Anti-Semitism debate at Documenta art fair: Jüdische Allgemeine demands the resignation of Claudia Roth
The world's most important art exhibition documenta has been causing one anti-Semitism scandal after the next for weeks, each one with a scope that until recently would have been unthinkable. It is a failure that has no equal.
So how can it be that Jewish artists from Israel were deliberately excluded from the world art exhibition in Kassel? How can it be that protests by Jewish associations against this decision were completely ignored? How can it be that the most hideous anti-Semitic "work of art" that has been on public view in Germany since 1945 was exhibited at the documenta?
How can it be that Jews are humiliated in a painting as a pig with a Star of David and a "Mossad" inscription? How can it be that Jews are portrayed in a »work of art« in a way that is otherwise only known from the Nazi inflammatory newspaper »Stürmer«: with pejes, kippa, oversized monster teeth, bloodthirsty eyes and SS insignia the hat? How can it be that another work compares the Israeli armed forces with the Wehrmacht?
In short: How did it come to this that the BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), anti-Semitic in its actions and goals, was able to spread its hatred of Israel and Jews at the documenta unhindered?
Documenta is curated by the Indonesian collective ruangrupa, some of whose members are open supporters of the BDS or did not want to distance themselves from the boycott movement. For ruangrupa members and some of the artists engaged for the exhibition, the Jewish state represents a colonial system of "white people"; Israel fulfills the characteristics of an apartheid, it practices the separation of the individual ethnic population groups like South Africa did at the time, which is why Israel should be proscribed comprehensively.
Ruangrupa defended her against allegations of anti-Semitism. "Coming from a certain country should not lead to suspicions of possibly being anti-Semitic," said the Green politician. Muslim Indonesia is one of the countries that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. “I find that bad. But that doesn't mean that an artist or collective from Indonesia is per se suspicious.«
Claudia Roth, Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Photo: dpa.
Roth did not address the fact that Jewish Israelis were systematically canceled by ruangrupa in the run-up to the documenta. Among other things, the Central Council of Jews had already criticized the way those responsible dealt with the topic of anti-Semitism in a fire letter to Roth at the end of April. "The only thing that helps against anti-Semitism is clear commitments and, even more so, decisive political action," said Central Council President Josef Schuster at the time. »No one may acquit themselves of this responsibility - not even in the name of artistic freedom.«
But even after that, the top cultural politician in the Federal Republic, who had distanced herself from the groundbreaking anti-BDS resolution of the Bundestag in 2019, remained inactive.
After the anti-Jewish depictions became known, Claudia Roth suddenly joined the phalanx of those who were outraged by the hatred of Jews. The question may be asked: How naive does Roth consider the Jewish public to be? First, she allows artists with a proven anti-Semitic worldview to curate the documenta. Now she wants to be surprised by the anti-Semitic excesses.
Source: Jüdische Allgemeine
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