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Seminar The Silencing of Palestine Solidarity in GermanyTime: 27.2.2025 at 11:15 – 13
Venue: Lecture hall Suomen laki, 1st floor, Porthania, Yliopistonkatu 3, University of Helsinki
Please register for the seminar latest 25.2. at https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/133540/lomake.html
Palestine solidarity movements have faced criticism and suppression across Europe and the United States. In Germany, the policing and suppression of pro-Palestinian activism have been particularly harsh. Those who advocate for Palestinian rights, call for an end to the genocide in Gaza, and criticize the Israeli occupation have experienced legal reprisals and public hostility. The media and authorities have frequently labelled pro-Palestine demonstrations and organizations as anti-Semitic, and individuals participating in them as Israel-haters, which has led to the marginalization and silencing of voices critical of Israeli policies. Scholars argue that the emphasis on Israel’s security as Germany’s Staatsräson (reason of state) has placed the moral alignment of Germany’s citizens with immigrant backgrounds under heightened scrutiny. While the policing of the Palestine solidarity movement is not new, an increasing number of cancellations of international artists, scholars, and other individuals whose opinions deviate from this state policy have taken place during the last sixteen months. In the current atmosphere, individuals and groups are reluctant to speak out or show solidarity with Palestine for fear of facing legal consequences, public backlash, or being branded as extremists.
This seminar will explore the particularities of the German case. Through two lectures and discussion, we will examine the challenges created by various resolutions and legal actions that constrain the expression of criticism of Israel and solidarity with Palestine. The seminar will shed light on the struggles faced by those advocating for Palestine solidarity at university campuses in Germany.
The speakers:
Prof. Dr. Schirin Amir- Moazami, Free University of Berlin
Dr. Nahed Samour, Radbound University
The event will be moderated by Dr. Liina Mustonen (University of Helsinki).
Bios of the speakers:
Schirin Amir-Moazami works as a professor of Islam in Europe at the Institute of Islamic studies at Freie Universität Berlin. She studied Political Sciences and Sociology in Frankfurt/Main, Berlin, Aix-Marseille, and Paris, and holds a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence (Department of Social and Political Sciences). Her research interests encompass critical secular studies, political theory, post- and decolonial studies, and politics of the body. She has published widely on topics related to Muslims in Europe, especially in Germany and France with a focus on political secularism, politics of knowledge production, body politics and governmentality. Her recent monograph Interrogating Muslims. The Liberal-Secular Matrix of Integration was published in 2022. Currently, she is working on a research project which analyses bureaucratized knowledge and the logics of preventing “Islamic extremism” in Germany.
Nahed Samour, Research Associate at Radboud University, has studied law and Islamic studies at the universities of Bonn, Birzeit/Ramallah, London (SOAS), Berlin (HU), Harvard and Damascus. She was a doctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt/Main. She clerked at the Court of Appeals in Berlin and held a Post Doc position at the Eric Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights, Helsinki University, Finland, and was Early Career Fellow at the Lichtenberg-Kolleg, Göttingen Institute for Advance Study. She has taught as Junior Faculty at Harvard Law School Institute for Global Law and Policy from 2014-2018. From 2019-2022, she was Core Emerging Investigator at the Integrative Research Institute Law & Society.
The seminar is organized by the project The Middle East in Berlin (Kone foundation, 2024-2027) and The Centre for Research on Ethnic Relations and Nationalism (CEREN), Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki
https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/ethnic-relations-and-nationalism
https://www.facebook.com/ceren.helsinki/
https://www.instagram.com/ceren_helsinki/
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Lecture hall Suomen laki, 1st floor, Porthania, Yliopistonkatu 3, University of Helsinki, Yliopistonkatu 3, FI-00100 Helsinki, Suomi,Helsinki, Finland
