Notable Jewish-American professor of philosophy and politics at the New School for Social Research in New York, Nancy Fraser, has been disinvited from taking up a prestigious professorship at the University of Cologne for the mere reason of signing a letter expressing solidarity with Palestinians and condemning "Israel". 

She was invited to the Albertus Magnus Professorship 2024, a visiting position, which she was awarded in 2022, and the letter, which she signed, was written in November 2023.

Fellow academics, in response, wrote a letter condemning the disinvitation and calling it “another attempt to limit public and academic debate on Israel and Palestine by invoking supposedly clear, distinct, governmentally sanctioned red lines."

They stated that the letter, titled Philosophy for Palestine, did not have anything to do with Fraser’s work as a scholar and that her guest professorship had nothing to do with the war.

Meanwhile, the University of Cologne expressed in a statement that the decision had been made “with great regret," justifying its action by saying in the letter, “Israel’s right to exist as an ‘ethno-supremacist state’ since its foundation in 1948 is called into question. The terror attacks by Hamas on Israel of 7 October 2023 is [sic] elevated to an act of legitimate resistance.”

It continued to say that the academic and cultural boycott of Israeli institutions went against the University’s ties to Israeli partner institutions, stressing that the views in the letter were not in line with its own.

Read more: University of Lyon II cancels Gaza activist debate event over activist

Speaking to the Frankfurter Rundschau, Fraser said she was a victim of “philosemitic McCarthyism” alongside other academics like Masha Gessen who have been canceled in Germany over their views. 

“I was canceled in the name of German responsibility for the Holocaust. This responsibility should also apply to Jewish people... Philosemitic McCarthyism sums it up quite well. A way to silence people under the pretext of supposedly supporting Jews,” she said.

In her interview for Die Zeit, Fraser continued, "I completely agree that Germans have a special responsibility towards the Jews in light of the Holocaust. But to equate criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism is simply wrong. And may I add that as a Jew I also feel a special responsibility."

"But … that doesn’t mean giving this government carte blanche. What is happening in Gaza should not happen – and especially not in my name. I strongly reject the equation of Israel and Judaism. Judaism has a rich secular and, above all, universalist tradition. It pains me when it is reduced to Israel’s current hyper-ethno-nationalist politics.”

A notorious hit at the Nazi past 

However, the professor noted that the lectures she planned to deliver in Cologne will go on both at the New School and another location in Germany.

“It has been suggested that I give the lectures elsewhere in Germany under the slogan: ‘This is what you weren’t allowed to hear in Cologne.'”

The interim president of the New School, Donna E. Shalala, penned a letter to Joybrato Mukherjee, the rector of Cologne University, calling the situation “simply outrageous” and “insulting”, and asked him to reconsider the decision as she asserted that Albertus Magnus, the 13th-century free-thinking philosopher after whom the professorship is named, “would have been appalled."

She pointed out that back in the 1930s, the New School “rescued intellectuals seeking refuge from the Nazis... We continued the body of critical thought that had been wiped out – promoting the remarkable traditions of the German academy."

Germany has been recently notorious for canceling professors, lectures, and events that speak up against "Israel". 

Back in February, the academic Lebanese-Australian and pro-Palestine professor of anthropology Ghassan Hage was fired from the famous German Max Planck Institute for research after he condemned "Israel's" genocide in Gaza.

I will soon issue my own statement.

I would have lived with the first part re incompatibility. But finishing with ‘there is no place for racism’ implying that i am a racist, I cannot accept.

Statement of the Max Planck Society about Prof. Ghassan Hage https://t.co/XhJXJOjNT0

— Ghassan Hage (@anthroprofhage) February 7, 2024

In November, the Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie, a contemporary photo exhibition that was due to be held in the German cities of Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, and Heidelberg, in March 2024, was canceled after Bangladeshi curator Shahidul Alam posted content in support of Gaza and Palestine amid the Israeli genocide.

In October, the Frankfurt Book Fair canceled an award ceremony for the Palestinian author Adania Shibli.

Similarly, the Museum Folkwang in Essen, Germany, canceled part of a planned group show following a curator’s engagement with pro-Palestine content on social media. Anaïs Duplan, who is a writer, professor, and curator, posted screenshots of an email on Instagram sent from Museum Folkwang Director Peter Gorschlüter stating that the institution decided to “suspend” his “collaboration”.

 

 

 

 

 

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