American artist Fareed Armaly rejected the Käthe Kollwitz prize, expressing concern over censorship and a reactionary shift in Germany's cultural policies. He pointed to the suppression of voices advocating for Palestinian rights and emphasized the complacency within liberal cultural institutions, arguing this perpetuates dehumanization of Palestinians. Recent months have seen several cancellations of exhibitions and awards in Germany following the October 2023 Hamas attack, as institutions reacted to perceived antisemitism in artistic expressions. Critics argue that the new anti-antisemitism declaration could restrict cultural funding based on the ambiguous interpretation of criticism toward Israel.
Armaly wrote in his letter rejecting the prize that in previous times he would have gladly accepted this honour. However, at this historical juncture, I am unable to align myself with any institution operating under the current cultural policy framework of the German government.
In such a context of intimidation, liberal cultural institutions appear to adopt complacency and self-censorship. All this, consciously or unconsciously, structurally performs the ongoing dehumanisation of Palestinians by obscuring and abstracting their agency and voice.
Critics of the declaration mainly point to a passage in the text that calls for public grants for culture and science to be conditional on acceptance of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism, which they argue is often used to categorise criticism of Israel as antisemitism.
Several exhibitions, teaching contracts and awards have been cancelled in Germany since the 7 October 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel and the start of Israel's military campaign in Gaza because arts institutions perceived comments by featured artists, curators or writers as antisemitic or anti-Israel.
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