Thursday, October 2
Musicians pull out of HKW concert due to censorship over Palestine
Institutional pressure to remain silent about Palestine is widespread in Germany. Although public opinion appears to be shifting – with 62% of the German population now agreeing that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide, and 100,000 people taking to the streets last weekend to demand an end to the fighting – there is still a strong reluctance among cultural institutions to allow speech that might offend those in power. This was on display again this week, in the fallout over an exhibition organised by German comedian Jan Böhmermann (often described as the country’s equivalent of John Oliver) at the HKW.
The sequence of events unfolded like this. Concerts were scheduled as part of the exhibition series The Possibility of Unreason, which opens on October 7. Germany’s new culture minister, Wolfram Weimer (who nabbed the position over Berlin’s own Joe Chialo) reviewed the programme and objected to one of the performers. Rapper Chefket had previously posted photos of himself wearing a T-shirt showing the word “Palestine” across the map of the entire territory. Weimer claimed this was evidence of antisemitism, called on Böhmermann to cancel Chefket’s performance, and the comedian complied.
That attempt at censorship quickly backfired. Other musicians due to appear at the festival announced they were withdrawing in solidarity with Chefket. Domiziana, Wa22ermann, and Akryl were set to perform on Thursday evening, but all have now pulled out. Mine and Skryl, scheduled for Friday, also withdrew.
In a statement posted on Instagram, the singer Mine wrote: “The situation in Gaza is dehumanising. The genocide is visible to all. We stand in solidarity with all civilians suffering from this violence and clearly position ourselves against any form of racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and discrimination.”
