Row Over Inclusion of Anti-Israel Themes in German Art Exhibition on Immigrant Experiences
A detail from “The ABC of Racism in Europe” by artist Daniela Ortiz urging the release of Ahmed Saadat, a Palestinian terrorist, alongside a map showing Israel, the West Bank and Gaza as a unified Palestinian state. Image: Screenshot
Yet another art exhibition on display in Germany has been sharply criticized for including an allegedly antisemitic work that accuses the Israeli government of practicing “torture” while calling for the release of a Palestinian terrorist jailed for the assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister.
Less than one year after the prestigious Documenta contemporary art fair was widely condemned for featuring a series of works that invoked antisemitic tropes, the controversial work, which is being shown at a new exhibition in Bonn, has aroused similar anxiety.
Peruvian artist Daniela Ortiz’s creation — titled “The ABC of Racist Europe” — is currently being shown at an exhibition themed around immigration and national identity at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn. The federally funded museum attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.
Ortiz’s effort takes the form of a children’s picture book, with each letter of the alphabet illustrated by a word or a story concerning the experience of immigrants, the legacy of colonialism and the policies of western countries towards the Global South.
When the exhibition first opened its doors in June, Volker Beck — president of German-Israeli Friendship Society — expressed disquiet at the inclusion of Ortiz’s contribution, pointing out that four of the pages in the book demonize Israel and promote support for the “BDS” (“Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions”) campaign that seeks to isolate the Jewish state as a prelude to its eventual elimination.
The letter “G” is devoted to G4S, a British private security company that runs, in the words used by Ortiz, “immigration detention centers” on behalf of the British government. The entry then states that G4S “also works with the Israeli government to run prisons where Palestinian political prisoners are held and tortured.”
The letter “I” — devoted to the term “illegal immigrants” — features the figure of “Handala,” a cartoon version of a Palestinian child drawn by the Palestinian caricaturist Naji Al-Ali that is frequently seen in the graphics and other promotional materials used by the BDS campaign. Meanwhile, the letter “R” includes the slogan “Free Ahmed Saadat,” the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) — a terrorist organization whose goal is Israel’s destruction — who was convicted by the Israeli authorities of orchestrating the Oct. 2001 assassination of tourism minister Rehavam Ze’evi, as well as a map showing Israel, the West Bank and Gaza as a single territory that should be under Palestinian sovereignty. Finally, the letter “W” shows the cover of a book titled “The Whites, the Jews and Us” by the French-Algerian scholar Houdia Bouteldja, which has been heavily criticized for allegedly encouraging antisemitism.
After Beck asserted that the work amounted to “propaganda” for the BDS movement, the museum contracted two outside consultants to examine his charge. The two experts, Nicole Deitelhoff and Meron Mendel, largely agreed with Beck, suggesting that a “contextual panel” be placed alongside the work.
On Friday, the Bundeskunsthalle announced that it was planning to introduce the panel in order to comment on Ortiz’s work “in an enlightening manner.” In a statement, the museum added that it rejected “the glorification or trivialization of violence and antisemitism,” German media outlets reported.
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