIPOC and migrant histories and struggles in and beyond Germany.

OPLATZBOX is the first manifestation of the transterritorial decolonial feminist network WHEN THE JACKAL LEAVES THE SUN: Decentering Restitution | Pedagogies of Repossession: A decolonial feminist infrastructure for memory politics, art and transformative justice connecting Nairobi, Windhoek, Kigali, Dresden, Dar Es Salam, Dakar, Cape Town and Berlin Initiated by Anguezomo Mba Bikoro, Jennifer Kamau, Memory Biwa, Michael Bader, Rehema Chachage, Reneé Akitelek Mboya and Suza Husse with DistrictSchool Without Center, International Women Space, Nyabinghi Lab, SOMA and Wali Chafu Collective

WHEN THE JACKAL LEAVES THE SUN: Decentering Restitution | Pedagogies of Repossession unfolds through six chapters of interventionist and research-based cultural practices, accompanied by international legal expertise and activist engagement. Departing from and deeply engrained in contemporary anti-colonial struggles on the African continent and in Germany, When The Jackal Leaves The Sun embarks on a collective, transdisciplinary process with the aim to create
decolonial tools and interventions.

WHEN THE JACKAL LEAVES THE SUN: Decentering Restitution | Pedagogies of Repossession is funded by the TURN2 Fund of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for
Culture and the Media).

OPLATZ WIRD 10 – BAUSTELLE MIGRATION is funded by Berliner Projektfonds Urbane Praxis.

O-Platz wird 10 – Baustelle Migration

Vor 10 Jahren wurde der Oranienplatz und die Gerhart-Hauptmann-Schule von einer Geflüchteten-Bewegung besetzt. Wir, International Women* Space, haben uns aus dieser Bewegung gegründet und wollen das gemeinsam mit euch feiern! Denn ihr seid wichtiger Bestandteil dieser Bewegung und habt großen Anteil, dass Aktivistinnen, Geflüchteten, Migrantinnen, Gruppen und Einzelpersonen gemeinsam Widerstand leisten konnten. Wir wollen erneut alte Mitstreiter*innen zusammenbringen und neue Menschen mobilisieren, um uns gemeinsam an die Kämpfe geflüchteter Personen zu erinnern und unser Bestehen zu zelebrieren. Um reale Veränderung herbeizuführen, benötigt es zudem Zukunftsperspektiven, denen wir kollektivistisch nachgehen werden.

Mit dem Überfall auf die Ukraine kamen hunderttausende Menschen nach Deutschland und wir konnten sehen: Es ist sehr wohl möglich, mühsame bürokratische Prozesse zu umgehen und Menschen den Schutz anzubieten, den sie brauchen. Wir wissen aber auch, dass dieser Schutz nicht allen Geflüchteten eingeräumt wird. Umso wichtiger ist es, am 10-jährigen Jubiläum der Besetzung des O-Platzes daran zu erinnern, dass der daraus entstandene Widerstand immer noch lebt und weiterhin in die Öffentlichkeit getragen werden muss!

SAVE THE DATE: Vom 5. – 9. Oktober findet unsere Veranstaltung auf dem Oranienplatz in Kreuzberg statt. Wir laden euch alle herzlich ein, Teil des Festivals zu sein. Eine Bewegung lässt sich nicht räumen!

Aktivistin Angela Davis wird da sein und unsere Kämpfe vor Ort unterstützen. Freut euch auf spannende Podiumsdiskussionen, Konzerte, Fotoausstellungen, Kunst-Performances, einen Zine-Workshop und vieles mehr! Das detaillierte Programm werden wir in den kommenden Tagen über unseren Instagramkanal und auf oplatz.net veröffentlichen.

Lasst uns zusammenkommen, gemeinsam erinnern, unsere Errungenschaften feiern und über unsere derzeitigen Kämpfe diskutieren. Wir freuen uns auf Euch!

Feministische und solidarische Grüße
International Women* Space

Unser Widerstand lebt. O-Platz lebt.

O-Platz turns 10 – Migration Construction Site

Art- und Culture Festival at O-Platz, 5. – 9. October 2022

10 years ago Oranienplatz and Gerhart-Hauptmann-School were occupied by a refugee movement. We, International Women* Space, were founded out of this movement and want to celebrate it together with you! Because you are an important part of this movement and have played a big role that activists, refugees, migrants, groups and individuals could resist together. We want to reunite old and new comrades and mobilise people to remember the struggles of refugees together and celebrate our existence. In order to bring about real change, it also requires future perspectives, which we will pursue collectivistically.

Since the Russian war on Ukraine, we know it is possible to bypass tedious bureaucratic processes and provide people with the protection they need. Now is the time to highlight the developments of the last ten years and the origins of the occupation at Oranienplatz to continue our fight. The 10th anniversary of the occupation of O-Platz is a perfect occasion to celebrate the resistance and to show that we must continue to bring our fights to the public!

From October 5 – 9, our event will take place at Oranienplatz in Kreuzberg. We invite you all to be part of the festival. A movement cannot be evicted!

Activist Angela Davis will be there to support our struggles on the ground. There will also be exciting panel discussions, concerts, photo exhibitions, art performances, a zine workshop and much more! We will publish the detailed program in the coming days via our Instagram channel and on oplatz.net.

Let’s come together, remember together, celebrate our achievements and discuss our current struggles. We are looking forward to seeing you!

Feminist and solidarity greetings
International Women* Space

Our resistance is alive. O-Platz is alive.

#oplatzwird10

Berlin – Mit ihrer Aktion fordern die Aktivist*innen für Bleiberecht den Berliner Senat auf, ein Landesaufnahmeprogramm für afghanische Geflüchtete zu erlassen.

Der Baum auf dem Oranienplatz hat Symbolcharakter für die Geflüchtetenbewegung: 2014 stieg die aus dem Sudan geflüchtete Aktivistin Napuli Langa aus Protest über die Räumung des zuvor dort gestandenen Protestcamps auf jenen Baum. Geflüchtete hatten das Camp errichtet, um ihre Forderungen nach Bleiberecht und menschenwürdige Unterbringung zu unterstreichen. Erst fünf Tage später, nach der Zusicherung durch den Bezirk, ein Infozelt wieder aufbauen zu dürfen, stieg die Aktivistin wieder hinab.

Seit Freitag Abend sitzt Napuli Langa wieder auf dem Baum. Die Gründe sind die selben wie damals, sagt sie – nur der Anlass ist ein neuer: Denn mit ihr sitzt dieses Mal ein weiterer Mensch auf dem Baum. Sein Name kann aus Sicherheitsgründen nicht genannt werden, denn er fürchtet Gewalt durch die Taliban gegen seine Familie in Afghanistan. Er selbst ist schon länger Deutschland. Seine Frau konnte er bisher aber nicht nachholen. Nun sitzt sie fest, ebenso wie weitere Teile der Familie, die sich vor der Machtübernahme der Taliban demokratisch engagiert hatten. Von der deutschen Botschaft ist aktuell keine Unterstützung zu erwarten.

Der Baum am Oranienplatz ist mit Plakaten umhangen. “Bleiberecht für alle” steht dort. Und genau das fordern Napuli Langa und ihr Mitdemonstrant jetzt von der Berliner Regierung: Ein Landesaufnahmeprogramm für afghanische Geflüchtete, wie schon Schleswig-Holstein eins beschlossen hat.

Der amtierende Innensenator Andreas Geisel (SPD) ist noch drei Wochen im Amt. Wer danach die Verantwortung tragen wird, ist ungewiss. Für Bleiberechtsaktivistinnen besteht aber keine Zeit auf Koalitionsverhandlungen zu warten. Sie fordern jetzt konsequentes Handeln des Senats. Unterstützende Aktivistinnen kontaktieren derzeit Abgeordnete der Regierungsparteien und rufen sie auf, sich vor Ort über die Forderungen zu informieren.

Kontaktmöglichkeiten für Presseanfragen:

• Gespräche vor Ort möglich
• Telefon (mobil über International Women* Space): +49 1520 1721275 oder +49 1575 2706285
• E-Mail an iwspace@iwspace.de

—

Statement, 28th August 2021: Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg: Respect Refugee Rights, respect the agreement you signed in 2014

Pressebericht von 2014: Napuli Langa: Die standhafte Besetzerin, taz

As the organizers wrote, “Commemoration is a collective act in which we never forget, in which we strengthen each other, make resistance struggles visible and from which we draw strength for future struggles.”

Below is the speech IWS gave during the demo.

Today we are here to remember the 9 people that were killed one year ago in Hanau. We also need to remember the victims of the NSU, Oury Jalloh, who was killed in the custody of police, and Rita Awour Ojunge, killed by the german asylum system, and many other unsolved cases because they show us that the german system was built on racism and it continues to exist through racism.

We must never forget that it is ONE RACIST SYSTEM!

It is the same system that covers up the states involvement in the NSU murders –

It is the same system that ordered to shut the emergency exit of the arena Bar – the place where the victims were killed- because they didn’t want people to be able to escape their regular police controls

It is the same system that after an unspoken media campaign of criminalizing and portraying non-white people, migrants and refugees -especially men- as aggressors and a threat to the white german state – exactly are the ones who were killed one year ago

Bundesregierung now wants to express their condolences when they repeatedly openly stigmatize and criminalize Shisha Bars to the point that they became a symbol to be attacked? That resulted in the death/killing of 9 people? NOW they want to show empathy?

After the NSU-Murders, after the Murder of Oury Jalloh, of Rita Awuor Ojunge, and the murders in Hanau, the racist police controls are ongoing, the racist attacks are ongoing, the racist deportations are ongoing.

All this is a symptom of a racist society. After every attack, after every killing, we are told that is an individual, a psychologically unstable guy, a victim of his circumstances. We tell you it is not one crazy guy, how come we ALL meet this same crazy guy over and over again:
in the police
in the Ausländerbehörde
on the U-bahn
on the Street
at the Amt
in the Schools.
at the Kiosk
at a flower shop.
at a shisha bar.

This crazy guy is everywhere! And we say again: there is no Einzeltäter, this is a racist society.

So if we are speaking of the racism in the Heims, about the racism on the street, racism in the deportations, we are speaking of a racist system, which has killed the 9 people in hanau one year ago.
and which is killing us every day!

So let’s get it clear: the
the state does not
never did and will never
protect us,
we have to organize ourselves!

Racism acts to depoliticize us, to divide us, to prevent us from organizing. But today we are here to repeat, that we will never stop to organize, to protest, to demand justice for those killed by racism.

Diese waren Teil des “Refugee Protest March”, der sich 2012 von Würzburg nach Berlin aufmachte, oder besetzten den Oranienplatz und später die Schule, aus der ein dauerhaft selbstverwaltetes politisches Zentrum werden sollte. Die Aktivist*innen geben einen Überblick über die Ereignisse, ihre Erfolge und Niederlagen, sowie die Schlüsse, die sie aus dieser Zeit ziehen. Es war die Zeit vor dem “Sommer der Migration” in welcher der selbstorganisierte Protest einen vorläufigen Höhepunkt der Sichtbarkeit erkämpfte.

Wie ihr vielleicht wisst und wie aus den Interviews ebenfalls deutlich wird, hat sich seitdem das politische Klima im Land verändert und es Drohen weitere Rückschritte. Dieser Film soll Anlass geben, zur kritischen Reflexion, aber auch helfen Mut zu schöpfen, für die anstehenden Kämpfe.

Leftvision ist alternatives und kritisches Fernsehen. Wir dokumentieren und analysieren Proteste und Bewegungen. Wir sind nah am Geschehen, wo Menschen anfangen sich zu wehren und ihre Belange in die Hand nehmen. Wir machen Kritik und Alternativen sichtbar!

– leftvision.de

Unter dem Titel «Die Erweiterung des Terrains. Migrationspolitik als Transformationsprojekt. Eine Baustellenbesichtigung» befragt unser Autor Günter Piening zehn ausgewiesene Expert*innen im Bereich der Migrations- und Rassismusforschung zu Perspektiven (post-)migrantischer Interventionen. Die einzelnen Gespräche thematisieren das europäische Grenzregime, globale Bürgerrechte, die Rolle des Wohlfahrtstaates in den Klassenauseinandersetzungen, die Solidarität in betrieblichen Kämpfen, die Geschlechterfrage in postkolonialen Verhältnissen, die Kämpfe der Geflüchteten um Teilhabe und die Stärke (post-)migrantischer Lebenswelten. Ihnen allen ist gemeinsam, dass sie Migration als ein Vermögen begreifen, die soziale Frage in einem demokratisierenden Sinn zu beantworten. Unser Dossier «Migration» setzt damit der gesellschaftlichen Polarisierung, die gegenwärtig vor allem um die Frage von Einwanderung, Teilhabe und Bürgerrechte kreist, eine linke Position jenseits national-sozialer Kurzschlüsse entgegen. Bis Ende Juni 2017 veröffentlichen wir jeden Montag eines der insgesamt zehn Expertengespräche.