Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts cancels Palestinian lecture
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Walaa Alqaisiya's talk at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was canceled following a boycott from pro-Israeli groups.
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The Vienna Academy of Fine Arts
Another day, another accusation of antisemitism by pro-Israeli lobbies.
Following protests from pro-"Israel" groups, over 370 artists and cultural workers signed an open letter denouncing the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Wien (Mumok) for canceling a lecture titled "Queering Aesthesis: Unsettling the Zionist Sensual Regime." Judith Butler, Sam Durrant, and Slavoj Zizek are among the signatories, as are activist and novelist Angela Davis and artist Ali Yass.
The talk, scheduled for May 30, was intended to discuss subjects addressed in Walaa Alqaisiya's forthcoming book. It was part of a series called "The Spring Curatorial Program 2022: Art Geographies," which claimed to delve into the "critical, decolonial, feminist, and material dimensions of planetary coexistence." However, pro-"Israel" organizations such as the Austrian Union of Jewish Students and Keshet Austria quickly objected, claiming that Alqaisiya's scholarly work was "antisemitic." As a result, they canceled the event.
The undated letter in support of Alqaisiya states "We stand in solidarity with Dr. Walaa Alqaisiya against this unsubstantiated and racist attack, which discredits and delegitimizes her both personally and academically,” adding that “We outright reject antisemitism in all of its forms,” which includes the rejection of "the equation of critical conversations about Zionism with antisemitism, as it subverts the legitimate concern regarding antisemitism across Europe and the world.
Not everyone agreed with the decision to exclude Alqaisiya from the lecture series. Curator Jelena Petrovi and co-organizing organization Verein K refuted the claims of antisemitism and stated that Alqaisiya's research "complies with the highest academic standards" citing her ties at the London School of Economics, Columbia University, and the University of Venice. In a letter, they apologized for the event's cancellation, saying it was "out of our hands." They also called the claims “an attempt to discredit the lecture and censor its content.”
Nonetheless, the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna maintains its cancellation of the event. According to a statement shared with Hyperallergic, the content of Alqaisiya's presentation featured "de-differentiations and essentialist exaggerations in relation to Zionism, which were perceived by numerous members of the academy as untenable assertions and an affront.”
According to them, therefore, it would be "hardly possible" to have an open and discursive debate.
Alqaisiya called on the organizers to issue an apology in a Twitter thread in May.
5. By accusing me of making essentialist exaggerations of Zionism, the cancellation of the lecture is a political and militant act, gesturing toward the protection and sheltering of these groups that systematically conflate Jewishness with one specific vision of Zionism...
— Walaa Alqaisiya (@WAlqaisiya) May 30, 2022
Françoise Vergès, a past guest on the series, voiced her outrage at the cancellation in a separate letter written to the event's organizers.
In her criticism of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and Mumok, she stated that “Uncritically accepting the material and ideological reality imposed by Zionist and pro-Israel groups is being their accomplice."
Europe is notorious for giving into Israeli pressure when it comes to academics and arts. In April, Germany canceled a rally in support of Palestine coinciding with World Quds Day.
DW fires Palestinian journalists for being "anti-Israel"
In February, German state media Deutsche Welle dismissed a Palestinian journalist Maram Salem after a German journalist published a report accusing her of "anti-Semitism" and being "anti-Israel" in reference to her Facebook posts.
However, this dismissal did not end with Maram, but also stretched onto Palestinian-Jordanian journalist Farah Maraqa, who tweeted that she received a notice, without any explanation, that she is fired from DW on similar grounds. Basil Al-Aridi, Daoud Ibrahim, and Murhaf Mahmoud have also become the victims of an Israeli-sponsored media purge, as they had also been laid off.
