(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Berlin Officials Canceling Artists in Battle Over What Constitutes Antisemitism [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-01-25 Most people know antisemitism when they see it or hear about it. It is the hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people. Antisemitism manifests itself in many ways. It is the targeting of Jewish institutions, including the 2018 murder of 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pennsylvania, the defacement of synagogues, and bombing threats against Jewish institutions. It is right-wing demonstrators shouting, “Jews will not replace us,” at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and other white supremacist anti-Jewish machinations. It is left-wing demonstrators shouting, as detailed in a recently filed lawsuit against Harvard, the Hamas slogan "'from the river to the sea' and other chants calling for the destruction of Israel and genocide of Jews," at Ivy League universities who stood passively by as Jewish students were threatened and assaulted (https://reason.com/volokh/2024/01/11/antisemitism-lawsuit-filed-against-harvard-university-includes-allegations-re-harvard-law-school/). Antisemitism is historically conspiracy-laced: the Jews – the Rothschild Family especially -- as puppet masters over the world’s banking systems, Henry Ford’s attacking Jews for destroying Christmas, the right’s George Soros Derangement Syndrome, Kanye West’s rantings, and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s musings about Jewish Space Lasers causing California’s wildfires. A recent NBC News story cited a report by the Anti-Defamation League that noted antisemitic incidents in 2023 have jumped 360% -- compared to 2022 -- since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Since Hamas’ October 7 terror attack killing 1200 people, and taking of hostages, and Israel’s response with an unparalleled bombing campaign, debates over what constitutes antisemitism have been roiling. In Bucharest in May 2016, the 31 member states of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), of which the United States is a member, adopted a non-legally binding “working definition” of antisemitism. According to the working definition, “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” One of the examples cited by the IHRA is “the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity.” However, the communiqué added “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.” Is it antisemitic to call for a ceasefire in the Israel/Hamas War? Is it antisemitic to criticize the Israeli government? Is it antisemitic to support freedom for Palestinians? Is it antisemitic to draw an analogy between the apartheid system in South Africa and Israel’s treatment of Palestinians? Does supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement to pressure Israel over its treatment of Palestinians constitute antisemitism? In short, can one be opposed to Israel’s policies and not be stained by the term antisemite? The Berlin Conundrum One of the recent battles over stamping an anti-Semitic label on people for their views on Israel is taking place within the art community in Berlin. A recent report in ArtReview (https://artreview.com/berlin-to-add-any-form-of-anti-semitism-clause-to-art-funding-applications/) raises these questions within the context of the art community of Germany. The report reads: “Following the implementation, last Thursday, by Berlin culture senator Joe Chialo of a clause requiring recipients of government arts funding to reject ‘any form of anti-Semitism,’ more than four thousand German cultural workers have signed an open letter. Others are calling for an international strike on the grounds that the clause chills free speech and punishes those who speak out on behalf of Palestinians. “The clause defines anti-Semitism in accordance with the controversial definition laid out by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in 2004: ‘targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity’, ‘drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis’, ‘applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.’” Chialo, the German city’s senator for culture and social cohesion, said: “Art is the glue that holds our society together, it’s the exchange of ideas with one another, a source of friction that sparks debate and stimulates thought. Art is free! But not without rules. Cultural institutions and funding bodies are responsible for ensuring that public money is not used to promote racist, anti-Semitic, anti-queer or otherwise exclusionary expression. We want to ensure this with these newly implemented measures, such as the modification of funding guidelines, as well as commitment and anti-discrimination clauses to funding awards.’ As ArtReview noted, “In November the Saarlandmuseum in Saarbrücken cancelled an exhibition of Candice Breitz, the Berlin-based Jewish South African artist, saying it would not show the art of any artist ‘who does not clearly recognise Hamas’s terror as a rupture of civilisation’. On Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/p/C0fbU6BIfrb/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D&img_index=1) Breitz said that she had publicly condemned Hamas many times, “while also criticising the military reaction of the Israeli government after the 7 October attack on Israel.” In reaction to the proposed funding cuts, Breitz said: “Meinungsfreiheit (freedom of opinion) and Kunstfreiheit (freedom of expression) are being eroded before our eyes. If that matters to you as an artist, cultural worker, intellectual or as any person who cares about culture and/or basic civil rights, this is an important initiative to support. Consider making a modest contribution to the current conversation by adding your signature. Silence will not protect any of us from what is happening. This is not the time to put career before principle, or to prioritise personal comfort above threats that can only effectively be engaged collectively.” The open letter, titled “Open letter to the Berlin Senate Cultural Administration and to Joe Chialo, State Minister for Culture and Social Cohesion” (https://openletterberlinculture.net/) reads in part: We – Berlin-based cultural producers of various disciplines – protest: For the preservation of the freedom of art and the freedom of expression Against the compulsory commitment to the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism as a prerequisite for cultural funding from the federal state of Berlin against the political instrumentalization of antisemitism clauses The open letter continued: ‘The fight against racism goes hand in hand with the fight against anti-Semitism, as well as against Islamophobia. It is our concern to fight all these battles in solidarity and independently of current events. However, the horrific events of October 7, the war in Gaza and the heated polemical debates that are taking place in Germany on this subject give rise to fears that clauses such as those discussed here will only serve to create an administrative basis for disinviting and canceling events with cultural workers who are critical of Israel. This also affects Jewish cultural workers in Germany who show solidarity with Palestine, who advocate for dialogue and peace-oriented solutions, and who are confronted with accusations of anti-Semitism by non-Jewish Germans – an extremely shameful and absurd constellation! Last year, a deep dive by Jewish Currents (https://jewishcurrents.org/the-strange-logic-of-germanys-antisemitism-bureaucrats) “highlighted the role of Germany’s antisemitism commissioners, most of whom are not Jewish, in the arbitration of what is and what is not antisemitic.” Emily Dische-Becker, a left-wing Jewish curator and journalist in Berlin, told Jewish Currents that she believed German antisemitism efforts are ultimately not driven by a concern for Jews. “It basically is an issue of German identity politics at the end of the day,” she said. The philosopher and scholar of German memory Susan Neiman, Jewish Current noted, “whose 2019 book Learning from the Germans argues that the nation provides a model for other countries struggling with the weight of collective memory, told [Jewish Currents] that the creation of the commissioner system, and the passage of the anti-BDS resolution the following year, had caused her to question her previous evaluation. ‘Things have changed really dramatically since the book came out,’ she said. ‘I still think that Germany did something historically unique by putting its crimes in the center of its national narrative, but I also think it’s gone haywire in the last three years. This system of antisemitism commissioners basically went in all the wrong directions.’” Obviously, there are no universally accepted answers to the questions raised above. To the question of whether anti-Zionism is antisemitic, Jonathan Weisman, writing in The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/us/politics/anti-zionism-antisemitism.html), noted that “Jonathan Jacoby, the director of the Nexus Task Force, a group of academics and Jewish activists affiliated with the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, said the group had wrestled with the issue for several years now, seeking a definition of antisemitism that captures when anti-Zionism crosses from political belief to bigotry. He warned that shouting down any political action directed against Israel as antisemitic made it harder for Jews to call out actual antisemitism, while stifling honest conversation about Israel’s government and U.S. policy toward it.” Opinions even vary on the issue of calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas War. Hen Mazzig, a Senior fellow at The Tel Aviv Institute, wrote recently (https://www.newsweek.com/calling-ceasefire-antisemitic-demand-that-jews-endorse-our-own-genocide-opinion-1852839) in Newsweek that “calls for a ceasefire are neither a commitment to human rights nor an effort to preserve life. Instead, they are a demand that Jews not defend themselves from genocide.” “I never thought I would see the day that calls for freedom or for a ceasefire would be considered controversial, let alone antisemitic,” Ahmed Twaij, a freelance journalist, photographer and filmmaker wrote (https://www.newsweek.com/calling-ceasefire-should-obvious-uncontroversial-one-thing-its-not-antisemitic-opinion-1852854) in Newsweek in mid-December. “Simply put, they aren't.” If every critique of Israel’s actions is labeled anti-Semitic, if every call for a ceasefire is branded antisemitic, if anyone supporting Palestinians are called antisemitic, if artists are cancelled for expressing legitimate political protest, then the true meaning of antisemitism will be lost and the world will be worse off. 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