Open letter to the Berlin Left Party: Support for Neukölln

In an open letter to the Berlin Left Party, more than 130 cultural workers, scientists and activists stand behind the Neukölln district association and all comrades “who are currently exposed to this right-wing smear campaign”. The letter is available exclusively to the taz.

Among the signatories are the Afro-German author Jasmina Kuhnke and the sociologist Vanessa E. Thompson, the comedian Jean-Philip Kindler, the satirist Sebastian Hotz “El Hotzo” and the lawyer Asha Hedayati.

After its election victory, the Berlin Left Party is confronted with an “unprecedented media smear campaign,” the letter says. “The mainstream parties are exploiting the accusation of anti-Semitism against the left because they fear that Berlin will set a nationwide precedent by socializing apartments.”

The party has been accused of having an anti-Semitism problem since the election. The trigger was, among other things, published chats between left-wing politician Ferat Kocak and the son of an organized crime figure. There were also photos from the Neukölln election party that showed the MP with Ibrahim Ibrahim, a supporter of the “Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine” (PFLP), which the EU has classified as a terrorist organization. The open letter does not address these connections. Instead, the signatories see the media criticism of Kocak as a continuation of a previous “media-hyped hunt” – at that time because of the “absurd” accusation of suspected document falsification.

For sociologist Vanessa E. Thompson, who signed the letter, it is clear that the current reporting is an “explicitly anti-left and racist campaign from above.” “If it were actually about criminal activity, the press would probably be busy every day with the connections between politicians from the so-called center parties and the real estate lobby, corporate bosses and their inhumane rip-offs, the massive attack on social infrastructure and social policy and the associated militarization and war policy,” she says.

The fact that people who are active in local political structures also know people who have connections to criminal activities does not mean that they approve of it or that they themselves have anything to do with it. “I don’t want to justify violence in any way, but criminal activity is also a truth of capitalism,” says Thompson. “It’s about talking to people who find themselves in these circumstances due to social and societal problems.”

Ferat Kocak gave up his seat on the Interior Committee in response to the allegations after the election, but there are still calls for his expulsion from the party. The signatories criticize this and point out that other parties also “maintain dubious connections that go far beyond a chat”. They demand that the Left Party show solidarity with Kocak and other members who are criticized for their solidarity with Palestine, such as Basem Said, Martha Kleedörfer and Hannah Bruns. The request for expulsion from the party against Bruns, who is involved in the state working group for Palestine Solidarity, should be withdrawn, according to the demand.

The letter only indirectly comments on the controversial appearance of the rapper Dahabflex shortly before the election. He rapped “Yallah, yallah, Intifada, West Bank, Palestine, Gaza” and “Death, death to the IDF” at a Left Neukölln election campaign event. The signatories make it clear: “Criticism of the State of Israel is not anti-Semitic.” They point to the recent federal party conference of the Left, at which the party rejected the IHRA definition and the majority spoke out in favor of the Jerusalem Declaration on Anti-Semitism. “None of the currently controversial statements are anti-Semitic according to this definition,” it says.

Finally, the signatories appeal to the left that a coalition with the SPD and the Greens should not come at the expense of Palestine solidarity. They demand that the party “protect all marginalized groups,” name “the racism of the current counter-campaign,” and “stand behind Jewish people in all their diversity.” For Vanessa E. Thompson it is clear: “If political models that have equal rights for everyone in Israel and Palestine as a principle have no place in a left-wing party, it does not deserve this name.”

The LAG Shalom Berlin, a group within the Berlin Left that campaigns “against anti-Semitism from all worldviews,” distances itself on Instagram from the “sometimes excessive and defamatory” anti-Semitism allegations against the party. “Nevertheless, our party has a responsibility to address the problem of anti-Semitism within its ranks and finally ensure clarity of content,” said the group.