Dear militant queer-feminists,

This years Militant Feminist Congress has taken place in Leipzig. The program of the congress shined by the absence of Palestinian queer-feminists. With a grand Palestinian community in Germany, 80,000, it is not possible to assume that there are no Palestinian militant queer-feminists. It is possible to question the militancy of the congress, when there are no Palestinian queer-feminists taken up in the program. And maybe Palestinian queer – feminists took part on the congress within the space of Black perspectives. But the point is to share militancy from a queer-feminist perspective as unapologetic Palestinian. In 2022 the congress was organized in Berlin and when the program got published, it got criticized because men were allowed to engage with queer-feminist militancy. But the segregation of Palestinian queer-feminists doesn’t get any criticism. Are Palestinian queer-feminists, not militant? It seems like men engaging is worse, than the segregation of an entire colonized group that gets displaced, segregated and exterminated. It says a lot about who gets validated as a human, even when they are the very subject for giving criticism to the organizers of a congress.

Actors
In 1851, Sojourner Truth criticized white American women on the Women Rights Convention in Akron with the speech Ain’t I a woman? Sojourner Truth was born enslaved and her first language was Dutch. She made her point in a time of slavery, before the American Civil War, as a freed woman in the United States. But as a freed woman she lived under the lived experience of segregation. The lived experienced of segregation got enabled for a moment, as Truth could enter the political collective space to make her point. After the American Civil War, the Jim Crow Laws got implemented that aimed on racial segregation. Those laws also got smashed by Black militancy but the struggle against racism still continue in the U.S. as the lived experience of segregation is still a fact. Palestinian queer-feminists have little access in German collective political spaces. Nowadays there are no laws on segregation in Germany that is based on race or ethnicity. Apparently, there are powerful actors who are willing to reproduce this kind of oppression. Oppression doesn’t need a law, it has actors who need to get enabled. Non of us are free chit chats and activities, while Palestinians don’t have a seat at the table, will not lead to freedom for all.

Segregation
Apartheid is a Dutch word which means separateness, to segregate, and is rooted in colonialism. In South Africa the Apartheid law got implemented in 1948, the year of commemorating al Naqba in Palestine. Apartheid aims at racial segregation of public facilities, social events, housing, employment opportunities, mixed marriages etc. Palestinians live in under apartheid that is imposed by the settler-colonial state of Israel. Germany has it’s own history with colonialism, and imperial wars, by the use of racial theory and segregation on ethnicity. The outcome was destruction and extermination of targeted ethnic groups. But it’s not just all history considering NATO, and it’s members. Dominant imperial powers still give people in, and from the Global South a dehumanizing savage treatment with the same outcome. The East of Europe, and Balkan gets white washed by Western standards within the EU, and Schengen Area, but that wasn’t always the case. That part of the continent is given a position but doesn’t mean actual power, nor liberation in any way. The outcome is New Era Fascism that targets people from the Global South an route, while they seek refuge.

Power position
Die Rote Zora is a German queer-feminist heritage that showed internationalist solidarity by doing actions which contributed to global militant queer-feminist liberation struggles. But another part of German militant queer-feminism is, that it holds a power position within the patriarchal-and colonial systems. Queer-feminists who follow the political line of the Anti-Deutsche, reproduce colonial violence on Palestinian feminists. It’s done by segregation when events are organized in collective political spaces. The opportunity for Palestinian queer-feminists, to speak about their political analyses and lived experience, gets segregated from other struggles by not having access, nor platform. Those who take part, are complicit in it’s reproduction.

Proximity to power
While German feminists hold a power position within the patriarchal and colonial system, some Iranian, Black, South American and Jewish queer-feminists, took part on the militant congress in Leipzig. There is a difference in position and it could easily turn on those who have less proximity to power. It only takes one look at colonial history in general, imperial wars and the genocides connected to it. There are different reasons, and arguments why queer-feminists participate in the congress. One of the arguments is the complex context in the history of Germany. But history is always situated in a complex context. Queer-feminists are still struggling for liberation because of the very reason that there is complexity. The question is, if militant queer-feminists are going to continue, to reproduce or mediate with oppression. Building on the solid heritage of ancestors, there is no need to do that. Palestinians are embedded in the liberation struggles of internationalists. In any other context there is solidarity, connecting and organizing to be stronger together. Colonialism is rooted in the soil of this continent and it’s not like local segregation in collective political spaces vanishes the very second that Palestine is liberated.

De-platform
Within anti-fascism there is the tactic to de-platform, it’s also applicable on Anti-Deutsche and it’s not the same as segregation on Palestinians. Following the political line of Anti-Deutsche as a queer-feminist is a choice. Thinking that there are no other options than keeping Palestinians trapped in colonial violence, that their liberation is not self-determination but an equivalent of terrorism based on anti-antisemitism, that will lead to the extermination of Jews. It’s a poor political analysis, build on a historical fallacy which grew into a moral guilt-cult that reproduces and enforces settler-colonial violence. And as oppression only needs actors, so does liberation. This violence is going to stop if actors, act collectively, stronger together.

In love and rage

passiert am 26-10-2023