Officials in the Jewish community in Germany are demanding the closure of the international modern art exhibition, "Documenta", due to the anti-Semitic content of some of the works presented in the exhibition, which is one of the most important in the world and is held every five years in the city of Kassel.
About two weeks ago, the general director of the "Documenta" resigned following a public uproar that erupted over an artistic "work" from Indonesia, which included the presentation of Jews as satanic creatures and members of the SS and Israeli soldiers as pigs, agents of the Mossad. Following much criticism, the large painting, called "The People's Justice" was first covered. , and was later removed from the exhibition. Before the opening of the "document", it was learned that dozens of members of the Indonesian collective had signed anti-Israel petitions.
The "Documenta" management denied the anti-Semitic nature of the "work".
Despite being removed from the exhibition, the director of the exhibition, Sabina Shurman, had to resign from her position and in her place, Alexander Farnholtz was appointed as temporary director.
Now Fahrenholtz is caught in the middle of the storm, after more anti-Semitic content was found in the exhibition, this time in a performance by women's organizations from Algeria: in the performance "Archives of Women's Struggles in Algeria" a booklet by the Syrian artist Burhan Karkotli from 1988 is included in which Israeli soldiers are presented as robots attacking children.
IDF soldiers as evil robots, the pamphlet distributed at the exhibition,
One of the soldiers, attacked by a woman, is presented as a typical anti-Semitic cliché with a "Jewish nose".
The management of the "Documenta" claims that the booklet was examined by them and the examination shows that the reference of the Syrian artist is clearly to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and not of an anti-Semitic nature.
Furthermore, interim director Farnholtz rejected demands to conduct a thorough due diligence on the conduct of the exhibition, in order to find out how anti-Semitic content was included in it.
The German Minister of Culture, the "green" politician Claudia Roth, is also facing severe criticism, after declaring that it is not her job to be a "culture policeman" and to approve which works will be shown and which will not.
However, Roth referred to the Indonesian "work" and made it clear that it had anti-Semitic content.
She also expressed support for drawing lessons from the anti-Semitic incidents in "Documenta".
Even in the past, extremely harsh anti-Israel content was presented at the exhibition.
Activists of the fight against anti-Semitism in the city of Kassel accuse the "Documenta" management of deliberately inviting anti-Israel creators and works, some of whom are close to the BDS boycott movement.
This year no Israeli artists were invited to exhibit in "Documenta".
German Culture Minister Claudia Roth, photo: German Culture Minister Claudia Roth
Since the German Bundestag adopted a resolution in May 2019 defining the anti-Israel boycott movement BDS as an anti-Semitic movement, based on the definition of international anti-Semitism, senior art and culture institutions in Germany, funded by the state, have mobilized to fight for the recognition of BDS as a legitimate movement and its right to convey its message within the framework of freedom of expression and the expression protected by the German constitution.
As part of this struggle, clear efforts are being made to "qualify" anti-Israeli works of an anti-Semitic nature, while practically boycotting Israeli artists who are not known to be supporters of the BDS movement.
An online petition, signed by hundreds of people in the last two days, now calls for the immediate closure of the "Documenta".
There is also a call to the President of Germany to act to close the exhibition and to conduct a thorough inspection of its management.
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