Here is a short report about our vigil in Berlin. The first step has been taken:
We were able to have a wonderful experience with 60 women and a few men at the Memorial in Berlin. In the following link you will find a short film about the action in Berlin and also a parallel vigil that took place in Tamera.
Despite fears and differences of opinion, we were able to unite in a powerful vigil in silence – always ready to clarify where in us the willingness to react and also the fear is activated, and how we go beyond that to unite in the decision that any form of war is not an answer. The action was intended to support and make visible the vision of “Women in White”, which was brought into the world by Aida Shibli and Miki Kashtan. Prior to this, I had led a seminar in Chorin together with Hanna Milling on the topic of “Women’s Rage and its Transformation”. Here we also touched on the topic of our role as Germans.
This led to a statement that was made specifically by some women.
Klick here to see the statement!
This statement, of course, also triggered reactions.
I will mention some of the many topics that were touched upon in preparatory discussions with Israelis, Palestinians, Germans and also internationals.
Is it appropriate to hold a vigil at the memorial and demand a ceasefire right there?
Does it even make sense to demand anything from politicians?
Why words, isn’t our shared silence powerful enough?
Is it appropriate to speak of genocide?
Why do you focus so much on the Gaza issue, the genocide is happening worldwide!
What do you associate with the idea of ending Zionism? Do we even know what Zionism is?
These and many other questions were touched upon – and in some cases also provoked emotional reactions. We succeeded in not falling into polarization, but rather into the determined power of non-violence and, above all, into the vision of what the best possible outcome could be. It was very powerful to walk through the memorial and almost feel the souls that had to lose their lives under unimaginable circumstances. You are touched by the eternal vibration of life and the utter senselessness of war.
I felt very close to Etty Hillesum with the words she formulated shortly before her death in the concentration camp: “The misery is truly great; and yet I often walk along the barbed wire with springy steps in the late evening, when the day has sunk into the depths behind me, and then it always wells up in me up again and again from the bottom of my heart – I can’t help it, it’s just the way it is, it’s an elemental force: life is something magnificent and great, we have to build a whole new world later – and we have to counter every further crime, every further cruelty with a further piece of love and kindness that we have to conquer within ourselves. “We may suffer, but we must not break under it.”
I share this exclamation with her, it is the motivation that continues to give me strength and courage to seek the path of nonviolence. It lies beyond religion, nation or religion. It is an outcry of life and comes from the inner ethics of life and a human heart.
Sabine Lichtenfels