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Open Letter: Supporting Human Rights is not Antisemitic [1]

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Date: 2023-03

More than 90 renowned Jewish scholars and intellectuals - including Noam Chomsky, Eva Illouz, Alfred Grosser, Moshe Zimmermann, Judith Butler and Micha Brumlik - have signed an open letter condemning the attacks against our association, Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East, and calling on German civil society to guarantee freedom of expression for those

who oppose the oppression of the Palestinian people.

……………………………………………………………………………………………..

Supporting Human Rights is not Antisemitic

In recent years the Israeli government and its supporters have tried to stifle debate both abroad and domestically about its systematic oppression of the Palestinian people and the catastrophic impacts of the 51-year-old military occupation. Civil society organizations in Israel and around the world supporting Palestinian human rights are cynically labeled by Israeli government officials as enemies of the state, traitors, and, increasingly, as antisemitic. Spaces for critical engagement are shrinking.

These worrisome developments have not bypassed Germany. We fully support the efforts of German politicians and civil society organizations to combat all contemporary forms of antisemitism – a much-needed endeavour in view of the rise of nationalist parties and movements just 73 years after the defeat of the Nazi state. Yet, under the pretense of protecting Jewish life, attacks against organizations and individuals who show solidarity with the Palestinian fight for equality and liberation have become commonplace. Free speech on Palestinian human rights is infringed through demands to prevent discussions in public spaces, public smear campaigns, and most recently, legislation.

The attacks against the Germany-based group „Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East“ (Jewish Voice) are emblematic of this global process and have drawn us together out of concern. The group, that counts among its members also recent Israeli migrants to Germany, has unequivocally raised its voice in support of peace and justice in Israel and Palestine and has consistently condemned manifestations of racism and antisemitism, including cases where they are disguised as critique of Israel. Nonetheless, as a result of a smear campaign by right-wing journalists and organizations, the Bank für Sozialwirtschaft closed the account of the group in 2016, a decision the bank overturned shortly after.

The pressure on a German bank to force the closure of an account of a Jewish organization -- for the first time since the Federal Republic replaced the National Socialist regime -- has continued unabated ever since. The management of the bank has recently decided, in compliance with the government commissioner for anti-Semitism, Dr. Felix Klein, to seek an advisory opinion in order to decide whether Jewish Voice should be “classified as antisemitic“. The German historian, Dr. Juliane Wetzel, took on the task to produce such a report, in accordance with the highly-politicized and flawed IHRA Definition of Antisemitism. This document can be dangerously instrumentalized to afford the Israeli State immunity against criticism for grave and widespread violations of human rights and international law, criticism which is considered legitimate and needed when directed at other countries.

This move is alarming: representatives from the German state, finance sector and academia have come together to make a judgement about whether or not a group of Jews and Israelis, many of them descendants of Holocaust survivors, are antisemitic. For good reasons, members of Jewish Voice refuse to collaborate with such a ridiculous and offensive undertaking.

As Jewish and Israeli scholars and intellectuals, dedicated to the fight against Antisemitism and all forms of racism, we condemn the ongoing campaign to silence the Jewish Voice and its members, regardless of whether we agree with all of their positions or not.

We call upon the members of German civil society to fight antisemitism relentlessly while maintaining a clear distinction between criticism of the state of Israel, harsh as it may be, and antisemitism, and to preserve free speech for those who reject Israeli repression against the Palestinian people and insist that it comes to an end.

We stand for human rights .

We stand in solidarity with the Jewish Voice.

Prof., Historian, Tel Aviv UniversityDr., Associate Professor, Department of sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University, Montreal, CanadaProf.Department of Religion, Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, Columbia University, New York, Director of The Felicia Blumenthal Music Center Association and International Music Festival Tell AvivDr., Department of History, Philosophy and Judaic Studies, The Open University of IsraelDr., Historian, BerlinProf., Department of Linguistics, Tel-Aviv UniversityDr., Sociology Department, University of Essex

Dr. Moshe Behar, Arabic & Middle Eastern Studies, School of Arts, Languages & Cultures

The University of Manchester



Institutional affiliation provided for identification purposes only Institutional affiliation provided for identification purposes only



Prof., Department of History, NYU, adv., PhD Candidate Tel-Aviv University, Visiting Scholar, UC BerkeleyDr., Chair, Department of English, University of HaifaProf. Dr., Department of Oncology, University of LeuvenProf., Department of Communication, Tel Aviv UniversityProf., Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, UC BerkeleyDr., writer, activist, Research Fellow in Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology, Stellenbosch UniversityProf., Comperative Literature and Program for Clinical theory, UC BerkeleyAssistant Prof., Religious Studies, University of KansasProf. emeritus, Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, The Buchmann Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv UniversityProf. emeritus Dr., Fritz Bauer Institut, FfMProf. Rabbi, American Jewish UniversityProf. emeritus, MIT, Laureate Professor, University of ArizonaProf.Law Prof. and head of the human rights program, College of Law & Business, Ramat Gan, IsraelProf. emerita, Comparative Literature, Hebrew University, JerusalemProf., Department of Philosophy and Law, Hebrew University, JerusalemProf. emeritus., Hebrew Universitiy, JerusaelmProf. emeritus, Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv UniversityProf., MD, PhD, Denis Chair in Epilepsy Research, Department of Neuroscience and Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NSDr., Lecturer in Global Political Communication, Department of Politics and International Relations, Royal Holloway, University of LondonProf., Jewish Studies, Brown University, USADr., Historian, Open University, IsraelProf., Department of Linguistics, Tel-Aviv UniversityProf., Former Chair of the Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry Department, Hebrew University, JerusalemProf. Dr.ParisAssociate Prof., Sociology Department, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South AfricaProf., Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape,South AfricaDr., Writer and Editor, JerusalemProf.l, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College Hanover, USAProf., Department of Comparative Literature and Jewish Studies, Yale UniversityProf., Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Hebrew University, JerusalemDr., Reader at London Metropolitan UniversityProf., Department of Jewish Thought, Bar-Ilan UniversityProf. emeritus, Department of Economics, Hebrew University, JerusalemProf., Faculty of Philosophy, University of OxfordProf.Visiting Professor at LSE Human RightsDr., SOAS, University of LondonProf., Hebrew and Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley, European Politics, University of Hertfordshire (retired), Associate Professor of History, Apter Chair of Holocaust Studies and Ethical Values, Lehigh University, PA, USAProf., Historian, Tel Aviv UniversityDr., Sociology and Anthropology, Ben Gurion UniversityDr., Democracy Studies, Open University, IsraelDr., Leo Baeck Institut, JerusalemProf. emeritusProfessor of Philosophy, University of London, MD, Founder and Honorary President of Physicians for Human Rights - IsraelDr., The Dept. of Philosophy, Tel Aviv University, Author, Independent Scholar, Activist.Dr., Culture Studies, Beit Berl CollegeProf. emeritus, History of Science, Harvard UniversityProf. emeritus, Jewish Studies, Hebrew University, JerusalemProf., Department of Philosophy, Ben Gurion UniversityDr., Culture Studies, Jerusalem, Writer, Journalist and Translator, Jerusalem, Associate Professor of Religion, Conflict and Peace Studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame.Prof., Tel Aviv University, Gender Program, Ben-Gurion UniversityProf. emerita, English and comparative literature University of Warwick, UKProf., Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Stellenbosch University, South AfricaProf., Humanities and Co-Director, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck University of LondonProf., Department of Management, London School of EconomicsProf., Department of Jewish Philosophie and Talmud, Tel Aviv UniversityProf., English, Comparative Literature, and Holocaust Studies, UCLADr., Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard UniversityProf. emeritusComparative European History, School of HistoryQueen Mary, University of LondonDr.Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institut, RehovotProfessor, Birkbeck College, The University of LondonDr., Marie Curie Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Anthropology, University of AmsterdamProfessor, St. Anthony College, The University of OxfordDr., Chairman Department of Jewish History, University of HaifaProf., Department of History, Brown University, Assistant Professor of History and Jewish Studies, Penn State UniversityProf., European History, Department of History, King's College London, Founder, The Center for Jewish NonviolenceAssociate Professor, History and Public Policy, HarvardDr., Associate Professor Ethics and Political Philosophy, Radboud Universiteit, NijmegenDr., English Department, Queen Mary, University of LondonProf. Dr. Dr., Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences, ETH ZürichDr., lecturer in Middle East politics, Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS, University of London, Jewish Voice for Peace, USADr., Israeli Studies, SOAS, University of LondonDr., Political Sciences, College for Academic Studies, Or Yehuda, IsraelProf., Development Planing Unit, University College LondonProf. emeritus, Koebner Minerva Center for German History, Hebrew University, JerusalemProf. emeritus, Tel Aviv University

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[1] Url: https://www.juedische-stimme.de/open-letter-supporting-human-rights-is-not-antisemitic

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