01/18/24 01/18/24 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> i am really surprised at what happened to me. i thought i was immune because i was an alumni of indiana university. i think the university administration is more sensitive and responsive to administration pressure from the government

than they are to the welfare of their own community. amy: canceled. today we talk to two palestinian american artists. samia halaby's life first respective three years in the making was canceled by her alma mater indiana university over her opposition to israel's assault on gaza. and we will speak to emily jacir who was scheduled to speak in berlin, germany. we will also talk to german-american jewish holocaust survivor marione ingram who has stood outside the white house for months calling for a gaza ceasefire. her talks in her native germany were canceled. >> apparently, my criticism of israel's actions in gaza has caused the politicians to be very upset. and it turns out criticism of

israel is unacceptable to germans. amy: and we will hear from the russian jewish-american writer masha gessen. a major award ceremony for her was scheduled in germany. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. pakistan's air force has launched retaliatory air strikes on iran as tension continues to escalate across the region. nine people were reportedly killed in iran, including three women and four children. pakistan said the strikes targeted separatist militants based near the iran-pakistan border. the attack came a day after iran bombed members of the sunni militant group jaish al-adl in the pakistani province of balochistan.

on wednesday, iran's foreign minister hossein amir-abdollahian acknowledged iran had carried out recent bombings in both pakistan and iraq. >> our focus is on the iranian terrorists. i discussed with my colleague, the foreign minister pakistan, we respect the integrity pakistan and iraq and will not allow them to play with the security of our country. amy: the u.s. military has attacked yemen for the fourth time in a week, launching ship- and submarine missile strikes on houthi-controlled areas on wednesday. the attack came a day after the biden administration re-designated the houthis, who rule much of yemen, as a global terrorist group. the houthis have been disrupting global shipping routes by carrying out attacks in the red sea and the gulf of aden in an attempt to pressure israel to halt its bombardment of gaza.

meanwhile, u.s. forces are continuing to search for two u.s. navy seals who were lost at sea off the coast of somalia last week after a group of navy seals stopped a ship allegedly containing iranian-made missile parts. in gaza, at least 16 palestinians, including many children, have been killed in an israeli air strike on a home in rafah which had been designated by israel as a so-called safe zone. the families killed had reportedly come to rafah for safety after being displaced three times over the past 100 days. one relative told al jazeera -- "they fled their homes in gaza city to the bureij refugee camp to khan younis before coming to rafah because they thought it was safer." the grandmother of the children killed in the israeli attack spoke outside the bombed-out house. >> i was in the school when the

strike happened at dawn. i came running. i found the rubble. i went to the hospital and found all my grand children have been martyred. all our young children. the biggest one is in second grade and the rest are even younger. what have they done wrong? amy: meanwhile in gaza city, rescuers raced to a home where palestinian children were buried under rubble after an israeli attack. >> in this house, their children. we are trying to get them out since the morning. airstrikes and rockets fall on us. the first two who went in were martyred. what did those children to die like that -- what sin did those children commit to die like that? they were all martyred. the whole house collapsed on them. more than one missile did this area. this was shelled by many missiles at the same time. amy: in other news from gaza, israel has blown up israa

university south of gaza city. according to a post on the school's facebook page, israeli troops had seized the campus months ago and had turned it in to a military base where israel interrogated detained palestinians. there are reports israel has killed another journalist in gaza. palestinian news outlets report wael fannouneh, the manager of al-quds today tv, was killed today in an israeli bombing in gaza city. over 110 journalists have been killed since israel began its assault on gaza following the october 7 hamas attack on israel. on wednesday, u.n. secretary general antonio guterres called again for a ceasefire in gaza. >> i repeat my call for a humanitarian ceasefire and gaza in the process that leads to sustain peace for palestinians. the only way to end the suffering.

amy: in the occupied west bank, israeli forces have killed at least 10 palestinians in a series of military raids. israel launched air strikes on the tulkarem refugee camp and the balata refugee camp as ground troops conducted extensive raids. the palestinian red crescent accused israeli troops of blocking ambulances from reaching the tulkarem refugee camp. the camp has been under siege for over 30 hours. in britain, the house of commons has approved legislation to send some asylum seekers to rwanda even if they have no ties to the african country. the bill declares rwanda is a safe country for asylum seekers despite a recent u.k. supreme court ruling saying the opposite. the bill is expected to face opposition in the house of lords where one member has described the legislation as a "step towards totalitarianism." in washington, d.c., president biden met with congressional

leaders at the white house wednesday in a bid to break through deadlocked negotiations on biden's request for $100 billion in supplemental military funding for israel, ukraine, and taiwan. senate majority leader chuck schumer said he was optimistic about a possible deal following the meeting, while house speaker mike johnson doubled down on house republican demands to further crack down on immigration. saying the proposed senate deal is "dead in the house." in related news, texas has defied a biden administration cease-and-desist order, refusing to dismantle its border barrier near the city of eagle pass on the rio grande. texas troopers took over the 2.5 mile stretch last week, installing fencing, gates, and razor wire. on friday, a mother and her two children aged eight and 10 drowned in the rio grande after border patrol agents were denied access to the area by texas officials acting under orders from republican governor greg

abbott. in ecuador, a prosecutor who was investigating a recent attack on a tv station has been assassinated. cesar suarez was killed in the city of guayaquil on wednesday. this comes less than two weeks after ecuador's president daniel noboa declared a state of emergency due to a surge in violence by drug cartels. in recent days, the slain prosecutor cesar suarez had interviewed 13 gunmen who stormed a live tv set earlier this month and took the staff hostage on air. the u.s. state department has barred former guatemalan president alejandro giammattei from entering the united states over his involvement in "significant corruption." the decision was announced just days after giammattei left office. early on monday, guatemala's new president bernardo arevalo was sworn in despite efforts by

guatemala's attorney general, conservative lawmakers, and elite ruling class who spent months trying to prevent his presidency. arevalo was elected in august after running on an anti-corruption platform. in the united states, the judge in e. jean carroll's defamation trial threatened to expel the former president from the courtroom wednesday for repeatedly disrupting the proceedings. trump could be heard loudly telling his attorney that the trial was a witch hunt and a con job. trump's disruptions came as the writer e. jean carroll took the stand and accused trump of shattering her reputation. a trial last year found trump had sexually abused e. jean carroll in the 1990's and then defamed her. at this new trial, a different jury is determining if trump owes her more money for other acts of defamation. trump's trial is occurring just

ahead of new hampshire's republican primary on tuesday, the first primary in the nation. on wednesday, abc canceled its new hampshire republican debate after former south carolina nikki haley refused to participate if trump did not take part as well. trump has so far refused to -- declined to debate any of his rereblican challengers. haley is facing crcriticm this weekfter claimimg the e ited ates w was never racist country. she made the comment during an interview on fox news. >> are you a racist party? >> no. we are not a racist country. we have never been a racist country. amy: haley's comment comes just weeks after she failed to mention slavery as one of the causes of the u.s. civil war. in other campaign news, a judge in maine has suspended a decision by the state's secretary of state to remove donald trump from the primary ballot for violating the insurrectionist clause of the 14th amendment.

the judge said the u.s. supreme court should weigh in on trump's eligibility first. the high court is hearing oral arguments on february 8. the conservative-led supreme court on wednesday heard arguments in a case that threatens to severely restrict the regulatory authority of federal agencies on issues ranging from environmental protection to guns to healthcare. the case centers around the chevron deference, a precedent established in 1984 which requires courts to defer to an agency's interpretation of laws. fishing companies are challenging the doctrine, long-maligned by corporations and the right. the legal effort is backed by far-right interest groups, including the network of billionaire charles koch. liberal justice elena kagan defended the practice, saying -- "and it's best to defer to people who do know, who have had long experience on the ground, who have seen a thousand of these kinds of situations," kagan said, adding, "and, you know, judges should know what they don't know."

a ruling by the supreme court is expected in the summer. in a major anti-trust ruling, a federal judge in boston has blocked the merger of jetblue and spirit airlines saying the merger would hurt consumers. in his ruling, judge william young wrote, "the airline industry is an oligopoly that has become more concentrated due to a series of mergers." last year, the department of justice and six states sued to stop the merger. the consumer financial protection bureau has proposed a rule that could drastically lower overdraft charges at the nation's largest banks. if approved, many bank customers could see their overdraft fees drop from about $35 to as little as $3. the agency estimates the new rule could save households up to $3.5 billion annually. banking trade groups have decried the proposed rule changes. a new study finds greenland's ice cap is losing an average of

30 million tonnes of ice every hour due to the effects of the climate crisis. researchers with nasa's jet propulsion laboratory published their findings in the journal "nature," which show the ice loss is 20% greater than previously thought. scientists fear the additional freshwater pouring into the north atlantic could lead to a collapse of ocean currents, which would trigger devastating disruptions to global weather patterns, ecosystems, and food security. and azerbaijan, the host country of this year's u.n. climate summit in december, has come under fire after it unveiled its organizing committee for cop29 made up of 28 men and no women. the group she changes climate blasted the regressive decision, saying, "climate change affects the whole world, not half of it." the organizing committee does, however, include oil and gas executives.

earlier this month, azerbaijan's environmental minister mukhtar babayev was named as cop29's president. he previously spent 26 years at the state oil company of the azerbaijan republic, or socar. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. when we come back, canceled. we speak with two palestinian-american artists and a german-american jewish holocaust or fiber who have all been canceled over their support for palestine and opposition to israel's assault on gaza. ♪ [music break]

amy: "saber" by dana hourani. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. over the past three months, artists, writers, cultural workers in the united states and europe have faced a backlash after expressing solidarity for palestine as israel has continued its relentless assault on gaza. talks and performances have been canceled, artworks deinstalled, exhibits removed, and livelihoods threatened. today we speak with two palestinian american artists. one was canceled by her own alma mater, indiana university. the other was canceled in berlin. and we'll speak with a german american jewish holocaust survivor who has stood outside the white house for months calling for a ceasefire in gaza. she was scheduled to speak at a number of schools in her native

hamburg but was told her appearances were canceled we begin with samia halaby, a renowned palestinian visual artist, activist, educator, and scholar. sabia halaby's first u.s. retrospective, which had taken three years to organize, was abruptly canceled by indiana university's eskenazi museum of art over her criticism of israel's bombardment on gaza which she described as a genocide. before we speak with samia about what happened, let's turn to a short documentary about samia's life and work by palestinian-jordanian filmmaker munir atalla. this is samia talking about moving with her family to the united states as a teenager from palestine. >> in 1951, my father and mother had come to the decision it was safer to bring their family up in the u.s. i did not want to come.

i was 14. i could not decide between the sciences. it was my mother who finally said, you always loved art, why don't you study art? i gained tenure at indiana university and decided really i wanted to be in new york. it is hard to pick up and have no money and come to new york, a city i don't know anybody or anything in. i moved in 1976. i continued at the gallery for years. rejection. in this world, people don't see if your palestinian. they see you. they don't like as palestinians. nermeen: this is another clip of samia talking about the process of creating her art and how abstraction can result from a new way of seeing. >> i work on 2, 3, sometimes

four or five paintings at the same time. the paintings begin to permeate my consciousness. the paintings do not arise out of feelings. they arise out of thinking. i am very scientific in the way i think and plan. but when i do them, i trust my intuition. balancing back and forth between what i want to do and which one wins is hard to tell. when a painting is going badly, i'm feeling badly. not because my feelings in the painting. i am reacting to frustration. what is going well, i am happy because i have captured something i wanted to capture. as i was saying about palestine, something remains that i almost feel it with my hands. i put it in the painting.

but it is not a photographic image. it remains visually in memory. what your iphone or cell phone is telling you need take a picture is only a tiny slice of what is in front of it when we take the picture. it is an image of a fragment of time of reality. the new construction can result in a new way -- amy: an excerpt of "samia halaby: a video portrait," a short documentary about the palestinian american artist's life and work. samia halaby's paintings are the national gallery of art and the art institute of chicago. she joins us today in new york. we welcome you to democracy now! we have told a bit of the story but you are one of the most

prestigious palestinian american artists in these permanent are collections around the country. you worked on this for three years. can you tell us what happened right before this was to open? >> thank you. i'm really pleased to be with you and to tell my story and tell the story of what has happened, which is very important also to the community in bloomington and indiana. just merely before a lot of work preparing -- immediately before a lot of work preparing, first, i heard a rumble that someone was paying attention to i was palestinian. other that, i was believing i

was somewhat immune. the sudden, sudden cancellation came as a surprise. it was amazing to know they would go ahead and act in this way when a catalog that is one edge they and hard printed and delivered and plans for the opening were being made -- the artwork was picked up by the shippers. everything was done and so beautifully and excellently. suddenly, a few days after the pickup of the paintings, i hear a very brief notice, two sentence letter, saying the show is canceled and the art will be returned to me. i wrote letters suggesting in friendly terms they reverse this decision but i have not heard a word back from them.

amy, i committed to my relationship to the midwest. the midwest had been a place where i felt was my second home. i really enjoyed my education there. i started as i arrived in the u.s. at age 14. i am 87 now. i remember the university of cincinnati with a great deal of affection for the great education we received there. i remember it being an atmosphere that was very open and radical. my teachers were all inspired by the resistant painters at the time. they were in admiration of the industrial union movement. the great depression was still in people's memory. the professors were all very enlightened and advanced and

talked a lot about academic freedom. my feeling is i wish i could bring that attitude of those professors to modern, contemporary education. maybe i am going on too long, amy, that my feeling to what happened to me, the administration has lost sight of their responsibility to the community, to the students who are there. they are trying to stop students from moving forward with their creative process politically. they are being more responsible to renounce pens from the government and from -- but not at all responsible. the division is taking place in their heavy administrative power but no responsibility to real

community. i feel the students -- oppression of the students right now in the country who are the most advanced, a new partnership between the young palestinians and all they are doing and the young jews and all they are doing. they are so disciplined and determined and clear thinking. i am in admiration for them. i think this act of suspension, of cancellation is as much against them as it is against me and the curator of the show. we mustn't forget about the curator. curator beginning their career to whom this was a very important show, elliott, who was magnificent as was all of the staff at the museum, an deficit in their effort. nermeen: we would like to get

your response to the formal explanation that indiana university, your alma mater where you received your master's degree, the formal response the university gave to why your show was canceled. the provost spoke at a faculty council meeting and addressed the backlash over the decision to cancel your show. he called your exhibit a "potential lightening rod" that could incite protests and said the three months for it to be on view would require long-term security, adding -- "i have to make a decision on keeping a project, a program going when there is a risk of violence or a risk of other incidents, i would err on the side of caution." samia halaby, your response to that? >> well, my response to that is, first of all, they never gave me a reason. they never responded. never even talked to me.

so i got the impression they did not like, from a very brief phone call from the director of the museum, one way or the other by general attitude and support for palestine and criticism of israel and u.s. partnership, u.s.-israel attacking palestine and especially the massacre, believable massacre, destruction of people and of culture, that my anger with that, my support of the palestinians was the cause. i think this idea that they are so terrorized or frightened by needing a lightning rod and the show -- i think the students to their majority were for the show. they were delighted. i think this idea of a lightning rod for trouble is there

imagination, their invention. this propaganda -- invention, i don't see that. museums guard their work and they could've put a second show if there were so frightened. but canceling it, considering all of the grants they received, all of the expenses they went through, it is just not reflective of this kind of fear. museums all over are concerned about art. so, yes, that is my reaction to that. i would like to say some more about what is happening. it connects to art. first of all, i do want to say this is much larger than i am. there is suppression of students throughout the u.s., suppression

of faculty. there is one faculty member at indiana university who has been censored -- censured for a very minor thing as an excuse to his open-mindedness and support of young students. amy: i want to go to that point, samia. i'm looking at a piece in the nation magazine, indiana university did suspend professor come a tenured faculty member, who has taught at iu for almost two decades and until the suspension was a faculty advisor of the psc. alleged mistakes in the filing of a room reservation form to support an event scheduled public lecture, an israeli-american idf veteran and

peace activist. this is amazing. he is the son of a general, well-known known in israel, fought in 1948 and in the six-day war. he was going to speak and so the alleged stakes led the administration to demand cancellation of the event two days before it was scheduled. they went forward anyway and proceeded without a hitch until the administration claimed it was an unauthorized event and the professor was suspended. samia halaby? >> my feeling is that they indict themselves with their own words. when they suspend someone and say the reason is he did something -- made a minor mistake in filling a form requesting space for the event, it is ridiculous. you don't suspend a professor for that kind of thing. then you create a whole range of

excuses to defend the real reason. it is similar to my case. in his case, they are accusing him of ms. filing form. in my case, they say they are worried my show is a lightning rod to hostile activity against the show or discord among the students. it doesn't make sense to me they suspend someone who is highly respected by the students and beloved of the students is unforgivable. it is an indication that there is a huge gap growing between administrative layers and the government and the students, professors, workers, staff, and general population in this country. you see it very clearly. you see huge demonstrations not only in the u.s. but all over the world. in this regard -- the whole disregard of governments to what

the people are asking for is in miniature form taking place at indiana university. this very thing i am talking about, this division in the mind of administration is that they no longer owe anything to the students or faculty or open apis the sphere learning and discourse, differences of opinion is a negative thing. it is a kind of attempted mind control. you can only think that way and then you're ok and you could be a student. but if you want to discourse and see another point of view, you're not allowed. it is very backward. amy: we went to bring in another palestinian-american artist and to this discussion. the artist and filmmaker emily jacir. she was scheduled to speak at

any event in berlin, germany, in october but her appearance was canceled. she is the recipient of prestigious awards including a golden lion at the venice biennale, a prince claus award from the prince claus fund in the hague, the hugo boss prize at the guggenheim museum, and most recently, she won an american academy of arts and letters prize and received an honorary doctorate from ncad in dublin, ireland. she is the founding director of dar yusuf nasri jacir for art and research in bethlehem. welcome to democracy now! it is very good to have you with us. can you talk about what has happened to you -- actually, not here in the united states but in berlin, germany? >> thank you, amy, for having the on your show. it is a pleasure to be here.

i also would like to begin by expressing my solidarity for samia and the loss of her show but also for the curator elliott . he spoke to be at length about this exhibition so i was quite excited about it. i was slated to speak in berlin as part of the workshop at the university. when they canceled the talk, they wrote to me and said they were going to postpone it until a more peaceful time -- to a more peaceful point in time. now listening to samia speak about being a lightning rod, this really resonated with me. this is one of the methodologies that is being used to actually stop us from being able to speak

publicly and share our words and share our work. this is another way of doing it by saying, oh, we will do this at a peaceful time. but this is the time. this is the time when we should be speaking and having discourse across the board around the world. so i don't buy that that was the real reason. again, that also take the curator into consideration and try to imagine what kind of pressure, particularly being in germany, they must have been under. the situation in germany, as we all know, is one of the most extreme cases of silencing palestinians. but it is part of a larger war effort targeting palestinian voices and intellectuals, using

various methodologies, including harassment, baseless smear campaigns, canceling shows, canceling talks. it is very much part of a coordinated movement. nermeen: emily jacir, there have been numerous incidents in germany where people have been canceled for one reason or another having to do with gaza. if you could go through some of those people come in particular, the palestinian artists and writers? >> i think one of the first incidents was shipley, who was slated to receive an award in germany that was within the first week of october, if i remember correctly. the list is quite extensive. my sister's film was canceled within weeks. a film about a wedding.

it was deemed too controversial to show on german television. candace brights, another person -- there are so many. it is endless. nermeen: we want to go to a highly acclaimed writer and author, the award-winning masha gessen, who was also canceled or her award she was to receive an award. we spoke to her in december shortly after the publication of their "new yorker" piece headlined "in the shadow of the holocaust: how the politics of memory in europe obscures what we see in israel and gaza today." in the essay, gessen wrote -- "for the last 17 years, gaza has been a hyperdensely populated, impoverished, walled-in compound where only a small fraction of the population had the right to leave for even a short amount of

time -- in other words, a ghetto. not like the jewish ghetto in venice or an inner-city ghetto in america but like a jewish ghetto in an eastern european country occupied by nazi germany." gessen went on to write about why the term "ghetto" is not commonly used to describe gaza. gessen said -- "presumably, the more fitting term 'ghetto' would have drawn fire for comparing the predicament of besieged gazans to that of ghettoized jews. it also would have given us the language to describe what is happening in gaza now. the ghetto is being liquidated." they had been scheduled to receive the prestigious hannah arendt prize in germany, but the ceremony had to be postponed after one of the award's sponsors, the left-leaning heinrich böll foundation, withdrew its support. gessen discussed the "new yorker" piece and the controversy that followed on democracy now! on the day they had originally been scheduled to receive the award in bremen.

>> a large part of the article is -- the vast anti-semitism machine -- a large part of the article is devoted to, in fact, memory politics in germany and the vast anti-antisemitism machine, which largely targets people who are critical of israel and, in fact, are often jewish. this happens to be a description that fits me, as well. i am jewish. i come from a family that includes holocaust survivors. i grew up in the soviet union very much in the shadow of the holocaust. that's where the phrase in the headline came from, is from the passage in the article itself. and i am critical of israel. now, the part that really offended the heinrich böll foundation and the city of bremen -- and, i would imagine, some german public -- is the part that you read out loud, which is where i make the comparison between the besieged

gaza, so gaza before october 7, and a jewish ghetto in nazi-occupied europe. i made that comparison intentionally. it was not what they call here a provocation. it was very much the point of the piece, because i think that the way that memory politics function now in europe and in the united states, but particularly in germany, is that their cornerstone is that you can't compare the holocaust to anything. it is a singular event that stands outside of history. my argument is that in order to learn from history, we have to compare. like, that actually has to be a constant exercise. we are not better people or smarter people or more educated people than the people who lived 90 years ago. the only thing that makes us different from those people is

that in their imagination, the holocaust didn't yet exist and in ours it does. we know that it's possible. and the way to prevent it is to be vigilant, in the way that hannah arendt, in fact, and other jewish thinkers who survived the holocaust were vigilant and were -- there was an entire conversation, especially in the first two decades after world war ii, in which they really talked about how to recognize the signs of sliding into the darkness. and i think that we need to -- oh, and one other thing that i want to say is that our entire framework of international humanitarian law is essentially based -- it all comes out of the holocaust, as does the concept of genocide. and i argue that that framework is based on the assumption that you're always looking at war, at conflict, at violence through

the prism of the holocaust. you always have to be asking the question of whether crimes against humanity, the definitions of which came out of the holocaust, are recurring. and israel has waged an incredibly successful campaign at setting -- not only setting the holocaust outside of history, but setting itself aside from the optics of international humanitarian law, in part by weaponizing the politics of memory and the politics of the holocaust. amy: that is masha gessen. she was speaking to us from germany. the award ceremony went from an auditorium -- the ultimately. the award in someone's backyard. meanwhile, more than 500 global artist, film makers, and writers and cultural workers have announced a push against germany stays on israel's war on gaza, calling on artists to step back from collaborating with german state-funded association.

the campaigns backed by the french author nobel prize for literature winner and a palestinian poet and activist that alleges germany has adopted "car theist policies that suppress freedoms of expression." we are speaking with emily jacir , whose speech was just canceled in berlin, germany. as we wrap up with you, i want to know if you can comment on what is happening in your birthplace, in bethlehem. the last time we went to bethlehem we were interviewing two pastors there, one who set up christ in the rubble that showed the baby jesus in rubble, signifying guys are. if you could talk about that? and the importance of your art

as you continue. >> i will talk about that but just to relate back to what everyone also was talking about and how you started, i think it is really important to consider the way this attempt at creating a culture of fear amongst the arts community globally and internationally is happening. through these baseless smear campaigns and defamation, threatening people's jobs. i mentioned this because one of the things that happened was that there was a letter writing campaign in which every university i have ever taught at internationally, anyone that has ever given me an award received literally a five page pdf claiming i was in isis terrorist

that supports the rape of women and the killing of babies. people who signed that letter, many of whom were jewish and israeli allies that have worked for for 25 years, also received that letter. in my case, because people know me, they have worked with me for 25 years, the letters come off as just absolutely absurd and ridiculous. but if that is happening to me, it begs the question of what is happening to young artists, people -- people in museums who don't know saving letters like that. it is very targeted and systematic and something to consider also in relationship with the targeted destruction of culture in gaza, art centers been bombed, why would an art

center be bombed? this part of genocide is precisely silencing artist. and silencing cultural production. i feel that was important to say. in bethlehem, the situation is quite difficult. nothing compared to gaza, of course. but we are witnessing incursions every night. it has been -- bethlehem is a town that is very, very much relies on visitors and tourists for its economy. so economically, it has been a disaster. as an art center -- our art center in bethlehem promotes dance and music and art practices and residencies of local artists and international artists. we are doing our very best to both deal with the situation at

hand but also provide a kind of way of working with the children now who live in our neighborhood who are trying to handle the situation. both on the ground in bethlehem but also witnessing what is happening to gaza. amy: emily jacir, thank you for being with us, acclaimed artist and film maker born in bethlehem. goes back and forth between bethlehem and new york. was scheduled to speak and germany and her talk was canceled. and samia halaby is a renowned palestinian visual artist, activist, educator, and scholar. her u.s. retrospective was first abruptly canceled by indiana university's eskenazi museum of art over her support for palestinians and criticism of israel's bombardment on gaza possible we come back, we will be joined by a woman who has

been standing outside the white house for months calling for months colin firth ceasefire in gaza. her talks in her native hamburg which she fled from in the holocaust, have been canceled. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "we are free" by mina samy. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: we turn now to marione ingram, 88-year old holocaust survivor who has been protesting for months outside the white house calling for a ceasefire in gaza. she was scheduled to speak this month at eight ever in schools and her native hamburg, germany. she was planning to address students receiving awards recognizing their commitment to social justice activism. in december, she was told by an event organizer her appearances

were canceled. the trip was eventually postponed until may. amy: marione ingram is author of "the hands of war: a tale of endurance and hope, from a survivor of the holocaust" and also the book "the hands of peace: a holocaust survivor's fight for civil rights in the american south." she is joining us from washington, d.c. i am sorry you had to leave the studio because there was an alarm and put the building and everyone had to evacuate, but you are back now and you have heard the previous guests, two palestinian-american esteemed artist talking about having been canceled like you. samia halaby of indiana university and emily jacir was about to give a talk in berlin. talked about the reason you were given for going back to hamburg, germany, we have gone a number of times come to speak to young people, but the reason why your talks were canceled this month.

>> good morning. a bit of excitement. i heard samia's information of her cancellation. really sorry about that and missed the other because we were evacuated. the reasons for my cancellation have been extremely vague given a climate in germany right now a light of antisemitic events, apparently. and the only concrete explanation i got from someone was that i as a holocaust survivor would be used by the are fd, which is the alternative for germany, which is a neo-nazi

and primarily antisemitic group. i was told they would use my picture in my protest sign in the propaganda -- i can't even figure out what kind of propaganda it would be used for since they're basically nazis and would be destruction. amy: the sign you're talking about is standing outside the white house, survivor says peace not war? >> yes. but on the flipside it says "stop genocide in gaza." that has upset the powers that be. politicians who decide what can be said and what cannot be said.

i have been speaking to students for years and i was also told by several teachers right now my presence, talking to students, is of the utmost importance because the schools in hamburg are so diverse and there are many students who come from countries where there is war, oppression, poverty. and students in really terrible positions of trying to manage what is going on, conflict with each other, and i was told my presence is so important because i have a report with students

and they were looking forward to expressing their thoughts because they know in talking to me and with me that they can say anything that is on their minds without being criticized or ostracized. i find it extremely -- i understand germany's sensitivity because of their gruesome history. but germany has also been the only country community other than rwanda, that has acknowledged its horrific history and it has taught this history as a "never again" thing. we must face our history so we can learn from it. so it is surprising to me germany has chosen to silence

me. but i think the worst part of it is they are silencing young people who are experiencing, especially in germany, they are close to the war in ukraine, they are troubled by what is going on by the war in the mideast, and the horrific slaughter of innocent people. it should be an absolute standstill of all governments when you are told over 10,000 children are being murdered. there is no excuse for that. and then to turn around -- america and germany's support of

israel's politics is extremely disturbing, and to me, frightening. because any time any government decides to silence the voices of people who oppose government policies, whatever they may be, this reminds me so much of my childhood. my childhood was spent in the first 10 years much the same way as the children of gaza. i know exactly what they going through. i know exactly what they are thinking. and this, apparently, has upset the ministry of culture because

i have compared -- amy: we have less than a minute to go. >> the silencing of the last survivor of all three major events in hamburg, the firestorm , the bombing in the european war, and the holocaust where i lost almost all of my family -- the silencing of voices like all of our voices when they are most needed is indicative of something more frightening because i believe when governments decide to silence voices in opposition to the

stance they are taking, then we have to really question very deeply why are they doing it. amy: marione ingram, we have to leave it there but we thank you so much for being with us. 88-year-old jewish german holocaust