Goethe-Institut invites Palestinian author Mohammed El

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The Palestinian author Mohammed El-Kurd in front of his house in Sheikh Jarrah, a district of Jerusalem.

Photo: Corinna Kern / laif

The Goethe-Institut has invited the Palestinian poet, writer and human rights activist Mohammed El-Kurd from a panel discussion in Hamburg.

Actually, El-Kurd should have spoken at the event entitled "Beyond the Lone Offender - Dynamics of the Global Right".

The aim of the event is "to show the effects of right-wing extremist movements and their global entanglements."

The Goethe-Institut wrote on Twitter about the decision to uninvite El-Kurd: »A panel was to be curated by Moshtari Hilal and Sinthujan Varatharajah, who had planned to invite the Palestinian author Mohammed El-Kurd as a speaker.

After careful consideration, the Goethe-Institut decided that Mohammed El-Kurd was not a suitable speaker for this forum: in previous posts on social media, he had made several comments about Israel that the Goethe-Institut found unacceptable.«

After the Goethe Institute had been invited, the two curators of the panel decided to also cancel their participation.

They showed solidarity with Mohammed El-Kurd and accused the Goethe-Institut of having an anti-Palestinian stance, among other things.

"The veto of the Goethe-Institut against Al-Kurd calls into question the actual purpose of this conference," say the curators, and "contributes to a climate of anti-Palestinian racism."

The Goethe-Institut responded to the allegations on Twitter and wrote: "Even if we do not agree with the reasons for their cancellation, we regret and respect their decision."

Now the American writer Ijeoma Oluo has also canceled her participation in the event on Instagram.

She wrote, "You all know I'm not interested in having my name associated with any anti-Palestinian bullshit."

Time Magazine put Mohammed El-Kurd and his sister Muna El-Kurd on the list of the 100 most influential people in 2021.  

The explanatory statement reads: “Through online posts and media appearances, the sibling activists Mohammed and Muna El-Kurd gave the world a glimpse of life under occupation in East Jerusalem this spring and helped bring about an international turnaround in the to trigger rhetoric in relation to Israel and Palestine.«

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