(Comment from June 5, 2024) In advance of this additional information to our newsletter, we would like to clarify that both the newsletter and this follow-up in their combination reflect the opinion of the Kulturkosmos crew, but not the opinion of our network or our employees. This lack of clarification was a mistake, for which we apologise.

Furthermore, as already explained in our February newsletter, not everyone would have written everything as it is written here, but with all the respect we have for different opinions in our group, we stand by the decision to publish this text together.

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This latest text to our newsletter is not a response to the Fusion boycott call and open letter published this week by Palestine Speaks. Rather, it is the current status of our discussion and reflection over the last few weeks on the reactions and criticisms of the newsletter.

With this statement, we would like to add some thoughts to the newsletter from February 2024.

We still stand behind the essential content of the February newsletter and emphasize the importance of the expectations formulated in it for all fusionist:as to celebrate a mindful and respectful festival at the end of June.

We have now, however, realized that we need to pay even more attention to creating a common, anti-discriminatory space where in which Jews, Muslims, Palestinians and Israelis can feel as safe and welcome as possible. We also want to adjust our structures, by sensitizing our security team and expanding our awareness structure.

In addition to a lot of encouragement from our environment, we have also received incomprehension, disappointment and criticism of the newsletter, especially from Palestinian and solidary Jewish and Arab fusionist:as close to us. Many of them feel excluded or no longer welcome because of the newsletter. That affects us deeply, as Fusion has been understood for years by many people in the Palestinian community as a home zone where people from Israel/Palestine could feel welcome. Here, the topic of Palestine was present and was addressed for years in the Arab* Underground, where collaboration with Jewish allies took place based on shared values. Art and culture from Israel and Palestine have always been part of our programme in recent years.

Right now, at a time when many cultural institutions in Germany are being suspected of antisemitism due to state repression against positions critical of Israel, and are afraid to give a platform to critical voices; when the political mainstream supposedly dictates the boundaries of debate in the name of protecting Jewish life, we see it as even more important to continue giving space to Palestinian voices at Fusion.

We do not want to allow or contribute to anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian racism being played off against each other at the expense of these vulnerable communities.

We have received various responses to our last newsletter, which have prompted us to clarify and add some points. In addition to various points of criticism, two topics came up again and again during the discussion.

On the one hand, we are accused of drawing only two red lines. One is Israel's non-negotiable right to exist and the other is the glorification or support of Hamas.

Many missed a third red line, which names the war in Gaza as "genocide" and the Israeli occupation policy as "apartheid" with a clear demarcation against all those who support, negate or trivialise this. Here we have indeed demarcated one-sided.

We avoided to use the terms "genocide" and "apartheid" in the newsletter, but now we see that despite all the criticism we have articulated, we have wrongly taken into account German sensitivities here, which does not do justice to what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank.

We now realize that it was a mistake not to name what is actually happening.

A central point of criticism was that Israel's non-negotiable right to exist, as undifferentiated and boldly as it was written from our German perspective, actually excludes the right of a Palestinian state to exist.

The reality is that Israeli policy aggressively proclaims a Jewish national state "from the river to the sea". This Zionist Greater Israel policy must be labelled de facto as colonialism in relation to Gaza and the West Bank. For decades, Palestinians have been systematically and brutally oppressed and any prospect of creating a sovereign Palestinian state or an Israeli/Palestinian one-state solution with equal rights for all has been sabotaged. However, without equality and justice for all people in the region there will be no peace.

Therefore, for many Palestinian fusionist:as, the acknowledgement of this nationalist Israeli state is problematic and they cannot share this, at least in the way we have demanded it. We should respect this, not only in the face of over 230 days of traumatic war and the insane anger and grief they feel.

In the newsletter we placed them on the other side of our red line. This was not our intention. In order to recognise this mistake, we first needed a change of perspective.

It was important for us to make our realization on the subject public and we hope that this will help to overcome the emotional disappointment that has arisen.

We also want to write again that, in view of the unforeseeable end of the war and the never-ending suffering and trauma, we are giving a lot of thought to how we want to celebrate Fusion at the end of June. We fully understand that there are people who cannot celebrate now. At the same time, we also recognise that Fusion is a place where people can put the brainfuck of this world away for a few days, if they want to and can. But in order to have a good time together, we all need to be aware and show respect for each other.

We must counter all forms of discrimination at Fusion. This year Jewish and Arab people are particularly vulnerable and if we want to create a space that is as anti-discriminatory as possible for everyone here, we must also be alert together against anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim / anti-Arab / anti-Palestinian discrimination. We will therefore sensitise our security and increase our awareness structure and involve more people of Jewish and Arab/Palestinian identities and backgrounds.

On a further note of self-criticism, we observe with shock and anger the unprecedented restrictions on freedom of protest, speech and opinion, as well as the increasing repression of positions, events and demonstrators critical of Israel, but must criticise ourselves as a cultural institution for not having done enough against this blatant dismantling of basic democratic rights in Germany.

We feel a fundamental sense of solidarity with those around the world who are taking the protest against the war in Gaza and their solidarity with the Palestinian people to the streets and who also want to express this at Fusion, even if we do not always share the same positions.

At the same time, we don't want to be the place to unload the frustration and built-up anger we've experienced over the past weeks and months.

No one needs another political battle zone at Fusion where ­people delegitimise each other or their opinions.

Let's use the festival to recharge our batteries and gather strength for the battles that lie ahead. Let's come together and celebrate in unity instead of growing further apart.

There will be a time after this war and the world still will not be a better place. The question is whether or how people can come together again and overcome these divides, because the struggles against injustice and for a better life will continue!

Fusion could be an opportunity to put some thought into this.

Kulturkosmos