DDGC Reading Group: Sa’ed Atshan and Katharina Galor’s The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, Palestinians

Organizers: Jason Groves, Ervin Malakaj, and Adrienne Merritt

The DDGC collective is hosting an ongoing reading group featuring texts that help us think with artists and academics with vital insights about Palestine. The next installment of the group will feature Sa’ed Atshan and Katharina Galor’s The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, Palestinians (Duke University Press, 2020). 

The official description for the book reads: “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.”

The reading group will meet online. Each participant will find their own way to a copy of the book. It is available through your institutional libraries, available for purchase through your independent bookstore, and in other venues. If you have a hard time finding a copy of the book, reach out to one of the organizers. 

The sign up period for the group is over. If you’d like to join later, reach out to any one of the organizers.

Meeting Schedule

  • Meeting 1, intro and chapters 1-3, Tuesday, April 2, 1-3pm PT/2-4pm MT

  • Meeting 2, chapters 4-6, Tuesday, May 7, 1-3pm PT/2-4pm MT

  • Meeting 3, chapters 7-9, Tuesday, May 28, 1-3pm PT/2-4pm MT

  • Meeting 4, chapters 10-conclusion, Tuesday, June 25, 1-3pm PT/2-4pm MT

Organizer Contact

Jason Groves (jagroves[at]uw.edu)

Ervin Malakaj (ervin.malakaj[at]ubc.ca)

Adrienne Merritt (adrienne.merritt[at]colorado.edu)