Event



CANCELLED: The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, and Palestinians

Sa'ed Atshan, Katharina Galor
Apr 21, 2020 at | Annenberg School for Communication, Rm 111 | 3620 Walnut St

Sponsored by
Middle East Center, co-sponsored by: Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures and Jewish Studies Program

The Middle East Film Festival has been CANCELLED due to the circumstances surrounding COVID-19. It is important to the Middle East Center that we respect and prioritize the health and safety of our community.


See here for Penn's COVID-19 response guidelines.




Berlin is home to Europe’s largest Palestinian diaspora community and one of the world’s largest Israeli diaspora communities. Germany’s guilt about the Nazi Holocaust has led to a public disavowal of anti-Semitism and strong support for the Israeli state. Meanwhile, Palestinians in Berlin report experiencing increasing levels of racism and Islamophobia. In The Moral Triangle, Sa’ed Atshan and Katharina Galor draw on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with Israelis, Palestinians, and Germans in Berlin to explore these asymmetric relationships in the context of official German policies, public discourse, and the private sphere. They show how these relationships stem from narratives surrounding moral responsibility, the Holocaust, the Israel/Palestine conflict, and Germany’s recent welcoming of Middle Eastern refugees. They also point to spaces for activism and solidarity among Germans, Israelis, and Palestinians in Berlin that can help foster restorative justice and account for multiple forms of trauma. Highlighting their interlocutors’ experiences, memories, and hopes, Atshan and Galor demonstrate the myriad ways in which migration, trauma, and contemporary state politics are inextricably linked.