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Pro-Palestine demo at the FU Berlin
Photo: Monika Skolimowska / dpa
Anyone who wants to know how not to have arguments has received a whole series of examples in the past few days. It was, once again, about Israel. And it happened, again, in Berlin.
There was a university event with Daphne Barak-Erez, Israel's Supreme Court judge, that was canceled because disruptors shouted her down. There was a Hannah Arendt reading at which the director of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt was loudly insulted. And finally a discussion event at Axel Springer, which the publisher held together with the Jerusalem Post. Again people gathered in front of the building, shouting "German media is lying, don't let yourself be deceived!" and "Zionists are fascists!" The meeting was able to take place because the building was extensively secured.
What's going on in Berlin? Apparently a small group of determined Israel haters is moving through the capital at the moment. A political cult that seeks to demolish anything that contradicts its worldview. That's bad enough. But those who are shouted at in this way sometimes make an even worse impression.
A trap of your own making
Of course, a media company like Axel Springer has an easier time sealing itself off from outside opposition than a university. But is the alternative really to letting a few militant screamers take the reins out of your hands? What came across as a “Hannah Arendt reading” at Hamburger Bahnhof was actually a self-imposed trap, at least that’s what it looks like in retrospect.
A number of people that the artist Tania Bruguera invited were pro-Palestinian, only the director of the Jewish Museum stood out, she was insulted as pro-Israel. Some of the troublemakers who shouted them down, it later turned out, had been brought in by the organizer herself. How can an institution like Hamburger Bahnhof expose itself like this?
If publicly funded cultural institutions want to enter into political debates, they have only one task: they must guarantee that all voices are given appropriate space. This only works if they draw boundaries and assert themselves, especially against people who shout instead of debate. Anyone who is unable to do this should leave it alone - and leave politics to the professionals.