Home » Entertainment » La Jornada – Brian Eno: “a new tyranny points to ‘anti-Semitic’ artists and censors them”

La Jornada – Brian Eno: “a new tyranny points to ‘anti-Semitic’ artists and censors them”

Musician, songwriter and producer Brian Eno, known to the art world as the sensei of the environments, he was added to the list of creators censored for being “anti-Semitic.”

Eno, an alchemist in the field of audiovisual and sound installation, and a man who speaks little about politics, is “just one of the many artists who have been affected by a new McCarthyism (anti-communist persecution) that has been caught in the middle of a growing climate of intolerance in Germany ”.

In an opinion piece published last weekend in the English newspaper The Guardian, Eno denounces that novelist Kamila Shamsie, poet Kae Tempest, musicians Young Fathers, rapper Talib Kwelli, visual artist Walid Raad and philosopher Achille Mbembe, are among the artists, academics, curators and others who have been caught in a system “of political interrogation, blacklisting and exclusion that is now widespread in Germany thanks to the approval of a parliamentary resolution in 2019”. In it, he says, “it is about targeting critics of Israeli policy towards the Palestinians.”

Recently, an exhibition of Brian Eno’s artwork was canceled because he supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, ”which works to end international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.

Eno assures: “The cancellation was never declared publicly, but I understand that it was the consequence of cultural workers in Germany who feared that they and their institution would be punished for promoting someone labeled ‘anti-Semitic’. This is the job of tyranny: to create a situation where people are afraid enough to keep their mouths shut, and self-censorship will do the rest. “

Other creators suffer censorship

Prolific artist, recognized creator in the fields of popular culture and academia, as well as musical producer of figures such as David Bowie, U2, Devo, King Crimson, Talking Heads, John Cale or Laurie Anderson, he assures that his history of censorship is “ relatively minor ”, but in the text of the British newspaper he talks about his friend, singer-songwriter Nirit Sommerfeld.

He said: “Nirit was born in Israel and raised in Germany, and maintains his lifelong connection to both places, including his extended family in Israel. As an artist, he has been dealing with the relationship between Germans, Israelis and Palestinians for over 20 years in songs, texts and performances, dedicating all his shows to international and interfaith understanding. However, now Nirit finds himself unable to do his job freely. In considering your application for arts funding, state officials have told you they needed to examine your work; When trying to reserve a concert hall in Munich, his city, the organizers told him that the show would be canceled unless he confirmed in writing that he would not have ‘support for the content, theme and objectives’ of the BDS campaign. It has been repeatedly targeted by smear campaigns ”.

“Why has this happened?” Eno wonders. The answer is because he has spoken about what he has seen with his own eyes: Israel’s racist laws against its own citizens, who are Palestinians; Israel’s military checkpoints, house demolitions, the separation wall, land, the imprisonment of children and Israeli soldiers who humiliate and kill Palestinians of all ages. It has witnessed the illegal use of phosphorous bombs against Gaza and the indifference, at best, of many in Israeli society.

According to Eno, he asked Nirit how she felt about the situation and she replied that “after returning for two years to Tel Aviv, and many visits to the occupied Palestinian territories, I understood that Israel does not live up to its high standards. professed morals. The lesson learned from the Holocaust was ‘Never again!’ But is he only trying to protect us Jews? For me ‘,’ Never again! ‘ should include ‘no more racism, oppression, ethnic cleansing anywhere, as well as no more anti-Semitism’.

Nirit’s music celebrates his Jewish past and present through song. As an artist, whose grandfather was killed in the Nazi genocide, he finds it “deeply disturbing” that she is subject to censorship and inquisitorial McCarthyism by German officials and public institutions, Brian says.

In Nirit’s view: “When Israel’s defenders insist that these policies of occupation and Apartheid are made on behalf of all Jews around the world, they fuel anti-Semitism. The fight against anti-Semitism should not and cannot be done by demonizing the fight for Palestinian rights ”.

Brian Eno considers that Nirit’s experience “is an example of the Kafkaesque situation we have gotten into: a Jewish woman, whose work has to do with history, memory, justice, peace and understanding, falsely accused of anti-Semitism by German institutions. The absurdity of the point makes one thing clear: this is not really about anti-Semitism at all, but about limiting our freedom to discuss the political and humanitarian situation in Israel and Palestine. “

So how did this situation come about?

In 2019, a loosely worded non-binding parliamentary resolution was passed in Germany, falsely equating the BDS movement with anti-Semitism. In a short time, this resolution has paved the way for an atmosphere of paranoia, fueled by misinformation and political opportunism.

BDS “is a peaceful movement that aims to pressure Israel to end its violations of Palestinian human rights and respect international law,” says Eno.

However, “festival directors, programmers and entire publicly funded institutions are putting artists to political tests, checking to see if they have ever criticized Israeli politics. This system of surveillance and self-censorship has occurred because cultural institutions are being attacked by anti-Palestinian groups ”.

Defense of cultural voices

However, Eno stresses that, to an unprecedented measure, “representatives of 32 of Germany’s leading cultural institutions, including the Goethe-Institut, have spoken out together, expressing alarm over the repression of critical and minority voices in Germany as a result of Parliament’s anti-BDS resolution ”.

“We should all be alarmed by this new McCarthyism,” insists Eno. “Artists, like all citizens, must be free to speak out and take meaningful action, including principled boycotts, against systems of injustice. If the contested situations are not called into question, the silencing of dissent and the marginalization of minority groups will not stop with the Palestinians and those who support them.

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