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The Berlin International Literature Festival is appealing for a worldwide reading of Mahmoud Darwish's poetry on 5 October 2008. The activities accompanying this event are designed not only to honour the poet's body of work but also his commitment to promoting peaceful and fair coexistence between Arabs and Israelis. This appeal is directed at cultural institutions, radio stations, schools, universities, theatres and all other Darwish enthusiasts the world over.

Mahmoud Darwish was one of the best-loved Arab lyricists of modern times and counts among the most eminent poets in the history of world literature. Thousands flocked to hear his readings, and his volumes of poetry have been published in the hundreds and thousands. Numerous pieces have been translated into more than 30 different languages. His poems have been transformed into folksongs and many of his verses have taken on the character of proverbs.

Darwish's poetry draws inspiration from the tradition of ancient Arab poetry and Modernist influences and borrows from the style and language of both the Qur'an and the Bible. Few other poets have displayed such dedication to articulating a vision of a meaningful, real and fair peace between Arabs and Israelis, which furthers a dialogue between two voices and two different outlooks on life, while ensuring that one does not impose its view upon the other.

In the tradition of ancient Arab poetry, the poet assumes the role of spokesperson for his people. And despite Darwish's move away from this role since the 1990s, many readers still viewed him as Palestine's literary ambassador to the last.

Mahmoud Darwish was born in 1941 in the village of Al-Birweh near Acre. In 1948, he fled to Lebanon and returned after the foundation of the state of Israel. He worked as an editor for various political and cultural journals in Haifa. After being imprisoned on numerous occasions, he left Israel in 1970 and went into exile. He has lived in Moscow, Cairo, Beirut, Paris and, most recently, in Amman and Ramallah. In 1987, he was elected to the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and helped draft the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988. He left the organization in 1993 in protest against the signing of the Oslo Accords. He received numerous awards, including the Lannan Prize for Cultural Freedom in
2001 and the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize in 2003.
Darwish died on 9 August 2008 following heart surgery. He was buried in the West Bank city of Ramallah and granted a state funeral.

To sign up for the reading please contact: worldwidereading@literaturfestival.com

The appeal has been signed by:

Hector Abad, Colombia; Tariq Ali, Pakistan; Amal al-Jubouri, Iraq/Germany; John Ashbery, USA; Margaret Atwood, Canada; Daniel Barenboim, Argentina/Germany; Bei Dao, China/USA; Mohammed Bennis, Morocco; Philipp Blom, Germany/Austria; Rachid Boudjedra, Algeria; Breyten Breytenbach, South Africa; André Brink, South Africa; Monika Carbe, Germany; Dilip Chitre, India; John M. Coetzee, South Afrika; Edgardo Cozarinsky, Argentina; Nuruddin Farah, Somalia/South Africa; Enrique Fierro, Uruguay; Jon Fosse, Norway; Antje Grabenhorst, Germany; Nadine Gordimer, South Africa; Ha Jin, China; Qassim Haddad, Bahrain; Milton Hatoum, Brazil; Seamus Heaney, Ireland; Mofidul Hoque, Bangladesh; Jabbar Yassin Hussin, Iraq/France; Nancy Huston, Canada/France; Elfriede Jelinek, Austria; Adel Karasholi, Syria/Germany; Navid Kermani, Germany; Friedrich Kröhnke, Germany; Abdellatif Laabi, Morocco/France; Zakes Mda, South Africa; Pauline Melville, Guyana/Great Britain; Paul Muldoon, Northern Ireland/USA; Charl-Pierre Naudé, South Africa; Claudia Ott, Germany; Michael Palmer, USA; Shailja Patel, Kenya; Jean Portante, Luxemburg; Fernando Rendón, Colombia; Alberto Ruy-Sánchez, Mexico; Joachim Sartorius; Germany; K.S. Satchidanandan, India; Nasrin Siege, Iran/Germany; Wole Soyinka, Nigeria; Shashi Tharoor, India; Lina Tibi, Syria; Tzvetan Todorov, Bulgaria/France; Anne Waldmann, USA; Marina Warner, Great Britain; Eliot Weinberger, USA; Renate Welsh-Rabady, Austria; Yang Lian, China/Great Britain

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Appeal for a worldwide reading on March 20, 2008

For the third time the Peter Weiss Foundation for Art and Politics calls upon cultural institutions, theatres and interested individuals to join in a worldwide reading on March 20th, the anniversary of the political lie. The essay “In Memory of the Forgotten” by the Chinese writer Lu Xun (1881-1936) will be read.

It is especially meaningful now, right before the Olympic Games (August 8-24, 2008 in Beijing), to draw attention to the censorship, the silence decreed on matters related to China’s most recent history, Tibet, the enormously high number of death sentences, the collaboration with the regime in Sudan and, not least, the imprisonment of civil rights activists. As recently as three weeks ago the 34 year-old activist Hu Jia, known for his commitment to human rights and rights for those infected by HIV, was put in prison after a six-month house arrest.

China is a country without any memory when it comes to certain issues. The majority of those who grew up in China in the nineties have no clear notion of what happened during the massacre in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. Research into the Cultural Revolution is forbidden. Public commemoration of the 500,000 intellectuals who were imprisoned or sent to labour camps during the Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1956-57 is also not allowed. The regime preaches harmony. Because he continually called upon the Chinese to remember their past, the regime slowly grew suspicious of Lu Xun, who had always been presented as a strong supporter of the Revolution.

In the summer of 2007, after Lu Xun’s work vanished from the reading lists of a few American universities, China’s minister of education ordered certain of his texts, those that had been read out on June 4, 1989, to be struck from schoolbooks and substituted by the feudal sagas of Jin Yong. Lu Xun was already threatened by censorship during his lifetime. Even after 1949 his work and photos were edited and reinterpreted due to political circumstances.

The aim of our events and activities is to raise awareness of the form and content of political communication. Since lies belong to the equipment of political groups at the start of the twenty-first century, it is crucial that the strength of those who protest against them is not weakened.

On occasion of the third anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, the Peter Weiss Foundation initiated for the first time a worldwide reading on March 20, 2006. On this “anniversary of the political lie” Eliot Weinberger’s text “What I Heard about Iraq” was read at events and over the radio. On March 20, 2007 over 1.2 million people listened to two reportages by Anna Politkovskaya.

On March 20, 2008 the text by Lu Xun will be submitted in all universal languages by the Peter Weiss Foundation for Art and Politics. To sign up for this reading on the third anniversary of the political lie please contact: info@peterweissstiftung.de

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Appeal for a worldwide reading on September 9, 2007

The human rights abuses in Zimbabwe go back to the early 80s, when Robert Mugabe implemented the Gukurahundi operation - the bloody murder of more than 20.000 Ndebele people. Since 2000 he has been responsible for the eviction of white farmers from their land, actions which have led to corn shortages and, consequently, to terrible famine. During the Murambatsvina (filth removal) campaign of 2005, Mugabe responded to the opposition's demonstrations by having several slums bulldozed. Hundreds of opposition members and dissidents have been arrested, kidnapped or tortured. A general ban on demonstrations has been in force since February 2007. The freedom of the press is extremely limited and there is discrimination against foreign media. Mugabe influenced the election by means of violence and absolute control in such a way that fear was caused to everyone who voted for the opposition. In mid-March 2007 Zimbabwe's most important opposition party leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, was arrested during a protest rally and later severely beaten in custody.

Only a decade ago Zimbabwe had been one of the richest and most developed countries in Africa, with the highest educational standards on the continent and a literacy rate of almost 85%. Over recent years Mugabe has led his country to economic collapse and his people into bitter poverty. Officially, Zimbabwe's inflation rate is 3700%, the highest in the world. The unemployment rate is 80%. With an average life expectancy of 34 years for women and 37 years for men, Zimbabwe has become the country with the lowest life expectancy in the world.

Through this reading the international literature festival berlin would like to help draw attention to the situation in this post colonial country. The reality of Zimbabwe had been concealed long enough, unfortunately also by members of the political class in South Africa, which shoulders a special responsibility in this matter.

We would like to ask for your support for our project and we appeal to radio stations, schools, universities, theatres and other cultural institutions in Africa and all over the world to read poems by Chenjerai Hove, Chirikuré Chirikuré and Dumbudzo Marecharas, Elinor Sisulu's foreword written for the book "Gukurahundi in Zimbabwe: A Report on the Disturbances in Matabeleland and the Midlands 1980-1988" (Johannesburg 2007). It attacks the silence, the result of a false sense of solidarity, which is one of the bases of Mugabe's power. Everybody is authorised to use the attached texts and poems in readings and performances as all the rights are open on September 9, 2007.

This appeal has been signed by:

Hector Abad, Colombia; Ali Abdollahi, Iran; Meena Alexander, India/USA; Tariq Ali, Pakistan/U.K.; Eugenijus Alisanka, Lithuania; Maria Teresa Andruetto, Argentina; Yuri Andrukhovych, Ukraine; Hanan Al-Shaykh, Lebanon/U.K.; Homero Aridjis, Mexico; Jorge Luis Arzola, Cuba/Germany; John Ashbery, USA; Margaret Atwood, Canada; Hanan Awwad, Palestine; Ricardo Azevedo, Brazil; Alessandro Baricco, Italy; Jeanne Benameur, France; Zofia Beszczynska, Poland; Piedad Bonnett, Colombia; Breyten Breytenbach, South Africa/France/Senegal; André Brink, South Africa; Martha Brooks, Canada; Pam Brown, Australia; Melvin Burgess, U.K.; Ian Buruma, Netherlands/USA; José Anibal Campos, Cuba; Raúl Antonio Capote, Cuba; Patricia Cavalli, Italy; Gianni Celati, Italy; Dilip Chitre, India; J.M. Coetzee, South Africa/Australia; Bora Cosic, Germany/Croatia; Edgardo Cozarinsky, Argentina; Alonso Cueto, Peru; Bei Dao, USA/China; Mahmoud Darwish, Palestine; Siddhartha Deb, India; Don DeLillo, USA; Xabier P. DoCampo, Spain; Ariel Dorfman, Chile; Tishani Doshi, India; Finuala Dowling, South Africa; Arkadii Dragomoshchenko, Russia; Dave Eggers, USA; Asli Erdogan, Turkey; Jeffrey Eugenides, USA/Germany; J. Glenn Evans, USA; Nuruddin Farah, Somalia/South Africa; Raymond Federman, USA; Enrique Fierro, Uruguay/USA; Christoph Fleischer, Germany; Jonathan Safran Foer, USA; Jon Fosse, Norway; Carlos Franz, Chile/Spain; Greg Gatenby, Canada; Jochen Gerz, Germany/ France; Natasza Goerke, Poland/Germany; Nadine Gordimer, South Africa; Ronnie Govender, South Africa; Jorie Graham, USA; Günter Grass, Germany; Ha Jin, China; Ulla Hahn, Germany; Ulf Peter Hallberg, Sweden/Germany; Philip Hammial, Australia; Aziz Hassim, South Africa; Milton Hatoum, Brazil; Paal-Helge Haugen, Norway; Hannes Heer, Germany; Daniel Hevier, Slovakia; Nick Hornby, U.K.; Jaime Huenún, Chile; David Huerta, Mexico; Jabbar Yassin Hussein, Iraq/France; Nancy Huston, Canada; Eirik Ingebrigtsen, Norway; Drago Jancar, Germany; Louis Jensen, Denmark; Keorapetse Kgositsile, South Africa; Ulrike Kistner, Germany/South Africa; Ko Un, Korea; Ingrid de Kok, South Africa; Nicole Krauss, USA; Ekkehart Krippendorff, Germany; Antjie Krog, South Africa; Hari Kunzru, U.K.; Goretti Kyomuhendo, Uganda; Simon Levy, USA; Vyvyane Loh, Malaysia/USA; Prof. Arno Lustiger, Germany; Chiara Macconi, Italy; Claudio Magris, Italy; Jamal Mahjoub, U.K./Denmark; Norman Manea, Romania/USA; Angeles Mastretta, Mexico; Federica Matta, France; Zakes Mda, South Africa; Abdelwahab Meddeb, Tunisia/France; Pauline Melville, U.K.; Amanda Michalopoulou, Greece; Poni Micharvegas, Argentina; Pankaj Mishra, India/USA; Adrian Mitchell, U.K.; Paul Muldoon, USA; Verónica Murguia, Mexico; Alberto Mussa, Brazil; Azar Nafisi, Iran/USA; Nabil Naoum, Egypt; Marie N`Diaye, France; Per Nilsson, Sweden/Denmark; Cees Nooteboom, Netherlands; Wilfried N'Sondé, Congo/Germany; Elsa Osorio, Argentina/Spain; Amos Oz, Israel; Michael Palmer, USA; Thorsten Palzhoff, Germany; Hagar Peeters, Netherlands; Hans Pienaar, South Africa; Henning J. Pieterse, Netherlands; Antonio José Ponte, Cuba; José Prats, Mexico; José Manuel Prieto, Cuba; Francine Prose, USA; Tania Quintero, Cuba/Switzerland; Laura Restrepo, Colombia; Adrienne Rich, USA; Raúl Rivero, Cuba/Spain; Santiago Roncagliolo, Peru; Alberto Ruy Sanchez, Mexico; Rolando Sánchez Mejías, Cuba/Spain; Faraj Sarkohi, Iran/Germany; Joachim Sartorius, Germany; K.S. Satchidanandan, India; Peter Schneider, Germany; Eugene Schoulgin, Norway; Hermann Schulz, Germany; Thomas Schwarz, Germany; Eduardo Sguiglia, Argentina; Ishtiyaq Shukri, South Africa; Nicholas Shakespeare, U.K.; Nasrin Siege, Iran/Germany; Manuel Sosa, Cuba/USA; Peter Stamm, Switzerland; Manil Suri, USA/India; Matthew Sweeney, Ireland/U.K.; Tajima Shinji, Japan; Veronique Tadjo, France/U.K.; Nathaniel Tarn, U.K./USA; Paulo Teixeira, Portugal; Ivan Thays, Peru; Annika Thor, Sweden; Peter Torberg, Germany; Jutta Treiber, Austria; Tenzin Tsundue, Tibet/India; John Updike, USA; Jane Urquhart, Canada; Chiara Valerio, Italy; Carolyn van Langenberg, U.K./Australia; Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru; Haris Vlavianos, Greece; Ornela Vorpsi, Albania; Abdourahman Waberi, Djibouti/France; Cécile Wajsbrot, France/Germany; Eliot Weinberger, USA; Renate Welsh-Rabady, Austria; Cao Wenxuan, China; Herbert Wiesner, Germany; Gernot Wolfram, Germany; Yang Lian, China/U.K.; Péter Zilahy, Hungary.

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June and July 2007 – Nationwide event series to the issues “fairy-tale” and “death”



On the occasion of the „Year of the Arts and Humanities“, brought into being by the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education, the Peter Weiss Foundation for Art and Politics e.V. in cooperation with the International Literature Festival in Berlin applied for a project and just received an official grant.

There will be six events across Germany themed “fairy-tale“ and “death” that take place at castles and grave yards in June and July 2007.

“Fairy-tale” and “death” – two mythical issues. In an inspiring combination of readings and intellectual debates we will open up new and exciting perspectives on the Arts and Humanities and reveal their potential to an interested public. Through reference to well-known and familiar themes, complicated questions of philology, philosophy and other specialised areas will be avoided. Thereby, the Arts and Humanities will be represented in public dialogue in an non-university-based way. Popular actors and journalists will support the humanities specialists with their presentations.

The themes “fairy-tale“and “death“ are universal and embrace a range of academic fields, creating an exciting interdisciplinary dialogue. Specialists involved represent the following subjects: philosophy, different philologies, ethnology, cultural and religious studies.

The readings and discussions will be presented nationwide in three stages at extraordinary locations: such as: castles, palaces and graveyards. This will create an attractive and direct relation to the chosen subjects and the events will benefit from an authentic atmosphere.

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March 20, 2007: Worldwide Reading – in memoriam of Anna Politkovskaya


1.2 Million People attended the Worldwide Reading in memory of Anna Politkovskaya on March 20, 2007 - on the radio and at events

The worldwide reading in memory of Anna Politkovskaya took place at 80 venues in 21 countries on all continents, on March 20th. 15 radio stations participated by broadcasting readings, interviews and reportages. Nobel prize winner Elfriede Jelinek's reading was aired by Deutschlandradio. The event reached around one million of listeners in Russia, Georgia and Eastern Europe via Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Further radio stations in Australia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Columbia, Poland, the USA and Luxemburg reported about the event.

The readings were sold out for the most part. In many places they were followed by discussions on human rights and the freedom of press. Some institutions also remembered the journalist Hrant Dink, who was murdered in January 2007. The last reading took place in the Australian La Mama Courthouse Theatre in Melbourne - in the following morning, Greenwich Mean Time. The Berlin based Peter Weiss Foundation for Art and Politics assumes that around 8000 people visited the events worldwide.

The campaign was supported by Reporters without Borders, the PEN Writers in Prison Committee, other PEN centers in various countries, the international literature festival berlin, by the Goethe-Institut and the German Writers' Union. (Please see Participants)