Rosa Luxemburg Foundation's Palestine and Jordan staff slam silence on Gaza

Employees at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation's Palestine and Jordan regional office have slammed the stance taken by the foundation on Israel's war on Gaza, and the "silencing [of] Palestinian voices within the organisation".

They say this contradicts the foundation's commitment to justice and human rights, according to an internal letter from staff at the regional office to the management of the German foundation and its offices around the world.

 Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, The New Arab's Arabic-language sister edition, obtained a copy of the letter after it was leaked in German.

Israel's indiscriminate strikes against the Gaza Strip have killed over 9,000 Palestinians, including 3,740 children since October 7, when Hamas killed hundreds of Israelis in a surprise attack on southern Israel.

Scores of residential buildings, places of worship, and hospitals have been partially or fully destroyed in Gaza by the relentless bombardment.

"We write this letter with a fierce determination (...) as we bear witness to the ongoing genocide in Palestine affecting us both as Palestinians and as employees of Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS) (the foundation's German name)" the letter said.

"In the past 17 days, every seven minutes a Palestinian is killed in Gaza including infants in incubators" continued the letter, pointing out that the staff felt "acutely the stifling of our fundamental right to express our anguish."

The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation is one of six political foundations in Germany which have links to political parties and is affiliated with the democratic socialist Left Party (Die Linke).

It was founded in 1990 and named after the socialist revolutionary activist Rosa Luxemburg and advocates mainstream democratic socialism with an international focus.

However, although the foundation considers itself committed to a radical left-wing, anti-fascist and anti-racist perspective, its Palestine and Jordan staff questioned "the refuge it offers its Palestinian staff".

"Regrettably, our headquarters has yet to issue a clear condemnation of the ongoing genocide in Palestine," the staff said. "This silence is disconcerting, particularly because we have Palestinian colleagues and partners who live in Gaza."

"The systematic suppression of Palestinian voices and the perpetuation of the oppressor's narrative are dishearteningly familiar," they said in the letter.

"Recent posts, such as the one on RLS Global's Instagram page dated October 19, 2023, reposting the words of the director of RLS, under the title 'Amidst the horror, progressive voices in Israel-Palestine break through the logic of escalation', leave us questioning: What Palestinian voices? Our voices are silenced, denied a platform to be heard. This is our stark reality."

The letter pointed out that this post was written soon after an attack on Gaza's Al-Ahli Baptist hospital which killed at least 471 people.

The position taken by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation has caused consternation among several partner institutions in the Arab world in recent days. Some Tunisian institutions have decided to boycott the German socialist organisation.

Three Tunisian organisations - Cartographie Citoyenne, Media Workshop, and the Observatory for Food and Environmental Sovereignty -  issued a joint statement condemning  "equating the [Israeli] oppressor with the Palestinian victims dispossessed of their land".

They declared they were severing ties with Rosa Luxemburg and would not engage in any future partnerships.

The letter by the Palestine and Jordan office staff said: "The anguish is most pronounced when we are systematically denied our voice, and our collective suffering is relegated to oblivion within the annals of one of the darkest and most grotesque chapters in human history - the ongoing genocide in Palestine."

"With unity and unwavering resolve, we implore RLS worldwide to lend its voice to the global outcry for an end to the ongoing genocide and to stand resolutely in solidarity with your Palestinian colleagues. We hope that history will celebrate this act of revolutionary, just, and resolutely socialist commitment."

This article is based on an article that appeared in our Arabic edition by Rabeea Eid on 27 October 2023. To read the original article click here.