On May 7, the exhibition “Nakba – Flight and Expulsion of Palestinians in 1948” will be opened at the Schwabing Citizen Center Seidl-Villa after months of negotiations, despite strong reservations from the city. The organizers are the Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue Group Munich, the “Women in Black,” and Salam Shalom, the working group for Palestine-Israel. The opening speech will be delivered by the renowned Berlin-based antisemitism researcher Prof. Wolfgang Benz.
Nakba Exhibition Opens Despite Resistance from the City of Munich
- Munich, Germany -
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Although the exhibition has been shown for years in numerous German cities and also at several Evangelical Church Assemblies, receiving much praise, the city of Munich has serious concerns. Nevertheless, due to a ruling by the Federal Administrative Court in 2022 that declared a Munich City Council decision from December 2017 unconstitutional, the city has given up its opposition. The previous City Council decision had prevented events critical of Israeli occupation policy from taking place in municipal spaces for over four years.
The city now distances itself in a statement available on its website from the exhibition, expressing regret that it is legally obligated to allow it. It is explicitly stated that “the Seidl-Villa and the state capital of Munich do not endorse the exhibition’s contents.”
he organizers expect that the city’s “illiberal attitude” will likely further increase public interest in the exhibition.
You can find the statement from the city of Munich here.
