BERLIN (Middle East Eye) – When Germany’s Goethe Institute in Hamburg first approached Moshtari Hilal to participate in a conference examining how right-wing groups manipulate social media, the Afghan-German artist warily agreed.
Hilal was asked by Goethe, a state-funded art institute, to work with her friend and Berlin-based artist and creative Sinthujan Varatharajah to create something for Goethe’s event.
Earlier this year, both had made a buzz on social media after they hosted a discussion on how major art collectors in Germany inherited their wealth from Nazis.
Brainstorming over WhatsApp messages and coffee, both decided a round-table with guests from across the world would be the best way to contribute to Goethe’s conference, Beyond the Lone Wolf Offender - Dynamics of the Global Right.
They drew up a shortlist of possible guests, including prominent Palestinian poet and activist Mohammed El-Kurd, and sent the names to Goethe.
El-Kurd became prominent in 2020 when he began posting about Zionist attempts to seize his family home in Sheikh Jarrah. His posts garnered thousands of shares and nearly a million followers on various platforms.
“The intention was to invite El-Kurd for his expertise and experience with strategies from the right, targeting him and his work online and through media campaigns,” Hilal told Middle East Eye.
“We intentionally didn’t put the focus on Israel, but on a comparative round-table beyond national frameworks, as these attacks and campaigns also happen across different platforms.”
Initially, Goethe took the list and exchanged emails to help turn Hilal and Varatharajah’s vision into reality.
Goethe’s staff approved the list, prompting Hilal and Varatharajah to send out invitations to their prospective speakers.
El-Kurd confirmed his appearance at the festival, and Goethe discussed logistics, including how to get the speakers to Germany and details on securing a visa for the Palestinian poet.
“We were surprised it got that far, and at one point felt reluctantly optimistic that we could get Mohammed to Germany,” said Hilal, from her base in Hamburg.
Varatharajah echoed Hilal’s surprise that they were able to invite Kurd.
The Palestinian activist was close to speaking in Germany for the first time. But after weeks of emails, both artists received a phone call and an email from the Goethe Institute in Hamburg, informing them that its head office in Munich had decided to officially “disinvite” Kurd to the festival.
Kurd had become the latest victim of censorship for Palestinians in German society - particularly in the arts scene.
In 2019, Germany’s Bundestag took a symbolic vote to declare the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement anti-Semitic.
The BDS movement calls for economic pressure on the Zionist regime to end the occupation of Palestinian land, grant Palestinian citizens equal rights and recognize the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
Several German institutions, including Goethe, signed an open letter condemning the 2019 Bundestag resolution against BDS as “dangerous” and “misused to push aside important voices”.