New Delhi: Germany’s ambassador to Pakistan, Alfred Grannas, was speaking about ‘Safeguarding civil rights in South Asia’ at the Asma Jahangir Conference in Lahore on Saturday when an audience member heckled him.
“I’m shocked by the audacity that you are here to talk about civil rights, while your country is brutally abusing the people for speaking for the rights of the Palestinians,” the man shouted from the audience.
The authorities immediately restrained him as Grannas condemned him from the podium. “If you want to shout, go out. There you can shout because shouting is not a discussion,” he said.
In a clip circulating online, the man and his partner can be heard chanting the Palestinian freedom slogan ‘From the river to the sea’ while being evicted from the venue.
This volatile reaction comes in the wake of German police clearing a pro-Palestinian protest camp—with over 20 people and 20 tents—set up outside the Chancellery building in Berlin, since early April. The protesters had been “demanding an end to German arms shipments to the Israeli military and what they call the “criminalisation” of the Palestinian solidarity movement,” according to a report by Deutsche Welle.
Pakistanis have been unhappy about Gannas’ visit since he first shared a poster announcing his participation in the event on 23 April, “What a shame…a rep of a country complicit in genocide will talk about human rights….this session must be cancelled in solidarity with Palestine,” wrote an X user.
The man who heckled the ambassador, Ali Abdullah Khan, is the central spokesperson for the Progressive Students’ Collective (PSC). Ali Raza, who was also present at the event and complicit in heckling the ambassador, is the former vice president of the Left-wing organisation.
In an interview with Pakistani TV channel Aik News, the two students reiterated their stance. “You [Germany] are selling arms to Israel and talking about civil rights,” said Khan. He added that they were manhandled and assaulted by the organisers.
“The organizers of AJ Conference assaulted the students and peeled their skin off, throwing them out of the conference. What’s it they fear?” the PSC asked in a post on X, along with an image of Raza’s arm, which had scratch marks on it.
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Pakistanis defend youth
The Pakistani internet was quick to come to the defence of Khan and Raza. In a reply to the German ambassador’s post announcing his participation at the Asma Jahangir Conference, Abdullah Gul, son of General Hamid Gul, asked what right he had to tell the youth of Pakistan to ‘get out’.
“We respect you because of our rich eastern values but will not tolerate nonsense. You are an ambassador not a viceroy…Don’t forget that because of Pakistan east and west Germany got united,” he said on X.
Even Pakistani author and columnist Fatima Bhutto came out in support of the youth. “Good for these young activists reminding the German Ambassador of his country’s abject failures. Palestine will not be buried and young activists will not be lectured by people incapable of standing against the greatest violence seen in our lifetime,” she wrote on X.
Sidra Qayyum, an advocate in the Lahore High Court, pointed out the “inferiority complex” of the organisers and said that “colonialism” still exists.
Many also highlighted that the manhandling of the students was a “shame” to Asma Jahangir’s legacy. Jahangir was a Pakistani human rights lawyer and activist, who co-founded and chaired the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
Abhorrent that a conference that claims to uphold the legacy of Asma Jahangir is acting as a collaborator of imperialism. Asma Jahangir would be ashamed. https://t.co/KpqwmidYK4
— Mohsin (@mohsinidk) April 27, 2024
Shahrukh Waheed, a documentarian, pointed out the irony of the students getting in trouble for protesting against Israel in Pakistan “where our passports negate the existence of Israel”.
On 23 April, the PSC announced a Palestine Solidarity Protest scheduled for 30 April, in front of the United States Consulate in Lahore.
Their demands included the government taking part in the global boycott of Israeli goods, facilities for Palestinian students in Pakistan, the expulsion of the US Ambassador from Pakistan if the US doesn’t divest from Israel, and finally, support for the complete independence of Palestine as opposed to the two-state solution.
After the incident at the conference, Raza added that they are now demanding the German Ambassador’s immediate expulsion from Pakistan as well.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)