Criticism of Israel | Weimer irritates with boycott claim

On his first day in office, the new Minister of State for Culture, Wolfram Weimer (CDU), met with the President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, at the Federal Chancellery on Wednesday. Together, they aim to combat antisemitism "especially in the cultural sector even more decisively and effectively." The background to this initiative is the Central Council's criticism of antisemitic depictions at the Documenta 2022 in Kassel and statements on the Gaza War during last year's Berlinale. There, filmmakers criticized Israel's actions in the Gaza War and called for a ceasefire. The then Minister of State for Culture, Claudia Roth (Greens), came under fire from the Central Council's President for applauding during the gala.

After the meeting with Schuster, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media (BKM) announced that since the attack by Palestinian groups on Israel on October 7, 2023, "increasing calls for boycotts or other actions against Jewish artists" have been observed. The conservative politician intends to oppose this "with all his might." Weimer announced that he would develop concrete measures "in close cooperation" with the Central Council.

However, the claim of increased "calls for boycotts or other actions" against Jewish individuals does not stand up to scrutiny. When asked by "nd," Weimer's office also only cited two cases concerning Germany. The first relates to a guest performance by the Batsheva Dance Company at the Berlin Festival in January 2025. Activists and groups from the Berlin dance scene were responsible for the protest at the time. "As organizers of the protest, we would like to make it unmistakably clear that our action was always directed against the Batsheva Dance Company's decades-long complicity with the Israeli state and its fascist government, which occupies Palestinian land by committing genocide," the group explained in response to an inquiry by "nd." Calls were never directed against individual dancers or Jewish people, but against an institution "that receives state funding from a country internationally classified as an apartheid state."

As another example of alleged calls for cancellation against Jews, the BKM office cites the Berlin Pop-Kultur festival, which has been targeted several times by the "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions" (BDS) campaign. The campaign criticized the fact that artists whose travel expenses had been co-financed by the Israeli government performed there. However, there were no calls against these individuals.

When asked by the “nd”, Weimer’s office only cited two cases concerning Germany.

A spokeswoman for Weimer names other institutions in Germany against which the BDS movement has called for a boycott—but these do not identify as Jewish. These include the Berlin techno club About Blank, the Fusion Festival on Lake Müritz, the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, and the European Media Art Festival Osnabrück.

The BKM spokesperson also points to the Art not Genocide Alliance (ANGA), which was founded for the Venice Art Biennale and aims to ban Israel from the event. "The campaign targets institutions and individuals representing the Zionist state, not Jewish artists," ANGA assures the "nd." It criticizes the "deliberate conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism – a tactic to silence legitimate criticism and suppress open debate about Israeli policy."

So, is Weimer only suggesting an increase in "actions" against Jewish artists to justify a tougher stance against criticism of Israel in the cultural sector? Antisemitism researcher Peter Ullrich argues along these lines: "Those who want to criticize something usually say it's getting worse. This is all the more true when it comes to the sensitive topic of 'antisemitism.' There's always the fear that it won't be taken seriously enough otherwise." Ullrich also observes an increase in antisemitic incidents. "However, the threshold at which criticism of Israel's ethnic cleansing in Gaza is branded as antisemitism and hatred of Israel has continued to fall."

"Culture should provide space for dialogue and debate, for criticism and controversy," Weimer's office wrote to the "nd." By taking action against boycott campaigns, they hope to contribute to "protecting and preserving this space."

However, there are fears that the new Minister of State for Culture could introduce an anti-Semitism clause – similar to what Berlin's Senator for Culture Joe Chialo (CDU) has already attempted unsuccessfully : The coalition agreement states that projects with anti-Semitic aims should not receive funding. It is unclear who should be responsible for defining these projects as "anti-Semitic."

In addition to the BDS campaign, Weimer may also have the Strike Germany network in mind, which the BKM spokesperson explicitly mentions in connection with calls for boycotts of cultural events in Germany. Artists, writers, and cultural workers are organizing within this network against the Gaza War and Germany's Middle East policy, as well as against restrictions on freedom of expression on this issue. A Strike Germany appeal, signed by hundreds of people, is considered one of the reasons for the failure of the Berlin anti-Semitism clause in the cultural sector.

It is noteworthy that in the recent past there have indeed been several calls in Germany to cancel performances by Jewish artists – however, these came from the Central Council itself and were directed against anti-Zionist or anti-Israel individuals.

In 2022, following an intervention by President Schuster, Documenta suspended the planned online discussion "We need to talk!", which the world art exhibition intended to use to discuss allegations of antisemitism. Following last year's Berlinale, the President of the Central Council also called for consequences after Yuval Abraham, the Israeli co-director of the Oscar-winning film "No Other Land," spoke of "apartheid" in the West Bank. Also last year, the Jewish philosopher Judith Butler was to be stripped of the Adorno Prize awarded by the city of Frankfurt am Main. City councilor Jutta Ditfurth (Ökolinx) was particularly active in advocating for this boycott.