Cultural policy
Debate about the Berlinale continues
According to Marco Buschmann (FDP), criminal law is well positioned to punish anti-Semitic statements. photo
© Kay Nietfeld/dpa
The criticism of Israel at the closing gala of the Berlinale continues to cause debate. In view of political reactions, experts warn against false expectations.
Politics and the cultural sector discuss anti-Israel statements during the closing gala Berlinale continues on how to deal with the topic correctly. From the point of view of Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP), the film festival “has suffered serious damage because anti-Semitism has gone far too unchallenged,” as he told the newspapers of the Funke media group. Bavaria’s State Chancellor Florian Herrmann (CSU) called on Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) to resign because she had reacted too late. However, some anti-Semitism experts also warned against false expectations in the debate.
“There are no constructive ideas at all about how to deal with the situation, it’s just about pursuing a kind of symbolic politics,” said the director of the Anne Frank educational institution, Meron Mendel, on Tuesday to the broadcaster Bayern 2. “Whether it’s us “Like it or not, we have to learn to endure such debates,” Mendel had already told the dpa.
During the gala on Saturday evening, the Middle East conflict was discussed several times. Numerous jury members and award winners called for a ceasefire in the Gaza war verbally or with badges. At the end of his acceptance speech for an award, the American director Ben Russell spoke of a genocide.
Mendel sees no case of anti-Semitism. “I would speak of anti-Israel and one-sided statements, but not of anti-Semitic rhetoric,” emphasized the Israeli-German journalist on Bayerischer Rundfunk. Regarding criticism from politicians, he said that it was only a matter of “making a political profit out of the issue and making a kind of symbolic politics.” Such speeches would not help in the fight against anti-Semitism.
Buschmann: Criminal law is well positioned
Mirjam Wenzel, director of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt, argued in the magazine “Politics & Culture” that the question of suitable measures to prevent and contain anti-Semitism in the cultural sector should be viewed “in a context of society as a whole.” Among other things, she advised cultural policy to better coordinate resources and responsibilities for educational work critical of anti-Semitism.
In addition, Wenzel advocated “not containing the increased anti-Semitism in the cultural sector with additional administrative measures, but rather by providing additional funds for the further training of the senior staff of cultural institutions in order to strengthen their ability to judge anti-Semitism.”
Justice Minister Buschmann sees criminal law as being well positioned to punish anti-Semitic statements. The criminal assessment of the incidents is the responsibility of the responsible law enforcement authorities and courts. But the political verdict is clear to him: “Anti-Semitism is intolerable,” he told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
Bavaria’s State Chancellor Herrmann called on Minister of State for Culture Roth to resign. “This open anti-Semitism in the cultural scene is frightening,” he said in Munich. “Ms. Roth is obviously completely overwhelmed by this task, which is why she has become intolerable as Federal Minister of State for Culture and has to resign.”
Like other Union politicians before him, Herrmann did not include Berlin’s governing mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) in the criticism. Wegner and Roth followed the gala in close proximity. Both reacted only afterwards and announced investigations into the events. The Berlinale is supported by the federal government and subsidized by the state of Berlin.
Roth’s predecessor Monika Grütters (CDU) told Stern: “The people responsible for culture, the directors, the institutions, and especially cultural policy, have failed.” At the same time, she warned against a debate about the cancellation of funds for controversial art projects. “The adequate financing of the Questioning culture in Germany is fatal because it ultimately endangers the freedom of art. This is throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” said Grütters. “We also have to endure unruliness, that is the real value of culture. A democracy thrives on contradiction.” At the same time, she called for “guardrails against anti-Israel incitement and anti-Semitism.”