Issue 3/2024
Entanglements
The idea and practice of largely non-violent coexistence is currently being put to the test. The idea of peaceful coexistence across ideological or ethnic-political boundaries has become a distant prospect, and not just since the horrific terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel, to name one obvious source of conflict. What makes this ominous situation even more difficult is the widely dominant mode of polarization, which subjects almost every respective statement to a one-sided pressure to make a commitment. At the same time, however, the fact that different subjects are involved in the never-ending conflict in different, often radically incompatible ways – “implicated” or “entangled”, as one could say – must also be taken into account. How are viable attempts at mediation possible in such a climate? How can a future coexistence, beyond all real political separation, be envisaged? And can artistic approaches possibly provide blueprints here that have long since slipped away from politics or other social actors, or decidedly exceed their imagination? What degrees of entanglement so exist here, and to what extent do they point beyond the dichotomy of being either a perpetrator or a victim? The issue "Entanglements" is dedicated to these questions with a partial focus on the seemingly insoluble conflict situation between Israel and Palestine. Knowing full well that the historical complexity of this conflict cannot be adequately addressed in the given context, we want to look at different sites of involvement in this conflict and put them up for debate: historical models of a common Jewish-Arab world as well as current peace initiatives or projects for a just and dignified coexistence. One of the key questions here is how a future coexistence can be projected without falling into mutual accusations or suspicions – while at the same time, the memory of past catastrophes must undoubtedly be kept alive? What perhaps even more daring, universalist idea is needed to renounce any militaristic or ethno-nationalist interpretation of the conflict once and for all? Or, to put it yet another way: how can we do justice to the multiple, complex degrees of entanglement, or ways of “being implicated”, that the actors concerned are subject to? Questions like these form the multi-perspectival background of the fall issue.