Anti-Semitism: Questionable alliances against the Bundestag resolution

2024-08-30 12:43:00

All the bourgeois parties in the Bundestag have been discussing a resolution against anti-Semitism for some time. Although there is no public document yet, cultural institutions and celebrities are now criticizing it. The one they join must be worried.

It is a very large coalition against anti-Semitism. The parliamentary groups of the SPD, Greens, FDP and CDU/CSU have been discussing the motion for a resolution entitled “No longer: Protection, preservation and strengthening of Jewish life in Germany” for months.

That doesn’t suit everyone. In one Published by the Kampnagel Cultural Center in Hamburg The Academy of Arts, concert director Michael Barenboim and the Lit.Cologne book festival, among others, have warned against this step – and “great damage to our democracy.” Unexpected consequences of the decision include, among other things, whether cultural funding will have future protection by the Constitution may be dependent on political views or that the administrative system intended to combat anti-Semitism by the Bundestag may be “abused through democratic forces”.

“Therefore the signatories call on members of the Bundestag from all democratic parties to review the decision in a joint discussion with representatives from art, science and civil society and to postpone its adoption at least.”

The appeal commemorates the year 2019. With the so-called BDS decisionAt that time, the Bundestag called on the state authorities not to make public spaces available to supporters of the Israeli blockade. At that time, the GG 5.3 Cosmopolitan Initiative was created against this decision with signatures from many large institutions such as the House of World Cultures, the German Theater and the Humboldt Conference. These are now missing from the appeal from Kampnagel. This is what the “Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East” stands for. V.”, a radical anti-Zionist group that compared the massacres of October 7, 2023 to a prison break and demonized and banned the Israeli government.

Secret service and artistic promotion

The decision is intended to take action against such efforts in particular. What is specified in the draft document is kept under wraps so as not to jeopardize the agreement between those involved. Inside we have publishedwhich “Jüdische Allgemeine” was recently able to see, and there is at least a mention of the defense of the Constitution and a small review of the actors. Things are different in Berlin: reports from the domestic secret service will soon form the basis for decisions on funding in the city-state, and the coalition of the CDU and the SPD has been working on a definition of discrimination for some time.

However, unlike in Berlin, the Bundestag’s decision will not have a direct binding effect. The strict operational definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) when it comes to Israel-related anti-Semitism is used as a standard, but in fact it already exists. Will this make much difference? In the past, it was often the legislators themselves who sabotaged their own efforts to attack the Jewish people. The attempt by the city of Berlin to have failed to present an anti-discrimination statement is also mentioned in the appeal and the loss of trust is complained about. But why is it against the discrimination that is said to have been damaged by the removal of an unsustainable legal initiative – the removal of, at least, documenting the training process between legislators – is the secret of the signatures.