[News] Palestinian Solidarity Activists Attack Downtown Berlin Weapons Industry Targets

[Anti-Imperialist News]

unicornriot.ninja
<https://unicornriot.ninja/2024/palestinian-solidarity-activists-attack-downtown-berlin-weapons-industry-targets/>
Palestinian Solidarity Activists Attack Downtown Berlin Weapons Industry
Targets
March 20, 2024 -  By Unicorn Riot
------------------------------

Berlin, Germany — In the middle of the night on Sunday, March 17, a group
of anarchist Palestinian solidarity activists attacked a building in
downtown Berlin containing the offices of two entities currently
contributing to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The activists used a
converted fire extinguisher to blast the building facade with red paint,
and tag other parts of the building with pro-Palestine graffiti.

The offices at Friedrichstraße 60 in Berlin are home to ThyssenKrupp Marine
Systems (TKMS), which manufactures the Israeli Navy’s Sa’ar 6 corvettes,
warships that allow the Navy to bomb Gaza from the sea
<https://www.naval-technology.com/news/israeli-navys-saar-6-corvettes-used-to-strike-gaza-ground-targets/>.

Red paint seen on the entrance to Friedrichstraße 60 in downtown Berlin
during the daytime on Monday, March 18, 2024. Israeli Naval Service Sa’ar 6
corvette warships seen docked at a ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) dock
in Kiel, Germany (L) and firing bombs while at sea (R). Photo credits:
Marco Kuntzsch/Wikimedia Commons (L) and IDF Spokesperson Unit (R)

The Friedrichstraße 60 building also contains the offices of Bundesverband
der Deutschen Sicherheits- und Verteidigungsindustrie, a lobbying group for
German weapons manufacturers known as BDSV
<https://www.bdsv.eu/about-bdsv.html>.
Anarchists acting in solidarity with Palestine tagged offices used by
Israeli-genocide-enabling weapons manufacturers ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems
(TKMS) and Bundesverband der Deutschen Sicherheits- und
Verteidigungsindustrie (BDSV), among others, in downtown Berlin on the
night of March 17, 2024.

To find out more about the action and the broader context from which it
arose, Unicorn Riot interviewed several participants who took part in the
action, who responded to written questions collectively. All respondents
requested to be quoted anonymously for their safety.
------------------------------

*Unicorn Riot: Tell us about the recent action.*

Anonymous Participants: Our autonomous crew has been researching arms
dealers and locations of those responsible for what’s happening in Gaza,
with the determination to hold them accountable. They have blood on their
hands. Now we put it on their front doors.

We especially wanted to target this building after a recent demonstration
on the 11th of March called “*Stop Arming Israel*,” led by other Palestine
solidarity activists. It brought attention to this address being the
headquarters to the largest lobby for weapons manufacturers in Germany.

BDSV is a lobby group that advocates for the interests of the German
defense industry and represents many arms companies, including *Rheinmetall*,
*Diehl Defence*, *Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems*, Kraussmaffei and
more. *Thyssen
Krupp Marine Systems**,* whose office is in this building, builds
submarines and warships for the Israeli Navy. These warships are being used
right now to attack Gaza.
The Israeli military submarine *INS Drakon
<https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2023/08/israel-launches-new-submarine-first-in-world-with-modern-missiles-in-sail/>*
seen being worked on at the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) yard in
Kiel, Germany in 2023. Photos credit: Marco Kuntzsch/Wikimedia Commons

*UR: What motivated you to act?*

Anonymous Participants: We are heartbroken and infuriated and couldn’t stay
passive in the face of ongoing colonial violence and genocide. There are
extremely high stakes in this fight. As anarchists, we believe fighting to
free Palestine is fighting to free us all from the brutality of state power
and settler colonialism.

Everyday, we see on our screens people being killed by the hundreds. We see
them dying of organized starvation or being bombed when waiting for food
aid. We see hospitals, infrastructure, schools, being demolished in a clear
attempt to leave nothing for the Palestinian people to return to, to clear
Palestine off the map.

We often feel powerless at demonstrations in Berlin and will make those in
power listen by any means necessary. It’s past time to escalate. We must
ensure a stop of the genocide as fast as possible.

And we will prevail. We are part of a bigger international movement
organizing to stop the war machinery in its tracks: comrades shutting down
arms factories in the UK and the US, the Yemeni blockading of the Red Sea,
dockworkers in Italy, Belgium and Spain stopping delivery of military goods
to Israel, Indian unions organizing against labor deals with Israel,
boycotts and protests all around the Middle East, McDonalds losing huge
profits in Egypt and elsewhere, etc. We hope that this is one of many
actions that will take place in Germany, and that others will join us in
making accountable the people in our city responsible for the murder of
thousands of Palestinians.

*UR: What is the connection between German companies and the ongoing ethnic
cleansing occurring in Palestine?*

Anonymous Participants: Germany is Israel’s second biggest arms
supplier, supplying
28% of Israel’s weapons
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/15/which-countries-have-stopped-supplying-arms-to-israel>,
including warships, aircraft, tanks, missiles, submarines, engines, and
military vehicles. Weapons exports from Germany to Israel have increased
tenfold since 2023, mostly since October. The German government subsidizes
this as military aid and directly funds the weapons used to massacre the
people of Gaza. For example, 1/3 of the price of the warships sold by our
target *ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems* are subsidized by the German
government. This is about more than trade. Germany is gifting weapons to
Israel and actively participating in the genocide.

Along with our target *TKMS* and arms lobby *BDSV*, the streets of Berlin’s
city centre are riddled with the offices of German, U.S. and Israeli
companies profitting from the genocide of Palestinians: *Rheinmetall*,
*Hensoldt*, *Diehl Defence*, *MTU Aero Engines*, *Lockheed Martin*, *Elbit
Systems*, *Israel Aerospace Industries*, as well as the German company*
Siemens*, which provides technology and equipment to Israeli prisons and is
in regular business with Israeli authorities for population and traffic
control in the occupied West Bank. We hope our action inspires further
targeting of these companies.

*UR: Is there a historical reason why it feels particularly important for
Germans to act in solidarity with Palestine in this moment? *

Anonymous Participants: In part, the state of Israel exists because of
Germany’s violence during the Holocaust and WWII. Germans therefore have an
especially strong responsibility to fight the genocide that is happening in
Gaza.

Despite this, Germany is once again on the wrong side of history. Germany
has continuously backed Israel on a global stage, going so far as to claim
this position as Germany’s *“Staatsräson”* (reason of state). Manifest here
is a logic of German guilt: since we [Germans] were responsible for the
systematic extermination of the Jewish people during the Holocaust, we
[Germans] have a special ‘historical responsibility’ to support Israel.

With this being said, antisemitism is still alive and well in German
society. It is seen clearly in the presence of right-wing extremists and
neo-Nazi networks in the parliament and police forces, as well as in the
troubling abstraction of Jewishness by those who have been trained to
‘remember’ the Holocaust in particular ways, but know very little about the
history of Zionism nor the cultural diversity within the contemporary
Jewish diaspora. The excuse that support for Israel apologizes for the
horrors of the Holocaust has failed to address this deeper and ongoing
antisemitism in Germany.

Since October 7th, the existing state political discourse around ‘imported
antisemitism’ has grown stronger. Despite the fact that the grand majority
of antisemitic crimes in Germany are committed by the white German
far-right–for example 95% in 2020
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/28/in-germany-growing-suggestions-that-antisemitism-is-imported>–German
politicians frame antisemitism as coming from the non-E.U. migrants that
have moved here in the past decades. When in reality, it has more to do
with the fact that Germany never truly de-Nazified.

Behind all of this ideology is Germany’s much longer colonial and racist
legacy. There have never been reparations made or ‘justice’ served for the
Herero and Nama genocide committed in Namibia in the early 20th century.
And presently, the German state is a leader in Europe’s militarized border
regimes and systematic anti-refugee/migrant discrimination.

If Germans want to meaningfully undermine the genocidal legacies of empire,
then the answer is clear: they must untangle themselves from the propaganda
of the German state and begin to reflect on how deeply embedded racism is
in the social being of German identity. If disavowing Zionism means
disavowing Germanness, then perhaps it is time to consider this prospect.

*UR: Help us understand the context for this action. What is the
Palestinian solidarity movement in Berlin like?*

Anonymous Participants: The Palestinian solidarity movement here is in a
difficult position because of Germany’s political culture around
Palestine/Israel. Even the (non-international/non-migrant) left has aligned
itself with the German political elite, based on the premise that Germany’s
post-Holocaust responsibility requires the unconditional support of the
Israeli state. As a result, the Palestinian solidarity movement has been
marginalized and under attack both by repressive state actors as well as
the white German left.

Part of the left’s support for Zionism can be attributed to the prominent
‘Antideutsche’ movement, whose anti-fascism is deeply intertwined with
their support of a Zionist state. While it may sound surreal to radicals
the whole world over, it’s ‘normal’ in Germany to see anti-fascist flags
flown next to Israeli flags at demos, or to have self-described leftists
organizing demos in solidarity with Israel. People from the Antideutsch
scene have physically attacked Palestine solidarity events and activists
(including anti-Zionist Jewish activists), and called the cops on
Palestinian people carrying Palestinian flags. Late last year, there was an
attack by white leftists on a radical BIPOC collective space
<https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cy5TltWsyr9/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D> in
Leipzig, where they broke their windows, threw pig fat, and left behind a
statement claiming this Islamophobia was ‘anti-fascism.’

Even for German activists who are not outwardly pro-Israel, there is a
widespread discomfort with being associated with any criticism of Israel,
which has caused many political groups to fracture over the last few
months. Most of us have gotten into fights at home, in our political
organizations, in our friendship groups, and/or at work. Despite there
being a small number of anti-Zionist German groups, the Palestine
solidarity movement is primarily made up of internationals and migrants who
may risk deportation after arrest. This gives the movement unique obstacles.

Lastly, Berlin is home to one of the largest Palestinian diasporic
communities in Europe, and here solidarity with migrants should mean
solidarity with Palestine.

*UR: What has repression been like against Palestinian solidarity activists
in Germany?*

Anonymous Participants: Repression against Palestinian solidarity in
Germany has been systematically enforced for a long time. From the streets,
to the Parliament, to cultural and educational institutions. Yet since
October, police intimidation, house raids, new laws, and arrests without
clear legal basis have escalated to extremes. Police commonly follow
protesters after a demonstration — mostly young Palestinian men, and beat
them up or arrest them. Using a slogan such as *“from the river to the sea”
*routinely results in arrests. Activist groups and individuals have
experienced spontaneous police raids and the confiscation of electronics.

NGOs that support Palestine, and institutions such as the cultural center
Oyoun, led mostly by migrants and BIPoC people, have been shut down and had
their state funding cut. Artists and academics have been canceled from
events or lost their funding for their solidarity with Palestine, even for
social media posts. Notably, Jews make up about 1% of Germany’s population,
but have been the target for 30% of ‘cancellations’ in German arts and
culture, claiming that Jewish people themselves are antisemitic for
supporting Palestine. Activists have been the targets of mainstream media
doxxing campaigns that threaten their safety, both Palestinians and
anti-Zionist Jews.

Laws are being proposed that make getting a German passport or visa
extension difficult if the state can find evidence that you are
pro-Palestinian. Student movements organizing for Palestine have been
framed hatefully, with Berlin’s universities are currently debating a law
to allow “politically-motivated expulsion” in the Higher Education Act.

Even young schoolchildren have been impacted. Kuffiyehs are forbidden in
schools, and flyers were distributed in elementary schools in migrant
neighbourhoods that propose to ‘debunk’ the Nakba, calling it a myth, while
propagating right-wing settler framings in support of Israel. This is
psychic warfare against youth. In Nordrhein-Westfallen teachers are even
asked to report to police if a child expresses that Israel is commiting
genocide.

All this goes to say — the repression is extreme, fascist and out-right
terrifying. And it’s only getting worse.


*UR: If there are Jews involved in your action, and you feel comfortable
talking about that, please do. *

Anonymous Participants: There is one person in the crew with Jewish
ancestry and a strong connection to Judaism. Their Jewishness only fuels
their dedication to the liberation of all people, both Jews and
Palestinians. We will not let our ancestors suffering be weaponized today
in Palestine.


*UR: Anything you want to say that I’m missing?*

Anonymous Participants: If you want to understand more about the history of
the situation in Germany, we could suggest the following resources:

   - The Dig Radio: ‘The German Question with Emile Dische-Becker’
   <https://thedigradio.com/podcast/the-german-question-w-emily-dische-becker/>
   - Jewish Current: ‘The Strange Logic of Germany’s Antisemitism
   Bureaucrats’
   <https://jewishcurrents.org/the-strange-logic-of-germanys-antisemitism-bureaucrats>
   - Dissent Magazine: ‘Zionism *Über* *Alles*‘
   <https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/zionism-uber-alles/>
   - Jewish Currents: ‘The Trouble With Germany’: Pt. 1
   <https://jewishcurrents.org/the-trouble-with-germany-part-1> | Pt. 2
   <https://jewishcurrents.org/the-trouble-with-germany-part-ii>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20240320/6028b513/attachment-0001.htm>