A Foot in Both Worlds

Remarks from last month's Make Freedom Ring concert in Berlin

Last month, I was asked to speak at a concert in Berlin as part of the series Make Freedom Ring. The concert, part of a series across the UK and Germany this year that have been raising funds for Palestinian causes (in this case, SOS Children’s Villages Palestine), has been a rarity in Berlin where German loyalty to Israel has left many cultural institutions mute towards the genocide in Gaza and many performers — even those who support the cause of Palestinian liberation or, at the very least, agree that bombing the shit out of children is generally a bad idea — equally silent on the issue. The brutal police crackdown on civic life here has been well-documented as well. (I’ve written about it. Multiple times.)

What follows is the brief speech I gave to the audience at Kühlhaus Berlin. I began by asking by a show of hands how many people were there primarily for the music and how many were there for the cause (the series in Berlin has included performances from Michael Barenboim, Isabel…