‘If Gaza Burns, Berlin Burns’—Transregional Solidarity Between Appeal, Accountability and Belonging

Despite being embedded in longstanding structures of oppression and occupation, the genocide in Gaza is experienced across the globe as a critical juncture that unsettles prior categorizations of violence in Palestine. Those mobilizing in solidarity with Gaza’s besieged population navigate a complex multilevel arena, balancing pragmatic considerations with moral commitments, and outward persuasion with internal expectations of protests as spaces of accountability and mourning. This balancing act has been particularly challenging in Germany, where respecting the country’s historic responsibility and expressing solidarity with Palestinians have been misconstrued as a zero-sum game. This article examines these dynamics through the case of Berlin, drawing on a combination of event data, participant observation, and narrative interviews to analyze the collective action logics shaping Palestine solidarity in the German capital. It argues that in contexts of repression and institutional erasure, purely strategy-oriented conceptions of social mobilization fail to capture an essential element of transregional solidarity. Rather than just functioning as a mechanism for pressuring policy, Palestine solidarity protests assume a crucial dual role as spaces of appeal that simultaneously assert accountability and belonging in an environment marked by exclusion, marginalization, and state violence.