Shortly before the start of the Brecht Festival in Augsburg, its director Julian Warner has to defend himself against accusations of being a BDS supporter. On Sunday and Monday he distanced himself from a signature he signed in 2020 on an open letter entitled “We can only change what we confront.”
More than 1,500 cultural workers signed the letter. They opposed a Bundestag resolution in which the boycott movement “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” (BDS) directed against Israel was condemned as anti-Semitic. The signatories criticized the “polarization within the cultural scene” and a “climate of censorship” caused by the decision. On January 11th the internet portal had The Augsburger Zeitung Warner’s signature was reported, and the SPD then called for “clarification of allegations of anti-Semitism”.
Warner now stated that he expressly distanced himself from the signature at the time. “I rejected then and now reject the boycott of Israel and have never been a supporter of BDS.” At the time, he was concerned with intercultural dialogue and spaces that he saw threatened by the Bundestag decision. Looking back, he had to admit that the open letter “contributed more to the normalization of Israel-related anti-Semitism.” “I regret this very much.”
Warner received support from the Augsburg cultural department. Its director, Jürgen K. Enniger, said in a press release that he was “fully committed to our Brecht Festival director Julian Warner.”