For the Ruhrtriennale culture festival the artistic director, Ms Carp, invited a band that openly supports the BDS movement, which ultimately demands the end of the State of Israel. When this was fiercely criticised, she first disinvited the band and then invited it again. She has met the criticism with a panel discussion on freedom of expression. Because it takes place on Shabbat, official Jewish or Israeli representatives cannot attend; attendingwill be the “critics of Israel”, however, who will thus be able to set out their view of things unchallenged.
Today we are taking part in the demonstration against BDS and against the misuse of taxpayers’ money to spread antisemitism! Not because what has happened there is so incredibly dramatic and far-reaching…. but because it would have been such a small, easily avoidable situation. If one does not resist the small things, they quickly grow bigger.
Address by Elio Adler on behalf of the WerteInitiative:
Dear friends, it is good to see that you are all here!
I stand here as chairman of the WerteInitiative. Our association gives Jewish-German positions a greater hearing in federal politics and in public debate. The Federal Government, the Bundestag and an increasing number of federal states and cities have recognised that BDS is antisemitic.
This means that what experts – and not least we who are affected – have long been saying is now politically acknowledged: BDS is legalistic antisemitism. They sell their antisemitism under the cloak of supposedly politically correct demands! On the outside the label reads so-called „legitimate“ criticism of Israel’s policies, and on the inside is the wish for the destruction of the entire Israeli state. We are exposing you! BDS – We name you and we shame you!
We are not here today because we consider Ms Carp’s conduct to be such a large and structural case of antisemitism. On the contrary: we are here because it is such a small and shabby act of antisemitism. It could have been stopped here so easily. No complex political networks would have had to be uncovered, no details would have had to be studied. It could have been so simple: do not invite a BDS band, do not stage a one-sided discussion, and then do not hold it on a Shabbat as well. And even after everything had gone wrong and the damage was done, this artistic director is still being kept on. It would have been so simple.
And because it would have been so simple and yet was not done – that is why we are standing here! Some of us have travelled a long way. Not because this odd band is so important, but to protest at the failure to stop one artistic director’s senseless escapade. How is one to succeed in the fight against antisemitism if it already fails here on a small scale? It must be: not one inch for BDS!! That is what it must be!
We expressly welcome and thank those politicians who have taken their stand at our side and against BDS and its supporters. Dear politicians, you will see that unfortunately this is only the beginning – just ask the Berlin senator Klaus Lederer what he experienced with BDS a few days ago – and you will increasingly be confronted with the need to stand up for a free, democratic society and to enter into conflict with the BDS people. Please do so!
Another example: this year our association has had to gain extensive experience with the Volkshochschule Osnabrück, the city’s adult education centre. It regularly gives BDS activists a platform, funded from taxes. It holds events which ostensibly set out to shed light on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But to do the illuminating it often brings in only the side of the critics of Israel, in the shape of avowed BDS activists. And it became even more absurd: when we criticised this, parts of Osnabrück’s municipal politics suddenly felt called upon to attack us massively in a press release. It mattered to them to place themselves protectively in front of those who give BDS a platform, instead of supporting those who pointed out the misuse of that platform – namely us.
So we see there, and we see here, that some still have a great deal to learn: society and decision-makers must learn how to identify, how to isolate and, where necessary, how to punish those who, under the flimsy cloak of freedom of expression, abuse that very freedom for hatred.
As an association of Jewish Germans we stand unshakeably at the side of Israel and its people; the only democracy in the Middle East. Neither a Ms Carp nor anyone else will change that. We are convinced that Germany and Israel are natural partners, and we will always oppose those forces that seek to destroy this relationship. Am Israel Chai!
