Israel Boycott Intrudes On German Festival
BERLIN — The Scottish rappers Young Fathers have earned critical praise for their blend of hip-hop, electronica and gospel. They won Britain’s prestigious Mercury Prize for album of the year. Their uplifting shows are in demand across Europe.
But when an arts festival in Germany decided last month to drop the band from its bill, it set off a clamor that had nothing to do with the group’s music, and everything to do with the country’s post-World War II sensibilities.
Young Fathers openly support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, also known as B. D. S., which asks companies and people to avoid doing business with Israel in protest of its treatment of Palestinians. But in Germany, where calling for a boycott against the Jewish state carries deep historical associations with the Nazis, the movement is widely viewed as anti- Semitic.
As Germany struggles with in- creasing attacks on Jews and Israel is under pressure for killings of protesters along its border with Gaza, a growing clash over B.D. S. is spilling over into the cultural scene. It has divided art and music festivals that aim to foster cultural dialogue, and even sparked a feud between the mayor of Munich and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, who is a revered figure here.
Omar Barghouti, a founder of B.D. S., said in an email that the festival’s decision to disinvite Young Fathers — after first asking them to distance themselves from the B.D. S. movement — amounted to “censorship.”
The festival, the Ruhrtriennale, scheduled this year from August 3 to September 23 in the industrial Ruhr area of western Germany, receives government funding. And governments across Germany have denounced B.D. S.
Official support for Israel is a nonnegotiable position in postwar Germany. In 2016, the center-right party of Chancellor Angela Merkel passed a resolution declaring that “B. D. S. promotes anti- Semitism as anti- Zionism; but even dressed up for the 21st century, hate against Jews remains hate against Jews.”
B. D. S. disputes the accusation that it is anti- Semitic, saying that it is protesting Israeli policies, not the Jewish people. It notes that there are Jews among its followers.
But in Germany, calls to boycott Israel conjure up parallels to the nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses beginning in 1933.
The announcement, on June 13, said that the festival did not consider the band to be anti- Semitic. “However, the Ruhrtriennale distances itself in all forms from the B. D. S. movement and wishes to have absolutely no connection with the campaign,” the statement said. Still, a handful of acts, including Lebanese artists, backed out, citing freedom of speech.
Laurie Anderson, the American musician and artist, also threatened to pull out. “I have a big problem being part of a festival that asks artists to distance themselves from their beliefs and commitments,” Ms. Anderson said in an email.
Faced with the risk of losing a headline act like Ms. Anderson — and possibly others — the festival’s director, Stefanie Carp, capitulated. On June 21, she announced that she had asked the Young Fathers to rejoin the lineup. The band rejected the offer. Munich’s mayor, Dieter Reiter, is now sparring with Mr. Waters, of Pink Floyd, a vocal B. D. S. supporter who is admired here for his “The Wall” concert shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Mr. Reiter published a statement on the city’s website accusing Mr. Waters of supporting “anti- Semitic boycott campaigns against Israel” and “fantasizing about an ‘extraordinarily powerful Jewish lobby.’ ”
Christian Schertz, an attorney for Mr. Waters, asked that the statement be taken down. “Our client has repeatedly and critically grappled with the politics of the state of Israel and has been advocating the observance of human rights for everybody for many years,” Mr. Schertz wrote.
In Berlin, several performers who support B.D.S. have said they will not participate in this year’s Pop-Kultur festival in August.
Anton Teichmann, who runs a Berlin record label that has an act in the festival, said that even if he did not like Israel’s government, he could not boycott it because of Germany’s history.
“Music is supposed to unite people,” he said in an email. “Unfortunately now it is about picking sides.”