Berlin-financed NGO Cancels Talk with ‘Antisemitic’ Activist Manal Tamimi

An Iranian refugee NGO that is financed by the capital municipality canceled an event with the allegedly antisemitic Palestinian and pro-BDS activist Manal Tamimi, Berlin’s cultural senator Klaus Lederer confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

The slated talk named “Women Under Occupation – A Talk with Manal Tamimi” was supposed to be held the same day.

“The Iranian Refugees Association e.v. canceled today’s event in its space after feedback from its executive board and informed the event organizer,” wrote Lederer, a politician from the Left Party who has campaigned against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting the Jewish state.

Jutta Ditfurth, German ecological activist and co-founder of the German Green Party, asked Lederer on Tuesday on her popular Twitter feed: “Is this Antisemite, who wants to murder all Jews, allowed to travel to Berlin and appear?”

Tamimi, who has been accused of hardcore antisemitism by European Jews and other critics, is the aunt of Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi, who just completed an eight month prison term for assaulting Israeli soldiers.

In 2015, Manal Tamimi posted on her Twitter account in connection with Yom Kippur: “Vampirezionist celebrating their Kebore day [sic] by drinking Palestinian bloods [sic], yes our blood is pure & delicious but it will kill u at the end.”

She tweeted from Berlin on Wednesday to her 5,364 followers: “Following the recent events surrounding my talk, I would like 2 make it clear that nobody will silence the voice of Palestinians and our struggle 4 freedom,justice & equality.

“Everyone is welcome 2 come & listen or express their opinion tonight at 7pm at Jockel Biergarten”

On Monday, she wrote: “Go BDS” in response to a letter from musicians urging a boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Israel in 2019.

After an Arab-Israeli terrorist murdered two people and wounded seven at a bar in Tel Aviv in 2016, Tamimi wrote: “#TelAviv under fire – There are no safe place these zionist [sic] can hide in.”

Tamini also tweeted in 2015: “I do hate israel, i do hate zionism, i wish a third Intefada coming soon and people rais up and kills all these zionist settlers everywhere.”

In response to the Post’s investigative series on BDS in Berlin and across Germany, the capital implemented a policy in 2017 banning publicly funded-organizations from hosting pro-BDS speakers.

According to Tamimi’s tweet, she will hold her talk at a public beer restaurant.

The Jewish community in Vienna wrote on its web page that “Tamimi propagates antisemitic cartoons, and refers frequently to Israel as a Nazi state.”

The 46-year-old mother of four, Tamimi is described on the Berlin event notice of the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network as “a long-time activist from Nabi Saleh, who has been active in the village’s struggle since its inception. She herself was imprisoned and injured, and several of her children are currently in jail. Manal is not only active in the struggles on the ground, but also, through social media and appearances, in bringing the cause of the struggle abroad. In the talk she will discuss the role of women in the resistance, experiences of imprisonment and oppression, and the possibilities of practical solidarity with Palestine in Europe.”

After the disclosures of Tamimi’s anti-Jewish writings,the UN agency dismissed her from its list of “human rights defenders.” The Qatar-regime owned and directed Al Jazeera network, which has been engulfed in a series of antisemitism scandals, called Tamimi a “Palestinian supermom.”

The event with Tamimi is organized by Gefangeninfo and the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

The Iranian Refugees Association did not immediately answer a Post media query about its cancellation of the Tamimi event.

Benjamin Weinthal is a fellow for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow Benjamin on Twitter @BenWeinthal. 

Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD. FDD is a Washington-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.