Berlin arts festival explores the utopia of a Middle East Union

The Middle East Union festival is a literary festival that includes musical and queer performances, readings, live panels, and online discussions. The four-day event will be held in Berlin from August 12 to 15. Most sessions are virtual and are free to the public. 

The full program is on our site.

Middle East Union? Utopia within reach

“Berlin is not just a city. It is a political laboratory that establishes a new kind of beginning,” wrote the researcher Amro Ali regarding the exiles from the Middle East who had to leave their homeland as a result of the ongoing protests and the accompanying state repression. But this sentence also applies to us – the Israelis who found the space here in migrant Berlin to create new shared visions, both artistically and politically. But can this creative process bring together people from all over the Middle East?

Even now, as we write this article, we struggle to find the right terminology. After all, terms like “Middle Eastern” can hardly do justice to the diverse communities addressed in this piece.

Nevertheless, we use the term “Middle Eastern” in our festival title, despite the challenges of grouping many identities and different cultures under one name or category. But we want to appropriate this term, give it a more inclusive and not just purely geographical meaning, and thus extend it to Berlin along with the exile communities living here.

The EU as a model for West Asia and North Africa?

The idea of founding a Middle East Union – albeit for the time being only within the constraints of a festival – was born out of our experiences as migrants living within the European Union. Given the complex history of the European continent, decades of colonialism, two world wars and the genocide of European Jews, the European Union can be considered a success: countries separated by wars formed a democratic entity that strives to act on liberal agendas, be they social, economic or political.

Will the inhabitants of the Middle East also be able to come together and build a Middle East Union that is guided by a similar vision, namely a unified humane, economic, and social framework under which the Middle Eastern states unite?

Colonial border demarcations and war campaigns have plunged the Middle East into a permanent state of crisis. Most recently, in May of this year, there were mass protests against the eviction of families in East Jerusalem, followed by clashes between the Hamas government in Gaza and the state of Israel. The riots that broke out in mixed Jewish and Palestinian towns forced us to think again about how intolerable the living conditions in Israel-Palestine are for all residents. Apart from this specific case, which is of particular concern for us, the curators of the festival, there are numerous other conflicts and civil wars in the region, whose outcomes are still uncertain.

Will the inhabitants of the Middle East also be able to come together and build a Middle East Union guided by a similar vision, namely a unified humane, economic, and social framework under which the Middle Eastern states unite?

Colonial border demarcations and war campaigns have put the Middle East in a permanent state of crisis. Most recently, in May of this year, there were mass protests against the eviction of families in East Jerusalem, followed by fighting between the Hamas government in Gaza and the state of Israel. The riots that broke out in mixed Jewish and Palestinian towns forced us to think again about how intolerable the living conditions in Israel-Palestine are for all residents. Apart from this specific case, which is close to the hearts of us, the curators of the festival, there are numerous other conflicts and civil wars in the region, the outcome of which is still open.

The festival aspires to a utopian goal: It aims to connect and bridge between different identities and regions that at present seem impossible to connect. We wish to posit the question of what would have happened in the Middle East if it had not been occupied by European powers for all those years? What civil wars could have been avoided if territories had not been divided along horizontal, symmetrical dividing lines according to the wishes of European imperialists? Borders cut across communities, families, and cultures without the slightest humane rationale.

In the context of our festival, we ask ourselves these questions: what can connect and unite the different communities living in the Middle East? What vision do we aspire to for this region? What organization can we establish to advance our goals, whether they are economic, human, or concern with the future of the entire planet?

With our festival, we want to strengthen the dialogue on the following utopian idea: What might the Middle East Union look like, if it ever comes into being? What will it strive for? How would natural resources be distributed among the states of the region, which are already collapsing from the effects of the climate crisis?

What legislative changes could meet the needs of all members of the Union, including women, LGBTQI people, children, and refugees? What could we learn from the European Union, and which of its shortcomings should we avoid? What innovations could we introduce, and what could we offer, perhaps even teach, to the European Union?

This debate must take place

Today, while the global human reality is unbearable, while natural disasters afflict us all over the planet, while a terrible virus rages and the Southern Hemisphere begs for vaccine doses; while international migratory movements from the South and East to the North and West continue to claim many lives every day, we wanted to pause for a moment and create a space for conversation on new ways of reflection.

As foreigners, we are aware of the issues that underlie this debate in front of a German rather than our domestic audience. But this debate must take place and stand on its own two feet so that the hidden, forgotten and repressed opportunity of the whole region, united behind a common higher purpose, can be talked about.

One of the examples of the idea of the Middle East Union lies in the present bi-national artistic works like the pro-Palestinian progressive cinematography of Udi Aloni. Aloni worked with Juliano Mer Khamis in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. He later created a film that envisioned cultural resistance and a renaissance of Palestinian contemporary actors like Maryam Abu Khaled. Abu Khaled was not only a character in his documentary “Art/Violence,” but directed the film (along with Batoul Taleb). This is an act of getting equal recognition and a message for future generations. The story of the Jenin refugee camp was brought into the Israeli sphere and connected 48 Palestinians with 67 Palestinians, or Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.  

His more recent movie “Junction 48” (2016) was co-written by Palestinian rapper Tamer Nafer who also played the lead in the movie. It was based on his life. The film explores questions around bi-national politics and aesthetics. This is a seed to understand what will come one day after a just and true peace is reached between Israelis and Palestinians.

We invite all interested to join us from August 12 to 15, 2021 to take the first step and think of utopias.

This piece was translated from German to English by Joey Bahlsen.

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