Controversy around DAAD president – Prestigious fellowships rejected by several artists
Jonas Staal and Eva Giannakopoulou withdraw their candidacy for a fellowship and China Miéville refuses to start his already awarded 2024 fellowship at DAAD, after hearing about the personal involvement of DAAD’s president Mukherjee in the recission of the professorship of Nancy Fraser at the University of Cologne, due to her signature of a pro-Palestine letter that condemned the ‘ongoing and rapidly escalating massacre being committed in Gaza by Israel’.
In an open letter addressed to Joybrato Mukherjee, President of the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) and Rector of the University of Cologne, Jonas Staal recently rejected the institution’s residency fellowship nomination over Mukherjee’s complicity in anti-Palestine censorship in Germany. Staal cites Mukherjee’s rescission of the Albertus Magnus Professorship at University of Cologne to Jewish-American political theorist Nancy Fraser, due to her signature of a pro-Palestine letter that condemned the ‘ongoing and rapidly escalating massacre being committed in Gaza by Israel’.
Staal writes in his letter: ‘I fail to imagine how you, as a representative of a German state institution, feel you are entitled to dictate to Jewish people what they are supposed to think or say about the crimes of the Israeli occupation,’ the artist writes. ‘I am appalled by your antisemitic narrative that equates the Israeli regime with the global Jewish diaspora. And I do not comprehend how, in consideration of the brutal history and shame of the Holocaust and mass persecution which saw the killing of Jewish, Roma, and Sinti people, as well as queer people and communists, you are today actively contributing to a culture in which the oppression of speech of people faced with genocide is normalized.’
Staal goes on to recount incidents of violence targeted at pro-Palestine activists that have occurred in Germany, writing: ‘Speaking as a citizen of a country with a brutal colonial history and terrible collaboration with the Nazi regime, I must tell you: You are now part of a climate in which “never again” has become “yet again.”’
Staal was followed by the British writer China Miéville, who was awarded a 2024 DAAD fellowship, which he refused to accept in another open letter to Joybrato Mukherjee, after hearing about his role in withdrawing the Albertus Magnus Professorship from Professor Nancy Fraser ‘due’, as he writes ’to her signing a letter—along with over 400 other philosophers— in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the context of Israel’s ongoing massacres’.
Miéville: ‘I cannot accept the DAAD’s invitation when I can have no faith that the institution will stand against such a shameful program of repression and anti-Palestinian racism. Indeed, you have personally shown your willingness to be part of it.’
Staal and Miéville’s resignation letters were directly followed by a third which was written by the artist/researcher Eva Giannakopoulou who joins the other two in their disapproval of Mukherjee’s decision regarding Fraser. ‘With my eyes fixed on Rafah where once again a bloodbath is imminent, amidst fierce protests by the students on American campuses and the silencing of voices when they call for a ceasefire, I have no choice but to join them in the urgent and necessary struggle to defend human life, humanism, academic freedom and freedom of speech.’
Here the whole letter:
Athens, 24/04/2023
Dear Professor Dr. Joybrato Mukherjee,
With this letter, I would like to withdraw my candidature from the DAAD Artistic Residency Scholarship selection process of which you are the chairman.
The reason why I find myself in the unfortunate position of having to reject this highly honorable nomination lies in your recent decisions as Rector of the University of Cologne. A few days ago, I learnt that on your initiative the planned invitation of the professor and philosopher Nancy Fraser for the Albertus Magnus Chair was withdrawn. The reason for this sudden withdrawal was her signature on the text “Philosophy for Palestine” in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
I fail to understand why Nancy Fraser – among many others – is being called upon to apologise for her signature on a text which condemns the obvious, namely the atrocities of the State of Israel which (according to the decision of the International Court of Justice on 26 January 2024) amount to a plausible danger of genocide of the Palestinian people, just as I fail to understand the German authorities’ ban on the holding of a conference on Palestine which led to the refused entry and silencing of Yannis Varoufakis and the Palestinian academics Ghassan Abu-Sittah and Salman Abu Sitta.
With my eyes fixed on Rafah where once again a bloodbath is imminent, amidst fierce protests by the students on American campuses and the silencing of voices when they call for a ceasefire, I have no choice but to join them in the urgent and necessary struggle to defend human life, humanism, academic freedom and freedom of speech.
As a citizen of a state which contributed to the Holocaust by handing over its Jewish citizens to certain annihilation without question; a state where Jewish properties were seized and Jewish monuments destroyed, I refuse to remain silent. I join Jonas Staal and China Miéville, who also recently refused their nominations/fellowships for reasons outlined in their excellent letters, the activists in Germany and Israel who dare to dissent in an increasingly authoritarian atmosphere, and those on US campuses and everywhere who are steadfast in their support of the Palestinian cause.
Kind regards,
Eva Giannakopoulou
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