Color Attack on Edtstadler at Antisemitism Conference, Harsh Criticism Before Boehm Speech

Der Standard/ Eric Frey Ronald Pohl Clara Wutti, May 6, 2024

Constitutional Minister Edtstadler and IKG President Deutsch bring the Jewish philosopher close to anti-Semitism. He is due to speak on Judenplatz on Tuesday evening.

Vienna - The annual international conference against anti-Semitism will be held in Vienna on Monday and Tuesday. On Tuesday, the German-Israeli philosopher Omri Boehm is to give this year's “Speech to Europe” as part of the Vienna Festival. Both events caused controversy on Monday.

Early on Monday morning, an activist allegedly tried to throw red paint on Constitutional Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) in front of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), where the anti-Semitism conference is taking place. This was reported by the Kurier and Kronen Zeitung newspapers. The activist is said to have held a poster that read “genocide”. According to a spokesperson for the minister, Edtstadler was only able to escape the attack because an employee warned her at the last second. “The attack was clearly aimed at her and the conference against anti-Semitism,” the spokesperson told Kurier and Kronen Zeitung. She assigns the man to the “left-wing spectrum”.

Pictures show large sheets of red paint on the ground in front of the ÖAW. Other conference participants such as Oskar Deutsch, the President of the Jewish Community of Vienna, are said to have been brought into the building via other entrances after the attack. Edtstadler thanked the Vienna police for their swift intervention. “It is shameful that a conference in Austria, which is dedicated to international networking in the fight against anti-Semitism, can no longer be held without police protection”, said the Minister. Only last week, she had warned of increasing left-wing anti-Semitism.

Activist of the “last generation”

The activist was a former member of the “Last Generation” protest movement. The protest was directed against the “normalization of genocide” and for a “ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, activist David Sonnenbaum told APA. “This is not about anti-Semitism. This is about suppressing any criticism of the actions of the state of Israel,” said Sonnenbaum, who is himself a member of the Jewish community in Austria.

Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) expressed his shock at the color attack on Edtstadler and the other conference participants on the sidelines of the Europe Day ceremony. “Anti-Semitism is the poison of every democracy”, emphasized the Chancellor. Everything must be done to combat anti-Semitism in society. Violence would be prosecuted by the police. Vice-Chancellor Werner Kogler also commented on X and spoke of a “completely unacceptable attack” that was “to be condemned in the strongest possible terms”. Kogler identified an “anti-Semitic breach of taboo”.

National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP) also condemned the paint attack in the strongest possible terms. “Just last weekend, an SPD politician in Dresden was the victim of an attack with a right-wing extremist background and had to be seriously injured and operated on in hospital. We must not allow extremists of any persuasion to use brute force to enforce their crude views and world views. A clear stance is needed here too, and not just fine words,” said Sobotka in a statement to APA.

“Pure anti-Zionism and therefore anti-Semitism”

On Monday, Edtstadler also commented on Omri Boehm's controversial speech on Vienna's Judenplatz, which is due to take place on Tuesday, and accused the German-Israeli philosopher of anti-Semitism. It was “urgently time to reconsider whether someone who criticizes Israel, which is not criticism of Israel, but pure anti-Zionism and therefore anti-Semitism, should actually be given a stage in the middle of Vienna”, she was quoted as saying on Ö1-Mittagsjournal. At the anti-Semitism conference, Oskar Deutsch also intensified his attacks on the Vienna Festival, which had invited Boehm, and also criticized the City of Vienna in this context.

Boehm, who advocates a common state for Jews and Palestinians in his books, represents neither Israelis nor Jews and would “pave the way for anti-Semites all over the world”, said Deutsch. The fact that the festival held on to the speech on the highly symbolic Judenplatz despite all the protests was a “sign of bad faith”. He also wondered why the City of Vienna, the sponsor of the festival, was allowing this, said Deutsch. The fact that Boehm himself was Jewish did not change anything, Deutsch said, drawing a comparison with the former mayor of Vienna Karl Lueger, a radical anti-Semite who was nevertheless friends with Jews and justified this with the popular phrase: “I decide who is a Jew.”

Deutsch concluded his speech at the conference with the words: “We cannot accept that those who stir up hatred against Israel and Jews are invited.” In his book Israel - A Utopia 2020, Boehm spoke out in favor of a binational federation as an alternative to the ongoing occupation and also to the two-state solution. He also criticizes the instrumentalization of Holocaust remembrance for political purposes, especially by the Israeli right, and speaks of “Holocaust messianism”. He teaches at the left-progressive New York New School. In March, he was awarded the “Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding” for his latest book Radical Universalism. Beyond Identity.

Common basis of equality

Boehm's argument is based on an extremely conscientious interpretation of Kant's concept of universalism: before assigning people nationalistically, one must be aware of the indivisibility of their dignity. Only by reflecting on the “common” possession of fundamental rights is it possible to critically exchange opinions. According to Boehm, it is the common basis of equality on which the idea of friendship can flourish. With a view to Israel's future, but also to Europe, Boehm speaks of the need for a coexistence that is organized federatively.

The “Speech to Europe” is taking place for the third time on Vienna's Judenplatz, where the Holocaust memorial is located, and has not caused any controversy in previous years. Boehm's speech is to deal with the Middle East conflict and the challenge for Europe, the exact content is not publicly known.

Due to massive pressure from the IKG and the President of the European Jewish Congress, Ariel Muzicant, the Erste Foundation has withdrawn as a sponsor. Muzicant had attracted attention with the remark that if he were 30 years younger, he would be throwing eggs at the speech. The author Daniel Kehlmann, who published a book of conversations about Kant with Boehm, described Muzicant's statements on Ö1-Mittagsjournal as an “incitement to violence” and “absolutely outrageous”. Muzicant had never explained what really bothered him about Boehm.

Kehlmann described the entire debate as a “laughable misunderstanding” and said he was watching what was happening with “amazement and incomprehension”. He sees Boehm as a “compromise candidate that everyone could actually agree on”. Boehm is an “absolute representative of universalism”, so it is only logical that he is in favor of “Jews and Palestinians being able to live as equal citizens in a democratic state at some point”. (Eric Frey, Ronald Pohl, Clara Wutti, APA, 6.5.2024)